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This is an excellent example of the vast technical and musical abilities of Severinsen.
Doc Severinsen has the unique ability to sound great in the middle register of the horn, yet still play these blistering high Gs and above. In Rhapsody for Now he ends on a Double HIgh Eb, but everything you hear him play before that is amazingly mellow. Doc gave a workshop where he said he really wasn't into high notes, and you can believe him since that isn't his focus, it has always been music. The other thing admired about Doc, was he continued to improve in his 50s. When you think about it, he had a great long-term gig on the Tonight Show and could have continued conducting and not worked so hard on the trumpet, but he never phoned it in, in all the performances on the old Tonight Show with Carson. We are truly blessed he is still out there in his 90s playing for people and inspiring a new generation of trumpet players.
When Severinsen was leader of The Tonight Show Band we never got to hear enough of him and the band, but with this album you get to enjoy fine playing and a studio recording quality like you never heard on TV. Features many big band standards.
Released in 1985 with the jazz fusion group Xebron, this is a rare chance to hear Severinsen as a featured soloist with a small group.
Severinsen teams up with composer Henry Mancini and produces a lush framework to feature this stellar trumpet soloist. The entire album would be suitable as background music at the office.
