TWO Clips of Johnny Carson Asking Doc Severinsen for His Highest Note
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 4 พ.ย. 2017
- Doc Severinsen often showed his extreme high range on the Tonight Show. On at least 2 shows Johnny Carson asked Doc to play his highest note. On the 2nd clip here, Johnny asks for one note HIGHER.
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3:04 I love the "Wait a minute!" from Doc.. I miss that whole band….they were the best.
Doc was truly a master of his craft. He worked extremely hard at it.
@Chris Bauer
I agree with you.
Doc is AMAZING!
Chris, It’s not past tense. As of June 28, 2023, Doc is still very much alive and still smokin those notes!!🎺
Yes, I'm aware that he's still alive; but he has, for the most part, gone into retirement. I believe he had a "retirement concert" within the last year.
Doc cant go any higher ? What a shame lol
I just read that Doc played his final concert in 2022. He’s still with us at age 96, but no longer performing, I guess. He’s always been one of my favorite trumpet players. As you can see from my avatar, I play the instrument myself, but nowhere NEAR Doc’s level.
How he puts some comedy into that first bit is classic. And as any trumpet player may know…that may not have been all too fake with the suit/tie and hot lights on him.
I love Doc's humor so much...🤣😂🤣😂
1:21 the most ordinary suit I ever saw Doc wear lol.
He wore a suit like that one night with multi-colored pinstripes and Johnny said he looked like a hit man for a circus
Those really were "the good old days".
Ok so playing a really super high note is cool, but I love Doc's playing because of his tasty choice of notes. You can't beat a great solo.
...and Doc will be 98 years young this July. He is Still touring!
He quit touring last year.
And he will be 97 years.
Doc is a good sport to do this, especially out of context. He is a musician first and foremost. A high note is to him, I believe, just part of the art, not a competion.
Listen to Doc Severinsen's Eb above double C at the end of his interpretation of a "A Song for you". Spectacular!!!
I've always seen a great similarity between Doc and the late Bud Brisbois. Bud obviously just concentrated much more on his extreme upper register.
In fact some of those charts recorded by Bud with Airmen of Note were originally written for Doc.
"Miss Matazz" being one of them. If you listen to Bud? You're almost listening to Doc. Each was/is a superb technician.
Doc really should have used a slightly shallower mouthpiece with a more open bore. When you hear him pop the high G on this example you can tell that he's not getting a truly big sound.
I'm far more familiar with Maynard and Cat than with Doc or Bud. But from what I've heard, Bud was a one-trick pony, and his one trick - going above triple high C - had a thin, squealy tone. Doc could do everything else, do it well, and even play that Eb (highest Db on the piano) soft, in tune, and in control, a nearly impossible feat.
Still the most amazing note I've heard!
LOL "Because you would lose you man hood"
😂
Great excuse lol
I have a bootleg recording of Doc playing triple D's in Las Vegas. He is one of the greatest Musicians ever and a great trumpet player as well.
Some of the TH-cam comments about Doc are laughable and pathetic. Doc was the most versatile trumpet player who ever lived. Solid, musical, fat New York-style 1st trumpet chops up to A and B-flat all day long. Solid jazz chops. Soloist chops in front of an orchestra so virtuosic he performed several dazzling commissioned concertos no one else has ever attempted. Melodic solo sound in another universe. Cornet solo ability matching the old masters but with much more flare. Bull fight fireworks better than Mendez's. Pull out all of your recordings of Mr. Severinsen--reel-to-reel stuff from the 60s, LPs of performances with high school bands in Nebraska, Now Generation Brass, Zebron, Tonight Show, Telarc CDs--everything. Now listen to it all, and then ask yourself who else could play those notes. Chase? Andre? Sandoval? Herseth? Mendez? Baptist? Maynard? Wayne? McNab? Nicholson?? Dowdeswell??? Rashawn Ross??????? Each could do a little of it. None could do close to a quarter of it. Doc stands alone.
Bill, from your comments about Doc Severinsen, it appears that you are a musician, and I agree with you about Doc. I'm a piano player, and I own the piano used on the Tonight Show in the 1980's. I knew a lot of players in that band and I was saddened when Carson's show ended, because it also ended the era of big bands playing on TV variety
shows. Television music has never been the same. I attended the show several times, and the music was always top notch, with great arranging. When the show started, Doc would actually be announced and he would literally dance onto the stage from behind the curtain, counting off the band as he started playing.
Over the years, I have attended many of his concerts, and I am always amazed, even into his 80's and now into his 90's, at his playing ability. Not just high notes, which are a very over rated element of anyone's trumpet playing, but more about Doc's style, his sound and his musical presentation. After all those years of playing on a "live" TV show, his polished perfection became his sound.
I refer to it as a "commercial-grade level" musical sound, meaning that he plays beyond a professional level, at the commercial-grade level where his playing has to be polished, refined and exceptional because there is only one take on live or taped TV shows. Even when he was semi-retired, playing with his small ensembles, when it came time for him to solo, he would characteristically raise the horn to his lips as he simultaneously raised his shoulders high, as if to take in more air, as he started to play.
What came out the bell of his horn was the most beautiful tone, sound and pitch-perfect playing I'v ever heard. Nothing mechanical or robotic. Not a kind of perfection which lacked humanity or soul, but rather a very human, organic, expressive and soulful sound which also had polish, refinement and class. Really elegant and sophisticated, as if he was driving a race car or flying a fighter jet. I think we took this sound for granted when watching TV, but it was when I heard him playing live that I noticed how refined and evolved his sound and his playing really was.
Doc Severinsen is an exceptional musician, and for any musician, especially a trumpet player in his 90's who still has to push the air through his horn to make music, it is really remarkable. He has outlived Johnny, Ed, and many others who were part of the Johnny Carson Tonight Show for thirty years.
The times I had talking with him after his concerts were memorable, and I still keep a photo of him in my music studio. It's been such a pleasure listening to him and the Tonight Show Orchestra over all those years. I'm sure there are millions of others who feel the same way, including Doc himself.
Yes, and he was also a great comedian as well!
A and Bb? I’ve heard him play some double D’s. I love Doc
I used the verb “was” in reference to his playing, not his life.
He is still a great player1 @@billbryant1288
I saw Doc in concert 15 years or so ago. I have been to I think three concerts in my life. Kind of shows what I think of Doc.
3:04 I love the "Wait a minute!" from Doc.
"Thank you, Doctor."
Doc and the Tonight Show Band were the best in the business. Johnny and Doc had a great chemistry, too. Sure have been enjoying these old clips!
Great memories. Doc still plays occasionally in Minneapolis. Thanks for posting this.
When the seasoned band members in the back are shaking their heads, you know it’s legit hard lol
I miss that whole band….they were the best
That hurts my lips thinking about going that high.
I saw Doc with The Tonight Show Band at a show taping. It was a great experience and the band was hot for sure. One thing that TV fans may have got wrong - the band did not play all the way through the commercials. They would play maybe 10 - 15 seconds on the way out, the lights would dim down, Johnny would smoke, then back up with the lights, band fire up, and Johnny would say, “We’re back!”
that's really interesting, I've always wondered about that! I don't suppose you ever went to a Letterman show and if they did the same thing?
Not to Dave in New York
The other thing was that in those days, the lights were very bright and they generated a lot of heat. The breaks also let the guest collect their thoughts and get ready. I never saw any talking during commercials. Maybe if that guest and Johnny were actually acquainted? You don’t want to lose the best stuff when the cameras aren’t on!
2:47
Doc realizing Johnny threw the gauntlet... All he can do is mutter in silence a very quiet "fuck"
that was it ! "One Note Higher" that's the one .
Speaking of high notes.
Miles Davis used to say he could play anything Dizzy Gillespie could (of which Dizz agreed ,but at an octave lower).
hahaha Doc's theatrics are not entirely for show. I have naturally low blood pressure and in my trumpeting days there were times I saw black spots after entering the realm of G above high C. It is also a good idea to have a chair behind you on those cases.
Bravo!!
I loved the Tonight Show for their band, and they had a great leader. He and Tommy Newsome did a performance of Johnny's favorite song on David Letterman, great tribute.
Here’s That Rainy Day was a favorite of Mr Carson’s. It is one of the saddest songs about lost love ever written. On his next to last show (May 21, 1992) he had Bette Midler on and they sang an impromptu duet of it together. After Johnny died in 2005, Doc, Tommy and drummer Ed Shaughnessy did come on Letterman to play the song in a very emotional tribute with Dave’s band.
We don't get this anymore this is classic and too classic guys
I LOVE the trolls here LOL...ok...take your trumpet and MPC and in front of a televised crowd and in the back of your mind also knowing 100+ million people are watching YOU-I want YOU to play a DHC as big as a house and hold it for 10 seconds all by yourself, no back up.
What a great showman!!!
Oh boy! Those were the days for late night TV. The local news followed by Johnny!
You nice job, johnny, you're one of the best for as bosses that you let people shine, you don't take the credit
REMARKABLE. WOW!!!
Хорошо играет.
THE BEST OF THE BEST GOAT
flat af on that dubba c, insane player!
Sounded like a dbl. B natural to me. Solid though. (-: Doc is amazing......
@@bobviavattine1715 sounded like a B to me too, with a squeak up to D. Huge sound.
It wasnt flat. He stopped as soon as it was in tune. He was working up to it and hit it.
Edit: Regarding the first clip. But the second clip you're right, it is flat.
Heh . . . yeah, that was about double B-flat.
Boy I miss these funny shows
Maynard's ghost said that's cute! :) Seriously, Doc is awesome, but to be fair, that double C was extremely flat.
Yes...I did hit the double high c a couple of times and it can hurt. But I was playing an practicing about 8 - 10 hours a day.
I am a drummer and no nothing about the technical aspects of a trumpet but really love a great trumpet player I think it helps make it big band or even a small band it is intoxicating when it is done well I was wondering in this discussion about high notes you seem like a good person to ask... When I watched Doc and Arturo Sandoval play together Sandoval was hitting notes on his trumpet that sounded like a bird whistling they were so high how in the world was he able to do that it seemed like it was much higher than anything doc or any other trumpet player I ever heard play...? The video is here on TH-cam it freaked me out! Maybe you can explain...? Thanks, Bob
@@polara01 It takes a lot of practice to build up the facial muscles so that these notes can be played. I pIayed ini 4 bands/orchestra and still paracticed so I was putting in 6-9 hours a day. It also depends upon the mouthpiece cup size and the way the trumpet is made. I used what is called a 'big bore' horn. It is a Holton T-101 that was designed in the 60's for Al Hirt and it takes a lot of air to play but gives a really mellow tone. I would switch off from a 7C to a 10 1/2C mouthpiece when I was playing a lot in the upper registers which helps to play constantly in that range. The larger 7C) mouthpiece was good for big band, orchestra, ballads,etc. Another thing is that a piccolo trumpet is used a lot when playing in the high ranges or in baroque pieces.
@@ziggystardust5236 wow, I didn't realize how complicated playing the trumpet could be me being a drummer I am illiterate when it comes to that but I was thinking about taking up the trumpet as a second instrument because it is just such an awesome lead instrument in a band. So am I correct in assuming Sandoval was hitting those notes basically like a dog whistle range because he was using a piccolo trumpet maybe with a smaller mouthpiece as opposed to what doc was using? Or is Sandoval just a freak of nature like a Mariah Carey compared to regular singers. I understand Doc is like 83 years old there and of course he probably can't hit those high notes anymore but I watch some of his older stuff and I didn't see him hit any notes anywhere near what Sandoval was doing so again maybe it's his choice of mouthpiece or size of the trumpet which kept him from hitting those notes or just some people can do it and some people can't? Either way docks playing mesmerizes me and I know that's not what is ultimately important it's the whole package but I just would like to know these things to know what is realistic and what isn't that somebody can achieve. Your reply is very much appreciated! Thanks, Bob
@@polara01 Hey Bob. I found a clip of Sandoval live. I was not familiar with him. he has a good band. Anyway, he is playing a couple of trumpets so he has them set up for different sounds. He does hit some good high notes and I am not sure what the notes are. Docs may have been higher - hard for me to tell - I am getting older lol. So, hitting high notes is fun and gives a certain flair when needed. But playing in that range for long is hard on the lips, facial muscles, stomach and diaphram. You may notice that he leans back when hitting those notes. You have to maintain good breath control so the notes aren't choked off. Notice how he has a short break after hitting those notes? Got to let the lips relax and get the blood flowing back into them. Early on, whren i was building stamina, if I had to keep playing after several hours of continuous playing, I would alternate hot and cold washrags on my lips to speed up the recovery time. I had an symphony band director that liked to do sections over and over like a file director doing 40 takes. the trumet section was the counterpoint to the clarinets. So after making triplet runs up to high G & A about 30 times in a row, yeah, the lips gets tired. You can find a good starter horn out there. The mouthpiece will be a personal prefernce based on your lips and mouth structure. A Bach 7C is a good starter. Oh yeah, Doc is still living. He is 93ish, makes (or oversees) his on trumpets and tests all of them himself.
Since you are a drummer, have you seen the drum battle between Buddy Rich and Gene Kruppa? It is classic.
Tom
@@polara01 no piccolo. sandoval is just a freak. but doc is a freak too. mere mortals can't do that stuff. very few trumpet players have doc's range, but when u add everything else he does, he's one of the greatest ever. did you ever start on the trumpet?
Goddamn TV Gold
I heard the leading note. Who was listening for the tonic : )
Its always interesting to observe the cut-off points various high note trumpet players have. This is the second time that I've heard Doc have trouble lifting that B natural up to the C.
From what I've heard Doc is from the old school and prefers mouthpieces of a more traditional depth. They're better suited for middle register work.
However I have it on good authority that if he went shallower but with a more open throat he'd have creamed those Cs.
I once was selling my brother's Bill Chase mouthpiece at university. During rehearsal a friend tried it. He went to that super C that Doc played, and kept going. He took the mouthpiece out, gave it to me and said "get this the fuck away from me." Mark was, and still is, one of the best players I've ever heard.
I think doc played a jet tone, right?
I’ve “creamed” a few “Cs” in my lifetime… hehehe… I’m a child.
I wish I had the same trouble.
Actually at this point ('80's) Doc was still using his Bob Reeves 42S w the Zinger backbore-shallow cup with a big 25 throat but a REALLY tight backbore
Double A!! v(concert pitch)
ANY ONE KNOW THE DATE OF THESE CLIPS?
👍👍👍👍👍👍👍
Double high C with a shake
It was actually a concert A.
I think Doc is known to be a horseshoe player, so "close" counts, right?
Too bad Doc didn't ask Johnny to sit in for one number on drums. He wasn't a bad drummer. Doc had one of the best tones and his technique was very good. Not a Maurice Andre but excellent. Didn't Doc just perform somewhere in his nineties or late eighties?
Yes, Johnny was good on drums. I believe that there is a clip out there where he is playing. I might have to look that one up.
Indeed...I played behind him with the Pensacola Civic Band a couple of years back. Most amazing experience in over 20 years of playing!
So that was a high b flat concert was it a double or triple?.I think my highest note was a triple g which was freaking high
It was a slightly flat double C in trumpet notation. That is an octave above the high C written 2 ledger lines above the staff.
@@dwerden ya the high c is freaking easy to hit the double g n triple naaaaaa.that was my highest note a triple g
The Bands Laughing because he was supposed to hit a C in the first place which is by nature higher than a Bb.
Well he said a concert Bb which is a C on trumpet.
I'm laughing because you think this is clever, but you are dead wrong. When you challenge a trumpet player to play the infamous double or super C, you are sking for a double Bb concert. The term does not refer to concert pitch, since Bb is the standard trumpet pitch whereas the other keys are specific to styles and genres of playing.
@@mjd4174 C on Trumpet.
@@mjd4174 I'm looking back t the wording, I can see where the criticism come from. Either way he couldn't finish the Octave.
It’s a B “
Yes, but in the metric scale it's a C :-)
By playing his highest note, Doc reached Maynard's lower register. (Only dogs could hear Maynard's upper register).
That was a B#
Back in the 70’s and 80’s, Maynard Ferguson was on every talk show from Mike Douglas to Dinah Shore to Regis and Cathy Lee. To my knowledge, he was never a guest on the Carson show. Was there some kind of bad blood between Doc and Maynard?
Maynard did the TS very early on-1963 I believe-before Doc led the band. Maynard was a more exciting player and would've upstaged Doc-a great player but more of a technian than an artist.
Maynard couldn't hold Doc's underwear. And this is from a prof trumpeter of 36 years here.
@@vegaslimoguy2376 heh. Name one record Doc did that's the equal of any of Maynard's Roulette classics. Maynard was an internationally touring bandleader, while Doc played it safe with the Tonight Show band. MF was a multi-instrumentalist. Doc was great at what he did. It was awfully limited compared to Maynard.
@@JS-gn9rs blah blah blah
@@JS-gn9rs Absolute HORSESHIT. Maynard mania, it's as bad as Chuck Norris jokes. Other than in his formative years, Maynard was not a versatile trumpet player, and not capable of performing a pile of Docs repertoire. AND before you say it - vice versa, and I love hearing boith play. Maynard could do spectaular things at the expense of being a complete well-rounded player. Doc could blow the living crap out of jazz, pop, legit, whatever. How is leading the Tonight Show Orchestra and regularaly appearing on national TV "playing it safe"?
What's with the Michael J. Fox crack?
Anybody?
That clip was from 1986. I think at that time Fox's most recent movie was Teen Wolf (boy turns into werewolf). Since hearing high sounds is often attributed to dogs, perhaps that is the connection???
@@dwerden sound reasoning.
Thank you.
nah it was probably just a short joke, small animals and michael j. fox
@@dwerden def a short joke
Doc gets very little credit for his talent.
People forget that Doc was also making a schtick out of this... anyone who claims this is a fine example of how Doc couldn't play a double C is just trolling for likes and shows they know little about his playing.
I'm not gona lie I wonder what his highest high note was
Why is it so hard to hit those high notes? Is more force required to get the air into a small hole? I don’t want to brag but I’ve blown into a small hole many times in my day. But seriously is that why?
Seems like there could have been a higher note.
Well, there is a video of him in live performance doing a double-high E, so he can get there when he warms up for the task.
@@dwerden what is that video called?
@@calebr6840 It is this one: th-cam.com/video/xKfGUwYSQKQ/w-d-xo.html
Much as we love Doc?
He never got a truly big sound in his upper register. Could control the shit out of it but he didnt get much more thsn a squeak.
Maynard was Da Man!
🤔🤔
You've never played with him, have you? lol. Doc could kill you with an A. He played one of the most resonant Eb's above double C that I've ever heard, along with a gorgeous G. Check out A Song For You
@@brycesmith634 thank you!
Are you fucking kidding? Great way to display your ignrance about Doc. Evidently you've been listingening to Doc Holliday or Dr Doolittle. One of the characteristic of Doc's sound is that it is huge, everywhere. Maynard mania - I loved the guy's playing but for crying out loud stop this sycophant shit about him, it's nauseating. Let's go count the number of missed high notes, airballs and squeaks he recorded over his career? Yet.. somehow.. the music was generally pretty exciting.
It's interesting how he kinda stays flat of the Double C both times. It is hard to just pick that note off cold.
Doc however is a forward jaw trumpet player. Sometimes this is called "Upstream" although I don't like that term. Regardless he seems at times to cut out in between B natural and Double C.
I have known at least a couple good high note playing cats who found the area around B flat to B natural to get kinda squirrelly. It's an interesting phenomenon.
I have it on good authority that Doc is using too big of a mouthpiece for his own good. That he's always been this way.
If he just went a bit shallower ABD opened up that back-bore/throat combination he could play with greater ease above the staff.
And the more open throat would get a bigger sound. His high G was never a truly big one. Not like Maynard's was.
He held the double C with one hand. No pressure.Why he can still play.Don't dis the Doc, please
I was also a forward jaw player. That is how we were taught back then. I had an overbite so this method makes a good flat surface for the mouthpiece. It also helps you hold your trumpet straight out instead of pointing downward.
@@petersimonson9145 He didn't play or hold double C: that's kind of the point a lot of trumpet players are making.
Lynn Nicholson has the best range of anyone
ev dallas I love Lynn and he is amazing. However I have never him go from Petal C to quad C like Arturo does playing all the notes of the scale. It’s on you tube. No disrespect to Lynn. His high range is the most proficient at that register but if it’s a question of range which means playing all the notes in the scale Arturo is the only example I have heard. Maybe Lynn can do it or exceed it just have never heard anyone else do it.
@@waynebritton1436
Sorry but Arturo does not have a big sound in the extreme upper register. While Lynn still does.
Sandoval used to play bigger up high but age + his too large of a mouthpiece have eroded his power.
Old timers like Arturo tend to follow conventional thinking. It doesn't work except on very gifted players.
Then age takes its "wrecking ball" against the body. Lynn has always had a more modern approach. Thus his advancing years never wore down his chops
@@jorgecallico9177 What do you mean by: His too large of mouthpiece?
@
I have it on good authority that Doc uses something way too deep for a lead player. He could get away with that as a relatively young man but as Father Time marches on it gets harder and harder to recover from the abuse created from a mouthpiece that is too large.
Heck even trumpet players of only average range will burn out from following conventional mouthpiece choices. Herb Alpert and Chuck Mangione being the most obvious examples of this problem.
@@jorgecallico9177 Thank you for very interesting answer. So why -from your perspective- some best trumpeters prefer or are just plain stupid not to know what you know and loose their skill? Do they hate themselves? Why -from your perspective- they destroy themselves as musicians?
Doc fell short, needed Maynard Ferguson to go it 👍👍👍👍
Bill chase
Cruel!
1) Doc misses. He doesn't hit double C. He is a note or so too low.
2) Several trumpet players have hit above double C. Maynard Ferguson, Lynn Nicholson, Arturo Sandoval, Chad Shoopman, Louis Dowdeswell are a few.
Of course, and Doc has played as high as a (nice!) E about double-C in live performance. But players can go higher with more free-sounding glee than Doc shows. Doc, though, is actually playing the horn - some of the others are using the horn as a megaphone, but they are not actually locking into partials up there. Both styles are fun to listen and I have examples of each in my personal collection.
@@dwerden A double E? Video or it didn't happen.
@@TonyTigerTonyTiger th-cam.com/video/xKfGUwYSQKQ/w-d-xo.html
@@dwerden I don't think that's a double E. First, it barely qualifies as a note: there is no consistent pitch. He undershoots and then slides up some. Second, if you listen to Chap Shoopman - who can hit double D as a note ( th-cam.com/video/WYisJDdM-Zo/w-d-xo.html ) - Doc doesn't sound higher than his double D.
@@TonyTigerTonyTiger double E? dude guys like rashawn ross & joe giorgianni have triple C's.