Doc Severinsen plays Duke Ellington for farewell concert

Sep 20, 2006

For Immediate Release

Contact: Annie Matlow 326-3136

SPOKANE: Trumpeter and Conductor Doc Severinsen will play his final concert in Spokane on Saturday, Sept. 30 with the Spokane Symphony at the INB Performing Arts Center at 8 p.m.

Severinsen, one of today's paramount instrumentalists, will play a program featuring the works of jazz great Duke Ellington. Joining him will be jazz singer Carmen Bradford. The fabulous program of Ellington tunes are primarily arranged by Doc's side-kick on The Tonight Show, Tommy Newsom.
Doc has established a career with a broad spectrum of experience. He is best known as the Grammy Award-winning Music Director of The Tonight Show. He has performed concerts in a wide range of musical style, joining classical and pop music groups. He has also guest performs with a huge number of symphony orchestras across the country. When Doc is not traveling around the country, he is making recordings and commercials, plus designing and manufacturing trumpets. He is the Principal Pops Conductor of the Phoenix Symphony, the Buffalo Philharmonic, the Minnesota Orchestra, and the Milwaukee Symphony.

He has recorded more than 30 albums in a variety of styles, from big band to jazz fusion to classical. His recent recordings include Unforgettably Doc with the Cincinnati Pops on the Telarc label and the Grammy-nominated Once More with Feeling on the Amherst label. He received a Grammy Award in 1987 for "Best Jazz Instrumental Performance--Big Band" for his recording, Doc Severinsen and The Tonight Show Band--Volume I.

Severinsen's successes date back to his hometown of Arlington, Oregon. He was nicknamed "Little Doc after his dentist father, Dr. Carl Severinsen. Little Doc had originally wanted to play the trombone, but the senior Severinsen, a gifted amateur violinist, urged him to study the violin. The younger Severinsen insisted on the trombone, but had to settle for the only horn available in their small community--a trumpet. One week later, with the help of his father and a book of instructions, the seven-year-old was so good that he was invited to join the high school band. At the age of 12, Little Doc won the Music Educators National Contest and, while still in high school, was hired to go on the road with the famous Ted Fio Rito Orchestra.

After completing his education and serving in the Army, Severinsen toured with the Tommy Dorsey, Benny Goodman and Charlie Barnet bands. He settled in New York as an NBC staff musician in 1949, joining The Tonight Show Orchestra in 1962, becoming Music Director in 1967.

Carmen Bradford is the daughter of legendary trumpeter/composer Bobby Bradford and world renowned vocalist Melba Joyce. The featured vocalist in the legendary Count Basie Orchestra for nine years, Carmen was discovered and hired by Mr. Basie himself. She has since performed and/or recorded with; Frank Sinatra, Nancy Wilson, Herbie Hancock, Lou Rawls, Wynton Marsalis, Tony Bennett, James Brown, George Benson, Doc Severinsen, Willie Nelson, Lena Horne, Regina Carter, Patti Austin, The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, Joe Williams, and many others.

She performed on two Grammy Award winning albums with the Basie band in the eighties, and later collaborated on a third Grammy Award winning album, Big Boss Band, with guitarist George Benson in 1991. Their celebrated performance of that classic duet, How Do You Keep the Music Playing? on the Johnny Carson Show that same year brought Carmen into homes across America.

Carmen's solo career took off with her critically acclaimed debut album Finally Yours (Evidence Records) in 1992, and began another chapter in her career. Her follow-up solo release With Respect (Evidence Records) in 1995, established the Los Angeles based singer as one of jazz music's most diverse and exciting vocal stylists to the world that Carmen Bradford was a unique voice in jazz in her own right.

Education is vital to Carmen; she conducts vocal camps for high-school and college students throughout the US, and currently teaches Jazz Vocals at the University of Southern California's Thornton School of Music. Carmen recently completed a recording and performance project for education with Wynton Marsalis and The Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra entitled "Essentially Ellington".

The concert is underwritten by Moss Adams LLP and Sacred Heart Medical Center.

Tickets range from $17 to $39 and are available Monday through Friday from 9:30-5:00 p.m. at the Spokane Symphony Ticket Office at 818 West Riverside Avenue or by calling (509) 624-1200. Tickets are also available on weekends and evenings, with a service charge, at www.spokanesymphony.org or through TicketsWest at 325-SEAT or 1-800-325-SEAT.