When I was growing up I used to watch The Tonight Show with Johnny Carson a lot. It wasn’t because I thought he was funny or because I liked Johnny. It was because I was always hoping to hear Doc play. It rarely happened, but when it did it was really incredible. What a player! I loved his sound – especially the high notes.
This picture was taken in Buffalo at Kleinhans Music Hall. I won the Principal trumpet job there when I was twenty one. It was a one year position and I was super excited to get started. Imagine my surprise when they called me and said they would like for me to start a few weeks early. I asked them why and they said Doc Severinsen wanted me to play the Haydn Trumpet Concerto on his first pops concert of the year. The next week as it turned out was Scriabin’s Poem of Ecstasy. Ouch! Man was I freaked out. I was going to be standing next to my hero trying to play the Haydn while simultaneously trying not to pee on myself!
I arrived at the hall early for the first rehearsal, and found a spot deep in the basement of the hall so that I could warm up without interruption. About ten minutes into my warm up I heard footsteps on the stairs. I looked up and there was Doc. He had heard me buzzing and wanted to know who it was. For those of you who know Doc, you will already know that no one loves the trumpet more than him. He has a passion for the instrument that I have yet to see matched. He searched me out because he wanted to know how I got such a big sound while buzzing. I couldn’t believe he was asking me! We talked for a long time and he told me two things I’ll never forget. First, he told me that I should always remember that I am privileged to “play” for a living. Not that it’s not hard work, but at the end of the day there are lot of things that aren’t as fun as what I get to do. The second thing he said as he was leaving was, “now you can tell everybody you gave Doc a lesson”. Hardly! What a week. He was such a gentleman and made me feel so comfortable. We even played a duet together as an encore.
What can I say? The man is a legendary player and as it turns out, he’s a legendary person as well!
Andrew
PS – Check out the photo carefully and you can see that Doc isn’t wearing a shirt. He always took them off to dry them during intermission.
