★★★★★
P>Over the last few years, Doc Severinsen has kept a big band together by playing concerts and touring. This successor to the Tonight Show Band, so important to the success of the Johnny Carson show, continues to feature fresh, imaginative arrangements and stellar musicians to perform them...
- www.allaboutjazz.com
2009-06-05
★★★★★
The Tonight Show Band gained fame during Johnny Carson's tenure as host of the perennially popular late-night TV program. Not only did the band gain air time with its playing, but it was a foil for Carson's jokes. The role of collective straight man did not in any way hinder the ensemble from being an exciting champion of dynamic big-band swing. The chairs are filled with veterans of topflight big bands and studio work as well...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
Of the Tonight Show Band's three Amherst CDs, this is the most highly recommended one. The repertoire is fresher than the songs featured on the two earlier releases and, in addition to the usual swing-era standards, such tunes as Tommy Newsom's "Three Shades of Blue" and Stevie Wonder's "Isn't She Lovely" are included...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
This is The Tonight Show band's treatment of Christmas classics.
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
Here is an overlooked gem from a most unlikely source, recorded in a most unlikely genre -- commercial '70s jazz/funk -- just as the disco era was gathering steam. Tom Scott controlled the production, with Severinsen overdubbing all of the brass choruses and occasionally passing his horns through a phase shifter and wah-wah pedal. The coterie of overworked sessionmen from L.A. and NYC -- Richard Tee, Eric Gale, Lee Ritenour, Anthony Jackson, Ralph MacDonald, etc...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
Though listed as an Erich Kunzel/Cincinnati Pops album, the focal point of attention is jazzman Doc Severinsen trying his hand at some classical repertoire. Severinsen's virtuosity and musicality frequently were overlooked when he was still riding high as leader of the Tonight Show Orchestra, so this was a potent reminder of his versatility. Here Severinsen proves to be a disciplined classical player, able to scale even such technical minefields as "The Flight of the Bumble Bee" (if just barely...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
Like Doc himself, Merry Christmas from Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Orchestra is a brassy, stylish and shamelessly enjoyable album. Severinsen never takes risks -- the swaggering arrangements will be familiar to anyone who watched Johnny Carson's Tonight Show, and all the songs are staples -- but he's made an entertaining album. He's not alone on this one either -- the L.A. Children's Chorus, the Philharmonic Strings and the Desert Bells help out on individual tracks...
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
★★★★★
The former Tonight Show bandleader (he was still in that position at the time of this recording) heads his big band through old warhorses and pre-rock standards. Lots of brass and bombast, plus some decent solos. Severinsen is a much better trumpet soloist than his image conveys.
- music.aol.com
2008-08-28
Loading...
