{"id":3282,"date":"2011-08-09T13:09:23","date_gmt":"2011-08-09T20:09:23","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/?p=3282"},"modified":"2011-08-09T13:10:19","modified_gmt":"2011-08-09T20:10:19","slug":"kevin-eubanks","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/2011\/08\/kevin-eubanks\/","title":{"rendered":"KEVIN EUBANKS"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"\"<\/h1>\n

KEVIN EUBANKS<\/h1>\n

Leaving the Tonight Show<\/em> behind him, a jazz guitar master looks ahead <\/strong><\/h2>\n

By Jeff Tamarkin <\/strong><\/p>\n

When a 30-foot hole opened up in the basement of Kevin Eubanks\u2019 home in the notoriously unstable terrain of Hollywood, he wasn\u2019t sure what to do at first. \u201cIt was a massive problem with my house,\u201d he says. \u201cI didn\u2019t know whether I was going to sell it or rebuild the foundation.\u201d A contractor suggested it might be a nice place to build a home studio. \u201cIt went in one ear and out the other,\u201d he recalls, \u201cbut as I started adding up the numbers it stuck in the back of my head and I said, \u2018He\u2019s got a point.\u2019\u201d Now Eubanks is the proud owner of Spirit Studio, a state-of-the-art facility with the most convenient location possible.<\/p>\n

But then, Eubanks is a pro at making the most of a difficult situation. When saxophonist Branford Marsalis left his position as leader of the Tonight Show<\/em> band in 1995, guitarist Eubanks was suddenly thrust into the spotlight. But his easy repartee with host Jay Leno proved a crowd-pleaser, and Eubanks guided one of TV\u2019s best house bands for 15 years. Now he is once again at a turning point in his career, having left the Tonight Show<\/em> to pursue his own music full time. His first post-Tonight<\/em> offering is the new Zen Food<\/em>, an instrumental album that showcases his exceptional chops and compositional skills.<\/p>\n

Not that Eubanks hadn\u2019t been making records during his Tonight Show<\/em> tenure. By the time he became a late-night fixture, the Philadelphia native was already established as an innovative jazz artist with several albums to his name, and he continued to release new music when time permitted. His latest features crackerjack backing from saxophonist Bill Pierce, keyboardist Gerry Etkins (who penned the one track Eubanks didn\u2019t, \u201cG.G.\u201d), bassist Rene Camacho and drummer Marvin \u201cSmitty\u201d Smith. The easygoing, good-natured manner that audiences loved on the Tonight Show<\/em> was fully evident as Eubanks discussed his life and career with us.<\/p>\n

When did you get into jazz?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Probably when I was about 17. It was a barrage once it hit. I started digging my dad\u2019s Jimmy Smith and Kenny Burrell records. It wasn\u2019t like it is now, where you just turn on your computer and click on it. We were still going to record stores back then, or I would dig something out of the closet. One thing led to the next. I went to school at Berklee College and everything fell into place after that. I was influenced by Jimi Hendrix, Oscar Peterson, Freddie Hubbard, Art Blakey, Wes Montgomery and Jimmy Smith. They all represent schools of their own.\u00a0Once you go deeper into them, you go deeper into music. You come out the other side with more than you went in with.<\/p>\n

How is it having your own studio? <\/strong><\/p>\n

The only difference for me is that people come to my house instead of me going somewhere else. I have a Neve board, the same I\u2019ve always recorded on. I don\u2019t like to call it a \u201chome studio,\u201d because it was built, constructed and designed by the same people that do professional studios in L.A. It\u2019s not what people think of as a home studio, where you kick it in the side and it\u2019ll start working.<\/p>\n

Has it changed the way you work?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I still don\u2019t like recording in a studio. I thought that would change because it\u2019s mine, and I\u2019ve got pictures of my family in the booth. But as soon as it\u2019s time to record there\u2019s still this edge of nervousness, this feeling of, \u201cIt\u2019s got to be perfect this time.\u201d I can\u2019t seem to shake that unless I\u2019m doing a live gig, and then I don\u2019t really care.<\/p>\n

What\u2019s your guitar setup like?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I use Abe Rivera guitars and a Martin acoustic. They\u2019re all made for me. I\u2019m holding one of them on the new album cover. The amp I use is actually a preamp called the DMS. I had it custom made. It\u2019s designed by a guy named Bruce Seifried. And as far as effects, I use a volume and a distortion pedal, that\u2019s it.<\/p>\n

How did you adapt to backing different artists on the Tonight Show<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

One day B.B. King is on, the next it\u2019s Clint Black. And after a while you think, it\u2019s all music. Hopefully with your background or your belief in music and your talent,\u00a0you can play this and you can play that without the clich\u00e9-ness. Over the years I\u2019ve gotten much closer to different kinds of music, like country, bluegrass and\u00a0definitely the blues.<\/p>\n

How did you learn adaptability?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019ve always been that way. A lot of people think I grew up playing jazz. I did not. I grew up playing Grand Funk Railroad, Chicago, Sly and the Family Stone, Kool and the Gang, James Brown and Marvin Gaye. My mom was all gospel and classical, my uncle [jazz pianist Ray Bryant<\/em>] played, so it was just a matter of time before I started getting into other kinds of music.<\/p>\n

Did a guest ever throw you off?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Yeah, but you learn how to let things roll off your back. There\u2019s only so much you\u2019ll take from a guest. Sometimes when a guest segment is going bad, you have to protect yourself. You realize that you do have a character and you stay within it, but you still say what you have to say and get your point across without compromising the job you\u2019re doing. But it takes time to get the experience to do that properly.<\/p>\n

How did you get the Tonight Show<\/em> gig?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I\u2019d never thought about being on TV, but Branford asked me if I wanted to be in the band and I said yes. Then he split and I was asked if I wanted to be the bandleader. I was nervous at first. The first day I was doing it my face broke out in a million bumps. I told the makeup guy, \u201cDon\u2019t worry, it will pass.\u201d<\/p>\n

Does Jay know a lot about music?<\/strong><\/p>\n

I don\u2019t think Jay knows that much about music. He would say, \u201cYou know music, I know cars. You know broccoli, I know pizza.\u201d He knows music up to about 1969. But in a strange way we respected that about each other. And it worked out because we stayed out of each other\u2019s way. Every now and then he would say, \u201cDo you know this song? What do you think about doing that with this guest?\u201d That was very seldom, so I always obliged him. We were opposites in some ways, but as soon as we hit the stage we were together because we love what we do and we trusted each other.<\/p>\n

Who are your audiences?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Whenever I do a gig, the audience is filled with different age groups who want to hear what they hope is good music. And you get a lot of people coming from that television audience into the concert and the club, where they perhaps haven\u2019t gone before. They come because they want to see you, they feel like they know you.<\/p>\n

What did you learn from the show?<\/strong><\/p>\n

Wow, that\u2019s a whole different interview\u2014there\u2019s so much. But one thing for sure\u00a0is that I\u2019ve learned a lot about TV and I\u00a0want to continue with it to some extent. It\u00a0can be very rewarding, and I feel so comfortable in a TV studio. I really want to develop a cooking show.<\/p>\n

Do you meet people who don\u2019t know you had a career before Tonight<\/em>?<\/strong><\/p>\n

There are plenty who don\u2019t. They\u00a0don\u2019t watch the Tonight Show <\/em>for\u00a0music. People would come up to me at\u00a0the show and say, \u201cHave you ever thought about doing a CD? Because you sound really good.\u201d I take that\u00a0as a compliment.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

KEVIN EUBANKS Leaving the Tonight Show behind him, a jazz guitar master looks ahead By Jeff Tamarkin When a 30-foot hole opened up in the basement of Kevin Eubanks\u2019 home in the notoriously unstable terrain of Hollywood, he wasn\u2019t sure what to do at first. \u201cIt was a massive problem with my house,\u201d he says. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":[],"categories":[7],"tags":[1334,2346,2314,970],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=3282"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":3286,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/3282\/revisions\/3286"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=3282"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=3282"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/mmusicmag.com\/m\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=3282"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}