He was pretty well known as an arranger and also fronted the Tonight Show Band when Doc was out and about. He toured himself much like Severinson did with a core band adding local pickup players...Clark Terry did this too.

Not to diss anyone since, but the Severinson band on the Tonight Show was about as good as you could get. Go down the list of members and you have some of the very best coast guys in that group. It also offered the best of all worlds to a musician.....a steady gig, reasonable hours with plenty of time to do your own thing, top scale pay. The actual turnover was small.

For most of them the options were studio, the road, and Vegas. The Tonight Show gig covered all those in spades. And then if something great came up you could do a month in Vegas for instance and probably come right back. Like I say, they used temp guys to fill in and the actual turnover was pretty small.

Spaw