Doc Discovers New Rhythm in Mountains of Mexico
 Janelle Gelfand - Cincinnati.com
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Three years ago, Doc Severinsen retired to a small town in Mexico, intending to ride off into the sunset. Instead, he found a new act.
"I can tell you this - I haven't seen my horse in three months," says the former "Tonight Show" bandleader.
The Grammy Award winning trumpeter, "Tonight Show" star for three decades, flashy dresser and former pops conductor for the orchestras of Milwaukee, Minnesota and Phoenix, was planning to hang it all up - until he heard guitarist Gil Gutierrez and violinist Pedro Cartas playing Latino music at an Italian restaurant in Mexico.
"I sat for, well, almost two months every night and listened to them play. I don't think I've ever been more nervous than I was the first time I sat in with them. It's really been an incredible musical experience," says Severinsen, 81, talking by phone from his home in San Miguel de Allende, in the central mountains, a 4-hour drive south of Mexico City.
Severinsen conducts and performs with his new band, El Ritmo de la Vida (the Rhythm of Life), today and next Sunday with the Cincinnati Pops in Music Hall.
He and his wife had planned to retire in Tuscany, but first, they traveled to Mexico on a shopping trip during a renovation of their California home. Over breakfast in the picturesque town square, struck by the cobblestone streets and the 500-year-old homes, they looked at each other and decided "This is where we needed to be," Severinsen says.
But after the move, Severinsen was depressed, itching to find a place to play his trumpet. Someone suggested he go hear a musical group at Bella Italia.
"I didn't really want to go. I was pretty upset about retirement, and not in a great mood," he recalls. "We go, and they hadn't played eight bars, when I turned to everyone at the table - being my large family - and said, 'These guys are great. They're world class.' "
The musicians were playing a fusion of what Severinsen calls "Spanish flamenco gypsy." Although he wanted to find something new to do, he couldn't fathom playing Latin jazz. Finally, urged by his wife, he approached Cartas and Gutierrez, who invited him to play a few trumpet solos for an album they were finishing.
"They didn't know me from Adam. They didn't know about the 'Tonight Show,' that I played the trumpet, nothing. There wasn't even a hint of recognition," he says, laughing.
Meanwhile, Severinsen had already dialed his orchestra contacts, saying he had discovered a great new act. They were immediately engaged. Quickly, they found a Latin percussion player, Miguel Favero, and a bassist, Gilbert Gonzalez to complete the band.
But recording is one thing; playing live nightly shows is another. Severinsen had to get over his nerves and sit in with the band.
"I found that I enjoyed it, and once you find the thread of creativity in it, you just relax and enjoy yourself," says the trumpeter, who still plays four nights a week at the restaurant. "Someone said we play world music. If you say so, OK! We don't think about anything like that. We just simply get together, pick out our material and we play it."
Their Pops show will include music by Django Reinhardt, Chick Corea and Astor Piazzolla. The band, he says, is getting better. And lately, they've become a tourist attraction.
"I've got news - we've got a lot of people who come down here to hear us play. They make that the centerpiece of their visit," he says. "I'm having the time of my life."
jgelfand(at)enquirer.com |
Vallarta Weddings
Entertainment | March 2009 
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