It’s
7:30 p.m. in Los Angeles where Kevin Eubanks, the Tonight Show’s band leader, has
arrived home after an hour-long taping of the night’s show. It’s
10:30 p.m. in Washington, D.C., only an hour before the show will air
on the East Coast, where I answer Eubank’s anticipated call.
I quickly learn that Eubanks is just as cool and
bubbly on the telephone as he appears week nights as Jay Leno’s
sidekick. I also learn that he is very content with not being the
head liner and playing second fiddle. “They are not the opposites
of each other,” said Eubanks. “We all have a job to do and those
jobs are very different,” he continued after much quizzing.
Whether he is playing his own gig anywhere in the
world or on the Tonight Show,
the Philadelphia native said his goal is to “hit it, groove it hard,
make it stick, and make the people in the audience groove.”
Eubanks has hit it hard on about 19 CDs that he has recorded, about 14
of which he has released. The remaining five CDs are available on
his web site, www.KevinEubanks.com.
He plans to release those 5 in stores after the launching of his new
label, InSoul.
Though he has written some film scores, don’t expect
him to write another one. He hates the bureaucracy.
“Everybody has something to say about the music, the director, the film
editor, the producer, and sometimes the producer’s girlfriend,” he
chuckled.
After having more time to contemplate his supporting
role on the Tonight Show, he
likened his role as film score creator to his job as Leno’s
sideman. “It’s a matter of trying to find a balance, where the
music supports what is happening on the screen, but not get in the
way,” said the 47-year-old jazz man.
The world music has been a part of Eubank’s life
since birth, maybe even before his conception. His paternal
grandmother, Eleanor Bryant, was a Baptist preacher and organist, who
thought jazz was the devil’s music. His mother, who has a
master’s degree in Music Education and is a retired middle-school music
teacher, continues to take piano lessons, manages to hold classical
piano concerts in their hometown, and has directed church choirs since
she was 13. “She got the gospel thing way under control,” laughed
Eubanks as he shot pool and talked with me.
Read the complete story in the print issue. |
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