Doc Severinsen on Letterman, June 17, 1985

The Tonight Show's music director performs "Too Soon to Tell" and then chats with Dave. Both allude to some sort of band personnel issues that only the audience understands. To see what may have occurred, I included selected moments that preceded Doc's appearance:
Open: The full band is seen -- Sid Mcginnis, Paul Shaffer, Steve Jordan, and Will Lee.
Act 2: Dave asks if Phil Collins, a guest for an upcoming show, will be performing and/or playing the drums. Paul: "Well, we may need him," as Steve is seen sneaking away from his drum kit, climbing up a nearby ladder. Judging by the audience reaction, they know what's going on. Dave explains, "There's some personnel circumstances in the band that are being ironed out among themselves." Another shot of Steve climbing as Dave asks, "Why is your drummer evacuating the premises?"
Act 2, end: Into the break, the band plays The Who's "Substitute." It's not clear who's playing the drums.
Act 3 end: But by the end of Act 3, Steve can be seen at the drum kit.
And Steve is there playing behind Doc in Act 5.
So something happened to which the home viewer wasn't privy but the studio audience was. Did someone replace Steve in Act 2, prompting the band's performance of "Substitute"?
To be tracked down.
Thanks to John Dalton for bringing this up earlier today and for prompting me to put this together.

[@joeblevins1061]

Great to hear Doc with more of a rock ensemble rather than the big band for which he's known. He fits in great.

[@Allen-jn4kx]

Doc did a lot of incredible jazz fusion, put out two records of it.

[@Allen-jn4kx]

I had a VHS tape that I taped from a TV show in the 80s. It was Doc with his band Xebron and a fantastic song that is not on the Xebron record, or the other fusion record he did, the one with the fusion like version of Take the A Train. I hope I still have that tape cause have not seen it posted online anywhere. It was from some small TV show, maybe on the comedy channel or the USA channel.

[@riobravo4454]

Doc is the most versed, well rounded trumpet player this earth has ever seen. Not only his high range big band lead trumpet but the band Xebron was tight as hell.

[@Allen-jn4kx]

Yes, that guitar player on the right is from Xebron too.

[@DaveDarin]

WOW, never knew he was this good. WOW!!!!

[@tomloft2000]

he just turned 91.must of done something right.

[@Rob_Kates]

This is like the type of music they played in Doc's jazz fusion group Xebron, much more contemporary than the big band music played on Johnny's show.

[@kevinhilman8597]

This is indeed one of the tunes from Doc’s Xebron album. The piece is called “Too Soon to Tell”

[@Allen-jn4kx]

I love his fusion playing. I must have listened to his Xebron record, and his other fusion record, a million times. He has two of them. I did see Doc with The Tonight Show band in Allentown PA right after Carson left the tonight show. Can tell you it was a very powerful show with some almost fusion elements at time. Some very rock sounding playing sometime from that big band.

[@legasimusic]

This is such a cool jam!😎👍

[@KevinHallaian]

Doc, what a bad ass Piston B flat

[@Tmanaz480]

Love the old Plumbicon tube streaks.

[@bimmjim]

I wonder if it was Doc who suggested they play that very difficult song. Wow !

[@palmerjohnson4982]

Whatever the circumstances were with the Band issues. This Gelled!

[@jamessansone6539]

He’s playing concert D minor and it’s not a very bright sound because he’s playing flugelhorn going for a deliberately dark sound to fit the tune he’s playing he’s an absolute monster player

[@donandannie4u2]

Watch Jordan and his movements closely. (While not playing) You can actually see the frustration within him and the stress within the band. I am a musician myself and have been through these kind of issues myself over the years. Believe me...on this night, Steve Jordan knew his days were numbered on this show, either by his choice or not.

[@NelsonVlog66]

"They're pissed in B-flat." LOL

[@TheInvincibleViolet]

DOC !!!!!! xoxoxooxooxox

[@casinobirdchannel8083]

Great performance by Doc and Steve Jordan was perfectly in time as usual . I am looking for a clip from mid 80s when Jordan and Phil Collins were both on the drums for same song..anyone know which song/episode?

[@dongiller]

Phil sat in with the band throughout two Late Nights: June 24, 1985, with Steve Jordan, and November 22, 1988, with Anton Fig. It was only on the latter show when Phil performed his own number, "Two Hearts." In the former, Act 4 came out of a break with a twin drum solo.

[@gbeachy2010]

I don't see Doc using his third finger much. That would seem to indicate it's in a horn friendly key which would be more of a challenge, I would think, to the guitars. A challenging piece for all because of the rhythms and modulations.

[@BariRMe]

I'm not a guitar player, but the tune was in concert D minor. That's E minor for Doc on a Bb flugel. In E major he would have needed the 3rd valve, but not so much in E minor. I'll leave it to a guitar player to say if E minor and related chords in the progression are hard. For Doc, he was playing in one #. He might have needed the 3rd valve to play the notes of a traditional V7 down low (this would include a low D# on the B7 chord), but up an octave you can play all the notes of a B7 with only the 2nd valve if you want to.

[@generalbullmoose]

In the past, I actually saw Doc use his third finger quite often as "false fingerings". I imagine if/when he did that, it made some licks simpler. I know that in my trumpet playing days, I was able to do something like that.

[@RuaTheRapoet]

Steve Hardy As a rudimentary-ish guitar player, I can say that E minor is about as easy as any key you can play in on one... though, as someone who hasn't delved very far into the jazz, I must say I imagine any reasonably sophisticated jazz song would be pretty taxing in any key. Helps that the guys are playing electric guitars though, what with their looser strings/lower action making it much easier to use the 'movable chords' that open you up to being able to play in all keys. Sorry if I'm rambling a bit here -- I'll defer to any 'real' guitar player who comes along here who can give a more succinct and straightforward answer.

[@kevinfitzmaurice4072]

Severinsen sounds like Herb Alpert here.

[@waynebritton1436]

Severinsen can sound like Alpert but not vice versa.

[@LindsayBailey-nd2wm]

Amazingly tight considering the drummer missed rehearsal.

[@exiles_dot_tv]

Whew, the band was sounding so funky that night. I dare say they sounded better than Doc (I'll run away now before the tomatoes start flying.)

[@generalbullmoose]

You'll get no tomatoes from this end. Doc's timing seemed to be a bit off the whole song.

[@trumpetguy5797]

@@generalbullmoose His timing isn't off at all. Not sure what you are hearing...