"Flying Home" - Doc Severinsen and the Tonight Show Band (Improved Audio & Video). Intro by Johnny. 

Great line!!

He could be difficult but I can see his point and I admire his honesty and ability to be forthright and speak the truth.

Figuratively AND literally!! :)

And a great host.

None of the Tonight Shows after Johnny have been worth a damn - not funny, & musically vapid. For 30 years late-night television had something we'll never, ever see again!

I know! I started listening to the Tonight Show band in the mid 1960's. When I was in college, away from a TV (i.e. the olden days), I found out I could pick up the audio at the bottom of my FM radio band because it was on channel 6 in that area. So I listed as much as I could. That made for 30 years of wonderful big band (and solo trumpet) playing available FOR FREE!

@@dwerden I met Doc in the early 1980s when I was a trumpet student at the University of Tennessee. What a great guy!

Old musicians never die. They just go from bar to bar. 😄

There's no current late night host worthy of a trio let alone a big band.

Snooky played lead in the Basie band and in the Thad Jones Band…he was a phenomenal player!

If you can find the third album, it's just as good. I have all three on CD, and 1 & 2 on vinyl.

⁠There’s officially 4 Tonight Show Band albums: The first one, Vol. 2, Once More With Feeling, & the Christmas album. Unofficially, there Swingin’ The Blues, credited to Doc Severinsen & His Big Band. It’s basically most of the T.S. Band musicians reuniting, after the Johnny Carson era ended.

Johnny loved big band jazz and he appreciated this band. At one time, the bean counters at NBC wanted to cut some members from the band to save money. Johnny said no way, if you do that, I quit. So, the musician's jobs were saved.

As the 1980's ended and the 1990's entered, Music tastes had dramatically changed. This is why Jay Leno's version of the show featured groups during the last segment rather than in the middle of the show because people would tune out if they did not like the music.

In 66 Chicago (the band) didn't exist yet. Their first album (Transit Authority) was late in 68.

That was when they were on the Gong Show

Johnny eventually "sort of fired" him. What triggered it was immediately after one of Johnny's sons, Rick, was killed in a car crash in 1991, Johnny wanted to end the show with a short tribute to his boy. The lad was a photographer, so Johnny was holding up some of the kid's work. Since it was towards the end of the show, Johnny's tribute was running a little long. Freddie then signaled Johnny to "wrap it up" to meet the NBC closing hour. Johnny gave Freddie the snake eye and continued on. It was after that that Johnny kept Freddie on the payroll, but he was exiled to stand well off of the stage and was never again allowed to say a word to Johnny.

That's the beauty of live performances, you get to see that your heroes are human too. No auto tune or multiple takes. You get what you got.

The bassist must forgotten to give the camera crew their present the previous holiday!

I was thinking that exact same thing!

and he got there just before releasing. I think that the previoius jumping up to something like a double high E for a monent was just too much to go right back super high after.

"Sometimes the trumpet wins." -Dizzy Gillespie