As 2023 closes out, some of America’s great musical artists are well into their out-chorus, without due recognition for their long and distinguished careers. Consider, for example, trumpeter Doc Severinsen, 96, who gained fame with the “Tonight Show Band.”

Doc was still touring in 2021, when PBS came out with Never Too Late: The Doc Severinsen Story, with plenty of performance clips and tributes from bandmates. The trumpet is a physically demanding instrument but Severinsen continued live performances until August of 2022, quite possibly a record. Consider also a pair of saxophonists in Doc’s age bracket.

Of the 58 musicians in Art Kane’s 1958 “Jazz in Harlem” photo, Sonny Rollins, 93, and Benny Golson, 94, are the only ones still standing. Golson wrote music for M*A*S*H, Mission Impossible and scored television specials, but that was not his claim to fame.

A skillful player and arranger, Golson came up through big bands and formed influential combos such as the Jazztet. The tenor man composed tunes such as “Whisper Not,” “Killer Joe,” and “I Remember Clifford,” in memory of Clifford Brown, the great trumpeter who died in a car crash in 1956. Golson’s genius at turnarounds comes through in “Blues March,” “Five Spot After Dark,” and “Along Came Betty.”

Any player who puts out an album titled “Saxophone Colossus,” better have his chops in order. Sonny Rollins certainly did, on albums such as “Way Out West,” where he stretches out on cowboy songs. Sonny’s body of work includes “Tenor Madness,” “The Bridge,” and “Alfie,” based on his score for the 1966 film with Michael Caine.

Rollins’ harmonic genius shows up in “Blue Seven,” jostling with tri-tones. His compositions “St. Thomas” and “Airgein,” “Sonnymoon for Two,” “Pent-up House,” and “Oleo” have become jazz standards. Rollins may be inactive, but he hasn’t left the building. Neither has Gene “Big Daddy” Barge, who logs in at 97 years.

The West Virginia State College grad, a music teacher, was the soloist on the Chuck Willis’ rendition of “CC Rider” in 1957. Barge is also “Daddy G” blowing strong on hits by Gary U.S. Bonds such as “Quarter to Three,” and “New Orleans.” This wasn’t “A Love Supreme,” and didn’t pretend to be. It was joyful, popular music with no malice and no studio tricks.

With Chess records, Barge played on the 1965 Fontella Bass hit “Rescue Me.” Stax later hired Barge to head their gospel division, where he produced, among others,  Inez Andrews’ “Lord Don’t Move My Mountain.” Barge won a Grammy for co-producing Natalie Cole’s “Sophisticated Lady” in 1977, and about that time the sax man was looking to diversify. 

Barge had parts in movies such as Code of Silence Under Siege, and The Fugitive, in which he plays a Chicago cop. There’s nobody quite like Daddy G, who has some distinguished company in his age bracket.

Alto saxophonist and trumpeter Benny Carter, born in 1907, put out many albums, including

“Benny Carter and Friends,” and arranged the horn section on the 1963 Ray Charles hit “I’m Busted.” Hear the great altoist Phil Woods paying tribute to Carter on this 1990 “Night Music” session with David Sanborn. Benny Carter performed well into his 80s and passed away in 2003 at the age of 95.

Born in 1887, pianist Eubie Blake co-wrote the musical “Shuffle Along” and tunes such as “I’m Just Wild About Harry,” and “Memories of You.” His work was the subject of the 1978 musical “Eubie!” and in 1979, at the age of 96, Blake appeared on Saturday Night Live, accompanying Gregory Hines on “The Low Down Blues.” In 1981, President Ronald Reagan presented Blake with the Presidential Medal of Freedom.

“Last of the great ragtime composers and pianists, the son of slaves, and a pioneer crusader for Black Americans in the world of arts and entertainment, Eubie Blake is a national treasure,” Reagan said. “As pianist, showman and, above all, as composer, he has added immeasurably to America’s musical heritage and helped to clear the way for succeeding generations of talented artists who, but for his example, might have been denied access to the artistic mainstream.”

Blake thanked the president, who said, “there just happens to be a piano here.” Blake sat down at the keys and broke out a ragtime version of “Memories of You.”

“All I ever wanted to do was play the piano,” Blake said. “You know, my mother used to say that, ‘You ain’t ever going to be nothing but a piano plunker.’ And you know, that’s what I am, a piano plunker.” He sure was that, and a lot more.

Eubie Blake died in 1983, five days before his 100^th birthday. Doc Severinsen, Sonny Rollins, Benny Golson and Gene Barge, all in their 90s, need to get the recognition they deserve before they join Blake and Carter in the great beyond.

Meanwhile, in other music news from 2023, Robbie Robertson, prime mover of The Band, passed away in July at 80. Keyboardist and saxophonist Garth Hudson, 86, is the last member of the group, profiled by Martin Scorsese in The Last Waltz. In October, screechy chanteuse Buffy Sainte-Marie, 82, was finally exposed as a fake Indian. As they say, better late than never.