Going Mainstream

Pianist Ross Tompkins may not be a household name, but for many years his music was a staple in households all over America.

As the pianist for Doc Severinsen’s ‘Tonight Show’ band for more than 20 years, his sound--and sometimes his image--were beamed into living rooms everywhere. As a tasteful player, fluent in the maneuvers of jazz but also sensitive to the art of understatement, he was the right person for the job.

Tompkins, who plays in a variety of settings around Los Angeles and on the road, will make his way up to the Simi Valley Cultural Center on Sunday night. The intimate hall is a fine place to hear acoustic, mainstream jazz, and Tompkins’ trio--with drummer Jake Hanna and bassist John Heard--have the pedigrees to make for a solid evening.

A Detroit native who moved to New York in 1958, Tompkins wound up playing with such noted jazz musicians as J.J. Johnson, Zoot Sims and Al Cohn. He joined the “Tonight Show” band when it started in New York, and was invited by Severinsen to come west in 1972. That band’s “day gig,” the last steady big band on television, came to an end with Johnny Carson’s departure in 1992.

Since then, Tompkins has hardly slowed down. He still plays concerts with Severinsen’s band, as well as with Jack Sheldon and other West Coast jazz musicians.

He has recorded albums for the Progressive label, such as 1995’s “The Phantom” and “Ross Tompkins Celebrates the Music of Jule Styne.” On that recording, Tompkins’ warm, smart renditions of such classics as “I Fall in Love Too Easily” and “Time After Time” show the pianist at his best--as a romantic player with a seamless technique.

* The Ross Tompkins Trio performs at 8 p.m. Sunday at the Simi Valley Cultural Center, 3050 Los Angeles Ave. $12-$18. Call 581-9940.

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TENDER TALENTS: Microsoft has lent a corporate hand to the New West Symphony, and the name appears in lights at Saturday’s “Microsoft Discovery Artists Extravaganza.” Under the circumstances, at a time when resourceful fund-raising is required to keep culture alive, the corporate presence is a welcome one.

This is the perennial program that gives a select group of young classical musicians in the area the chance to share the stage with the full orchestra.

And the winners are . . . soprano Jessica Tivens, 15, a student at Calabasas High School; pianist John Huang, 16, Rio Mesa High School; and pianist Nicholas Bridgman, a freshman at Camarillo High School. Former Discovery Artist violinist Elise Goodman, 15, who is now concertmaster of the Disney Youth Symphony, returns to the stage.

The program will include the overture to Mozart’s “Marriage of Figaro,” music by Chopin and Saint-Seans, Shostakovich’s First Piano Concerto, and opera excerpts.

To caps things off, the New West’s Youth All-Stars--musicians culled from the county’s schools--will play the third movement of Tchaikovsky’s “Pathetique” symphony alongside their professional counterparts.

* The New West Symphony holds its “Microsoft Discovery Artists Extravaganza,” at 8 p.m. Saturday at Thousand Oaks Civic Arts Plaza, 2100 Thousand Oaks Blvd. $5-$15 or $25 for a family of up to six. Call 643-8646.