Severinsen to perform with TSO on Saturday

But for Severinsen, the Grammy-winning trumpeter who kept us laughing long into the night as Johnny Carson's "Tonight Show" bandleader, it marks the beginning of the end of an admirable musical journey.

Severinsen is three concerts away from retiring. His appearance Saturday with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra is the first; a three-night run in Milwaukee in June marks his last.

"I've had lots of offers to continue on, and I might decide at some point that I want to come back and do a few things," he said from his retirement home in San Miguel de Allende in central Mexico, last Friday. "But for the most part, I'm going to try retirement and see how it feels."

His TSO Pops concert Saturday is a makeup from January, when he had to cancel after he came down with pneumonia.

"I was just really so pleased that they asked me to come back after that," Severinsen said. "I love what that orchestra is there. It's a damn good orchestra. You have a marvelous music director. The town is supportive. They get more people to a talk before the program than some really big cities nearby get for the whole concert."

"It's an honor to be part of his final tour," TSO music director George Hanson said, then joked, "As a former trumpet player myself, I could give Doc a few hints on what it's like to be a former trumpet player."

Severinsen spent an unforgettable 25 years as a Carson sidekick, and in his off-time nurtured a music career that spanned 30 albums, from big-band to jazz to classical music. He and his Tonight Show Band snagged a Grammy in 1987 for Best Jazz Instrumental Performance — Big Band, for "Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band, Volume I."

He wore the title of conductor, reluctantly — "I'm a horn blower. I'm a player. That's how I approach it" — and juggled pops-conductor posts with as many as five orchestras simultaneously, including a nearly 25-year stint with the Phoenix Symphony.

In all reality, Severinsen could delay his retirement for some time. He feels physically fit, he's on top of his game musically, and he knows more about music than he ever has.

"I think it's always good to quit while you're ahead," he quickly countered. "The last concerts that I've done tell me that I'm more than ahead.

"I'd like to be remembered as somebody who took what talent they had and gave it their best and always gave all they had to give. As it turns out, people appreciated what he did and he did it just long enough."

A few years ago, while remodeling his home in Santa Barbara, Severinsen and his wife of 27 years took a trip to the smack center of Mexico, about 10 hours drive from the U.S. border, in search of tile, doors and other accessories to redecorate their home. They stepped into the morning sun and realized they had found paradise. They rushed back to California, finished the remodel, then sold the home and headed south.

During that conversation last Friday, Severinsen looked out his window and tried to describe the view.

"It's so beautiful I can't even. . . ," he started. "It's hard to describe to anybody that's not actually here. What I'm looking out on right now is just a panorama of beauty. The huge mountains in the background, the Sierra Madres. I'm looking down at the barn. There's some guys down there hosing off a horse. You want to go out for a trail ride; you can ride all day."

His retirement is overdue in some ways, he admitted.

"I have a beautiful wife, a lovely family, and I want to spend time with them," he said. "I don't want my wife to have to compete with the trumpet anymore."

Preview

• Doc Severinsen with the Tucson Symphony Orchestra

• When: 7:30 p.m. Saturday.

• Where: Tucson Music Hall, 260 S. Church Ave.

• Tickets: $24-$65 through Ticketmaster, 321-1000; or the TSO box office, 882-8585. Prices subject to change.