Doc Severinsen and His Orchestra - Tempestuous Trumpet (1961)

"After You've Gone" by Doc Severinsen and His Orchestra

Johnny Carson preferred to pepper his routines with unscripted dialogue between himself and anybody on the Tonight Show payroll. After two years leading the Tonight Show Band, Milton Delugg proved not to be the best foil for Carson and, in 1968, trumpeter Doc Severinsen took over as bandleader. Severinsen was a wunderkind trumpet player and was touring with Big Bands before graduating high school. He'd continue to do so after serving in World War II before landing a job with NBC where he was a member of the Tonight Show Orchestra under Skitch Henderson during Steve Allen's run. Skitch brought Severinsen back for Carson's tenure as first chair trumpet until his eventual ascension to bandleader and "second sidekick." Between Tonight Show eras, Doc Severinsen and His Orchestra recorded their debut album Tempestuous Trumpet in 1961 for Command Records.

Rather than stormy and chaotic as the album title might suggest, Doc Severinsen plays his trumpet sunny, bright and crisp. My first thought was that Doc is as precise and virtuosic on his instrument as Bobby Byrne is on the trombone, and it turns out that Byrne actually plays on the record and arranged for it. Byrne's arrangements enjoy similar fair weather and are executed to perfection by a rehearsed, brass-heavy orchestra. The occasional touch of bongos brings further levity; the flutes do, too, but date the recordings a bit. The orchestra plays similarly to how the outstanding album cover art by S. Neil Fujita suggests: designed, organized and edited. Beautiful jazz, to be sure, but not tempestuous at all.

Here is the discography surrounding Doc Severinsen's debut album:

"I've Gotta Be Me" by The Tonight Show Band

Doc Severinsen with "All Star" Trumpet Quartet on Steve Allen's Tonight

Doc Severinsen Talks Thanksgiving with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show

"Stardust" by Doc Severinsen and His Orchestra

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Milton Delugg and The All-Stars - Add-A-Part Jazz (1956)

"I'm in the Mood for Love" by Milton Delugg and The All-Stars

José Melis left the Tonight Show band when Jack Paar left, so Johnny Carson started his tenure with the returning Skitch Henderson as bandleader. But Henderson had greater aspirations than just working in television and left Tonight after four years with Carson. Arranger, composer, bandleader, producer and accordion player, Milton Delugg got the call to take over the job. Delugg had a long-running relationship with NBC that started in 1950 where he conducted for the pioneering late night program Broadway Open House. Before that, he was a ready session musician and had no shortage of work as the "only" jazz accordionist in Los Angeles. He wrote prolifically and recorded occasionally releasing a debut album Add-A-Part Jazz with The All-Stars in 1961 on Columbia Records.

Milton Delugg gives the album most of its listenability just for the rarity of the accordion in jazz. He shows off the instrument's flexibility by shifting between laying down a melodic line overtop the rhythm section or adding volume to the horns. He uses the accordion's nimble dynamic shifts to give a little subtlety to the brass and even uses its breath for the occasional sustained drone (though not nearly often enough.) The other standout instrument is the piano (played by either Hank Jones or Bernie Leighton) which hits such soft and minimal solos that are beautiful in their spareness...except that they're not actually piano solos if you buy into the album's novelty...because this is a jazz album to which the listener can play along.

So during those otherwise daringly quiet moments where it's just the rhythm section, that's actually when the listener gets to solo. Just imagine the instruments that could be given a jazz turn: sousaphone, jewish harp, mellotron, talk box, ocarina, tubular bells, otamotone, etc. The violin is a good choice if you want to sound even more like you're playing inside a French cafe or perhaps the recorder for the aspiring, jazz-curious student. And to play with such All-Stars who, even without the add-a-part, take simplified material and rudimentary arrangements and make them worth the spin.

Here is the discography surrounding Milton Delugg's debut album:

Pickle in the Middle (And the Mustard on Top) (1946 single with The Swing Wing and Artie "Mr. Kitzel" Auerbach)

Hoop-De-Doo Polka (1950 single)

Love, Mystery and Adventure (1951 single with His Orchestra)

Shake Hands with Santa Claus (1951 single with His Orchestra)

The Wang Wang Blues (1951 single with His Orchestra)

Add-A-Part Jazz

Milton Delugg with Matty Malneck and His Orchestra

"One O'Clock Jump" by Milton Delugg and The All-Stars

"Pickle in the Middle (And the Mustard on Top)" by Artie "Mr. Kitzel" Auerbach with Milton Delugg and The Swing Wing

"Love, Mystery and Adventure" by Milton Delugg and His Orchestra

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Ed McMahon - And Me...I'm Ed McMahon (1967)

"Beautiful Girl" by Ed McMahon

After building a comic rapport over five years on the show Who Do You Trust?, it was only natural for Johnny Carson to bring along his friend Ed McMahon to be The Tonight Show's announcer and Johnny's sidekick. McMahon always worked through his big, baritone voice. As a teenager, he started as a carnival barker, bingo caller and pitch man, then switched, after war service and college, to radio and, finally, television where he made for a natural announcer. So, it was probably inevitable that Ed McMahon release an album: And Me...I'm Ed McMahon in 1967 on Cameo Parkway Records.

Although some of the internet lists this album as a 1963 release, the fact that two songs sung by McMahon weren't published until 1966 means 1967 is the actual release date. Rather than the songwriting data, it's the jarring mix of a distorted guitar with big band and dixieland touches on the opening track "Claudia" that really screams late Sixties Pop. The production calms down the genre fusion after this but only to scatter the genres throughout the rest of the record. Whether led by strings, brass or guitar, Ed McMahon still can't find a note. He slides in and out of them, and for having such a rich speaking voice, delivers his lines weakly. At least by the end of the album, McMahon does make some interesting—though not necessarily good—decisions, starting with the storybook epic "Beautiful Girl" and ending with genres he finally shows some affinity for: country ("Loving Heart") and western ("They Call the Wind Maria.") It's not much of a reward for making it to the end of the record, however.

Here is the discography surrounding Ed McMahon's debut album:

And Me...I'm Ed McMahon

Beautiful Girl (1967 single)

"They Call the Wind Maria" by Ed McMahon

"Claudia" by Ed McMahon

Ed McMahon Argues with Johnny Carson on The Tonight Show

Ed McMahon Budweiser Commercial

Pass the Headphones!!