European Stars And Stripes (Newspaper) - August 15, 1988, Darmstadt, Hesse He Deere s the tonight show band but How much longer Bojoh Mcdonough the new York times n a culture whose critical mass has nourished Rock n Roll for 30 years the fall of the big bands toward extinction has been inevitable. The old swing Era infrastructure of bands ballrooms broadcasts and booking agencies is gone. Most of the legendary figures Are dead. And now Johnny Carson s contract will be up in september. If that last observation sounds like a no sequitur consider this the tonight show band with Doc Severinsen is the last modern full time big band in America and of course the last in american broadcasting. It has musical Power and Star Power and stands today at the Peak of its Fame yet its continued existence hangs by the thread of Carson s future. While there Are Many big bands about today to be sure All Are identified by their limitations the studio band without an identity the lab band of College students the rehearsal band playing for the pleasure its members and the ghost band of the living playing in the name of the dead or retired Star who once headed it. But the tonight show band is none of these. It is a contemporary band performing a contemporary function for a contemporary audience of 15 million people every night. Can this remarkable unit however live outside the special life support system of a to institution "1 intend to find that out soon Doc Severinsen said recently in his dressing room Over Abc s studio 3 after taping the last tonight show before the writers strike. If Severinsen sees interest in big bands today he has no illusions. As the last survivor the tonight show band does t have to share what Little remains of the big band audience with anyone else on a regular basis. It is the ultimate beneficiary of default. Yet in an ironic Way it is its victim too. As King of a Doc Severinsen of the tonight show band the last modern full time big band in America. Mountain nobody wants to fight Over anymore it works in a kind of vacuum where there is Little mass Market synergy behind the music. Probably few fans of the tonight show band would have the slightest awareness of big band leaders and bands like Mel Lewis Loren Schoenberg Toshiko Ariyoshi Nat Pierce Rob Mcconnell Frank Capp Gener Harris the american jazz orchestra Bob Florence Bob Mintzer or Don Menza. The contemporary audience for these great bands is a cult audience. This is Why it took even the tonight show band 20 years to get recorded. I tried to convince every record company i had anything to do with to do this album says Severinsen referring to the band s grammy award winning up 7776 tonight show band vol. 1, in i987. Everyone put the idea Down. Not current not today they said. By the time Lennie Silver at Amherst records came along and said he wanted to record us i had begun to think that maybe this was t such a Good the big band sound is growing More and More Remote from the experience of most americans says Pete Christlieb who sits second from the right in the saxophone Section of the band. It s a vanishing phenomenon. We re the Only big band that has regular Access to a Large National audience. A Little and even that audience is aging. Judging by the viewing habits of the characters on thirty something who favor Koppel Over Carson then the tonight show band s Access to this influential and upscale segment of the culture May be shrinking. Moreover the average age in the band is fifty something. Once upon a time american popular music was racially segregated. Today it is generation ally segregated. Musically says the band s pianist Ross Tompkins it comes Down to a split Between acoustic and it also comes Down to the fact that reputations established before the Rock Era Are often not considered negotiable in the contemporary studio scene. So while Many regard the tonight show band As the Best band of its kind in the land others Don t regard it at All. A Rock oriented writer of advertising music who often employs studio musicians for and hoc recording dates dismissed the tonight show musicians As the Over the Hill that s ridiculous says Tompkins 50, who both resents and pities such attitudes. I guess to a Jingle producer whose musical life is so completely functional you be got to be Young to play that kind of stuff. But i have to laugh at Guys who think some player s incredible when All they re doing is a 30-second trumpeter Pete Candoli 60, laughs it All off without any apologies we re the dinosaurs of the for the present everything seems As secure As Ever for the band. As Long As Johnny s Here says Fred Decordova the tonight show producer the band is Mozart Marzipan and Pavarotti at Salzburg festival by Martin Bernheimer the los Angeles times after All the pomp and righteous heroism of Richard Strauss in Munich after All the Mystic piety and superhuman pathos of Richard Wagner in Bayreuth West Germany Salzburg offers a refreshing change even a Balm. Salzburg is the Home of Mozart. He clears the head cleanses the ears. He reinforces the value of the intimate impulse reasserts the human dimension. This ancient austrian City a convoluted network of Post card Bridges magical gardens Rocky fortresses fairy tale castles historic monuments operatic Marionette extravaganzas marvelous Heaters and legendary Marzipan confections has become a Mecca of the fashionable tourist Trade even in the overcrowded pedestrian zones. Parking is a Nightmare. English is spoken everywhere ditto italian French japanese and austrian. A few people in the shops and concert Halls actually speak German. Despite crashing commercialism festive Charm still pervades Many things from the tiny movie House that hosts an opera festival of its own to the out of the Way restaurant that is dedicated to the memory of the great local Basso Richard Mayr to the tiny baroque Church that dispenses sophisticated performances of Mozart masses along with the Hope of salvation. Like Bayreuth Salzburg is a place where people want to be seen. Tickets for the More glamorous events most notably those involving the aging and infirm Saint Herbert of Karajan Cost As much As $250, and that is on the White Market. The citizenry tend to regard festival events As attractions reserved for wealthy visitors who happen to be conspicuously consuming snobs. Once in a while however a Bone is thrown to the masses. One recent night for instance an italian Tenor named Pavarotti clutched a Small White Tablecloth and mangled a Little de Rigueur Mozart but did Lovely things to a generous sampling of his native the big fest Spilhaus which seats Only 2,177, had been sold out months ago. But a Block away in the Square in front of the 17th Century Cathedral that usually hosts performances of everyman the management had set up a huge to screen and a couple of raucous loudspeakers. The the Novissimo thus could be seen and heard free of charge by another 2,500 of the devout. Most of them camped on bleachers some merely happened to be strolling by. The patient ones undeterred by alfresco distractions the Damp night air and physical discomfort were rewarded with a 100-second appearance by their beaming idol in the too too solid flesh at the end of the evening. Elsewhere longtime Salzburg observers constantly griped about the lowering of standards the tightening of budgets and the absence of big names. Still an american visitor could find much to warm the cockles especially after recent trials by ring and Richards. Some of the pleasure turned out to be Mozart an even though it did not come from Mozart. At the Small fest Spilhaus for instance an audience of 1,384 could witness a tasteful elegant extraordinarily restrained production of Rossini s la Cen Rentola. Michael Hampe the director of this melodrama Gicoso did away with All caricature All gags All Buffo tricks. Although the result May have seemed More serious than absolutely necessary one had to Admire the period charms of the designs a sad valedictory Effort by Mauro Pagano dead of aids at 37and the ensemble eloquence of a cast that included Ann Murray As the coloratura Waif William Matteuzzi As the Bel Canto Prince a late replacement for the indisposed Francisco Araiz Agino Quilico As the bar tonal factotum and Walter Berry As a still formidable if not very idiomatic Pater families. Riccardo Chilly was the hectic conductor. The incomparable Vienna philharmonic served As the pit band. Among the More conventional offerings one found Mozart s ent Fuhring in a harsh Over psyched under Sung modern production staged by Johannes Schaaf and conducted by Horst Stein. The gala operatic attraction remained Karajan s Ultra polished Don Giovanni which had been televised in the United states last season. In the House it seemed subtler More flexible and in the Case of Julia Varady s impetuous Elvira better Sung. John Aler the new Ottavio was sadly outclassed by his Stellar colleagues. Samuel Ramey his fellow american returned As a visually and vocally handsome but a menacing a aristocratic Don. Monday August 15, 1988 the stars and stripes Page 17
