Doc Severinsen Command Performances

Summertime

Doc Severinsen Command Performances
Originated and Produced by Loren Becker, Robert Byrne and Julie Klages
Art Director: Charles E. Murphy
Mastering George Piros
Recording Chief: Robert Fine & Fred Christie
Command Records RS 904 SD
1966

From the inside (book fold) cover: His (Severinsen) trumpet covers the whole field (Classical & Jazz). He was one of the most brilliant and exciting performers ever to play in the trumpet sections of Tommy Dorsey's and Charlie Barnet's big bands. For the past 16 years he has been a top trumpeter in New York for TV and recording work. Since 1952, he has been an outstanding member of the orchestra on TV's Tonight Show and has made personal appearances at trumpet clinics and concerts for Getzen trumpets, which is the instrument he uses. In the spring of 1966, he formed a sextet built around a unique blend of trumpet and alto saxophone which took New York, and then the country, by storm.

In these choice selections, you hear all the sides of Doc Severinsen. You hear Doc and his sextet playing "the Severinsen Sound" on When the Saints Come Marching In and Summertime – a sound based on the interplay of Doc's trumpet with the alto saxophone of Arnie Lawrence, interplay which sometimes comes out in dazzling duets, sometimes erupts into startling challenges between the two mucsians.

You hear Doc with a big band which is an incomparable assemblage of past masters of the big band idiom – stars of the band of Count Basie, Woody Herman, Charlie Barnet, Duke Ellington, Stan Kenton, Artie Shaw, Benny Goodman, Jimmy Dorsey, Claude Thornhill, Gene Krupa, Sauter-Finegan, Bunny Berigan, Glenn Miller, Tommy Dorsey and Bob Crosby.

You hear Doc in a ballad context, using the subtle, soft, singing qualities of his trumpet on Stormy Weather and Don't Worry 'Bout Me.

You hear Doc with a loose, free-wheeling small group on In A Little Spanish Town and On A Clear Day, a group with which Doc has the room to explore the color and flavor of a broad range of playing styles.

And you hear an amazing combination of Doc Severinsen's trumpet virtuosity and Command's engineering virtuosity on It Ain't Necessarily So and Bluesette on which he plays duets with himself – duets that are without precedent because, unlike most over-dubbing records, they are played for musical values instead of simply for novelty effects and, even more important, they are the work of one of the truly great contemporary virtuosi.

From Billboard - December 3, 1966: The brilliance of Doc Severinsen's trumpet rings throughout this Command package as he masterly performs standards ranging from an exciting "When The Saints Come Marching In" to a soft, sensitive "My Funny Valentine." The album is indeed a command performance as Severinsen's musical dexterity is in full display.

When The Saints Come Marching In
Stormy Weather
Baubles, Bangles And Beads
My Funny Valentine
It Ain't Necessarily So
On A Clear Day (You Can See Forever)
In A Little Spanish Town
Summertime
Love For Sale
Don't Worry 'Bout Me
Bluesette
Stardust