'Jingle Bell Doc' Severinsen and company shine in Christmas show

12.19.09
Doc Severinsen & El Ritmo de la Vida
Twin Cities Pioneer Press

By Rob Hubbard

If you have yet to reach your 80s, here's my Christmas wish for you: I hope that, when you get there, you have as much energy, enthusiasm and youthful vigor as Doc Severinsen.

Although the longtime "Tonight Show" bandleader has retired from his post as the Minnesota Orchestra's principal pops conductor, he's back this weekend for a jazzed-up holiday program. Saturday night's first of the carol-laden concerts demonstrated that Severinsen shows no signs of slowing down. In fact, retirement seems to agree with him, as he appeared more engaged and excited about performing than he's been in a number of years.

And the locals are happy to have him back, if Saturday night's standing-room-only crowd at Minneapolis' Orchestra Hall is any indication. What they experienced was a concert at which classical music and jazz jostled for dominance, the carols and Christmas songs either being full-voiced celebrations of the season courtesy of the Minnesota Chorale or swinging takes on the tunes from a big band that shared stage space with the orchestra, choir and the Twin Cities Bronze handbell choir.

Yes, there were about 250 musicians on stage, and they were all given a chance to shine. For the Minnesota Chorale, it came on adaptations by choral legends John Rutter and Robert Shaw. For the handbell choir, a brisk slice of Georges Bizet's "L'Arlesienne." And the big band upped the adrenaline level with hot takes on "Frosty the Snowman" and "Santa Claus is Coming to Town."

The Minnesota Orchestra was typically strong throughout, whether holding its own in a battle of the bands with the jazz musicians onstage on "The Waltz of the Flowers" from Tchaikovsky's "Nutcracker" or quickly shifting gears into baroque mode for Handel's "Hallelujah Chorus," the bracing conclusion to a two-hour-and-20-minute program that not only catered to many tastes, but also did so with energy, an unflagging sense of fun and a double dose of Severinsen's eye-popping fashion sense.