JAN/FEB 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM or more than four decades, we’ve turned on TV late at night to see F talk-show hosts joking about the latest scandal and celebrities hawking their new films. But more discerning listeners know that when they tune in post- primetime, they’re also hearing some of the best musicians in the business—masters of precision who can tackle any genre and pick up the slightest cue. Since the halcyon days of Johnny Carson and Doc Severinsen’s Tonight Show band, house bands have punctuated hosts’ antics, musically introduced guests, played in and out of commercials and composed original scores for sketches—all in a night’s work. It’s time to shine a spotlight on the aces behind the music. PAUL SHAFFER AND Paul Shaffer and the CBS Orchestra THE CBS ORCHESTRA CBS/Late David Letterman Show With The Late Show With David Letterman to CBS in 1993. Shaffer initially resisted group jibed with not only the format of BANDLEADER: Paul Shaffer (keyboards) adding horns to the band, as it would affect Late Night With Conan O’Brien, but also CuRRENt LiNE-up: Anton Fig (percussion), Felicia Collins (guitar), Sid McGinnis (guitar), Will the versatility that became the quartet’s the emerging 1990s swing revival. And, Lee (bass), Tom Malone (trombone), Alan Chez hallmark. “Horns meant arrangements and as O’Brien had hoped, it recalled an older (trumpet/flugelhorn), Bruce Kapler (saxophone) more complex voicings,” he notes. “But the generation of late-night TV in both sound NotABLE foRmER mEmBERs: Steve Jordan, players I chose are masters of flexibility.” and look. “I wanted our band to sort of be Conan O’Brien with Max Weinberg and the Hiram Bullock, Bernie Worrell, David Sanborn The shift was successful, and in both an homage to the classic TV bands—[former Tonight Show band incarnations Shaffer and his band have Tonight Show bandleader] Doc Severinsen When David Letterman landed an NBC proved highly influential on future late-night in particular—and they always dressed up. late-night show in 1982, he turned to a man bands. “I’ve been watching Paul Shaffer So it seemed like the natural thing to do,” who knew something about late-night TV since he had a four-piece in the ’80s,” says Weinberg said at last year’s 2009 Rock and comedy: Paul Shaffer, who played keyboards Jimmy Kimmel Live! bandleader Cleto Roll Hall of Fame induction. in the Saturday Night Live band from 1975 Escobedo III. “He’s my childhood hero.” Like many house bands, they often serve to 1980. That proved crucial, as unlike as unsuspecting straight men for O’Brien’s most current TV bandleaders, Shaffer also MAX WEINBERG AND bits. La Bamba, with his trademark fedora, serves as Letterman’s second banana—the THE TONIGHT SHOW BAND is an easy target for O’Brien’s silliness. (A Ed McMahon to his Johnny Carson. “Paul is running joke is that he can’t read music; The Tonight Show With Conan O’Brien essential,” says Letterman. “It’s a long trip, an older sketch involved “dumbing down” BANDLEADER: Max Weinberg (drums) and Paul is the funny flight attendant.” CuRRENt LiNE-up: Jimmy Vivino (guitar), Mike current events for the trombonist.) Letterman’s NBC show provided a Merritt (bass), Mark “The Loveman” Pender “People don’t realize how much work bridge from Carson’s classic model to (trumpet), Richie “La Bamba” Rosenberg it is,” says Weinberg. “I never did. I figured today’s looser late-night offerings. In his (trombone), Jerry Vivino (saxophone), Scott Healy Doc just showed up at 5 and started to play.” recent memoir We’ll Be Here for the Rest of (keyboards), James Wormworth (percussion) The job got even more hectic for Weinberg Our Lives, Shaffer recalls Letterman asking in 1999, when Springsteen reunited the E him at their first meeting if he’d be OK with Max Weinberg started his career as a Street Band for a tour; he’s juggled both leading a quartet—a sharp contrast to the member of Bruce Springsteen’s E Street jobs ever since. MUSIC OF THE NIGHT Tonight Show’s orchestra. “I’d love it. Four Band, playing on iconic albums like Born to In 2009, Weinberg and company made pieces is what I do best,” Shaffer recalls. Run and Born in the U.S.A. But when he ran the move from New York to Los Angeles “We could turn on a dime. With four pieces I into Conan O’Brien on a street corner a few with O’Brien when he took over as host of The top-flight musicians in TV’s greatest house bands could still do all the Motown and soul covers years after Springsteen dissolved the band, the Tonight Show. But aside from adding I’ve been learning my whole life.” he had a different pitch for the comedian’s percussionist Wormworth, their approach have to be ready to play anything, anytime Shaffer also reveled in breaking new TV house band: jump blues. O’Brien, who remains much the same. ground stylistically, forgoing big band was looking for a variety-show feel, was “We have our unique sound whether standards for an R&B/rock hybrid that took intrigued, and Weinberg assembled a seven- we’re in California or New York. We’ll BY KATIE DODD its inspiration from the 1960s and ’70s. piece band for the audition. By the second always reflect an East Coast muscularity,” That sensibility has remained, even as the song, they were hired. says Weinberg. “We continue to do what band doubled in size with Letterman’s move The energetic sound of Weinberg’s we’ve done for 16 years, which is to create Paul Drinkwater/NBC 28 JAN/FEB 2010 JAN/FEB 2010 29 M mag_HB.indd 28 1/11/10 1:15:27 PM M mag_HB.indd 29 1/11/10 1:15:58 PM JAN/FEB 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM JAN/FEB 2010 ISSUE MMUSICMAG.COM news that Kimmel was getting a show and Branford Marsalis as the leader of the year out.” to ask his parents to support him during the Tonight Show band. But the partnership After 17 years, Eubanks bandleader audition. “And bring your horn,” seemed strained from day one, and Marsalis and his band jumped at the he added. left—not particularly quietly—in 1995. chance to change up their The family atmosphere would become Into his place stepped guitarist Kevin approach with the move to ABC/Jimmy Kimmel Live! ABC/Jimmy one of the hallmarks of Kimmel’s show. Other Eubanks, a mellower but no less seasoned primetime for The Jay Leno recurring characters include his uncle, Frank jazz musician who had played with Slide Show, which airs at 10 p.m. Potenza, Potenza’s ex-wife, Aunt Chippy, Hampton, Art Blakey and Dave Holland, EST. “We needed a new and his cousin, Sal Iacono. It makes for a among others. Eubanks’ low-key vibe proved theme terribly bad,” says casual, inclusive vibe that guests often pick a perfect foil for Leno’s antics (showcased Eubanks. “Remember, I up on. “One of my favorite guests is Don in the long-gone “Beyondo” sketches, which have to play it every single Rickles, because he always messes with featured Eubanks talking to a floating Leno night!” the band,” Escobedo says. “My dad and I head; and the still-popular “Headlines”). The earlier hour also are Latin, and he makes some jokes. He’s After taking the bandleader mantle, required more vitality. “The Justin Lubin/NBC always a fun time.” Eubanks called Smith, Moore and Etkins, music goes more towards While the Cletones are always game for with whom he’d studied at the Berklee getting the people to dance,” comedy bits, when it’s time to pick up their College of Music, and asked them to join says Eubanks. “I think this Cleto and the Cletones instruments, they’re all business. the band. With a stable of accomplished show needs a different kind of “We’ll play funk to Foo Fighters to jazz players, Eubanks’ band quickly carved energy—a more physical kind of music that complements and supplements David Letterman together. So when Kimmel polka,” says Escobedo. “You have to be a niche for itself in late-night TV. energy. Get ’em up, get ’em moving, Vicki Randle the comedy on the Tonight Show, and keep landed his own late-night slot in 2003, he ready for anything.” By their nature, the mediums of jazz and get that energy into the show and get that reaching for as many different types of music immediately called Escobedo, who was on television might seem at odds. The musical feel into people’s homes at 10 p.m.” as we can play from night to night.” the road with Marc Anthony, and asked him KEVIN EUBANKS AND genre is marked by improvisation, innovation to be his bandleader. THE PRIMETIME BAND and a resistance to rules. TV music, on the THE SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE BAND tapped longtime friend and fellow Canadian CLETO AND THE CLETONES Escobedo, who had also worked with The Jay Leno Show other hand, not only has to appeal to the Saturday Night Live Howard Shore, who assembled a horn-centric Jimmy Kimmel Live! Kimmel on Comedy Central’s The Man Bandleader: Kevin Eubanks (guitar) masses, but also has to adhere to strict bandleader: Leon Pendarvis (keyboards) group inspired by Junior Walker’s energetic Bandleader: Cleto Escobedo III (saxophone) Show, didn’t think twice.