Great spotlight on a unique and oft-overlooked source of creative music, Tad! The guest artists' appearances for these shows are well-documented (and, at times, historic), but the house bands are a petri dish of the talented, and often featured quite a few session cats we all have heard....a lot!
I've always been fascinated by the career, say, of G.E. Smith, who (at various times) was the band leader for SNL (he ended up marrying Gilda Radner), as well as a member of Hall & Oates' band! Back in the day, when I'd pick up a new album, and saw that it featured Shaffer's Will Lee and/or Sid McGinnis, and/or Anton Fig (or Shaffer himself), I knew, immediately, it was recorded in, or near NYC!
Which reminds me of my year (1973-74) at N. Texas State U (now U. of N. Texas...every college I attended seemed to feel the need to immediately change their name! I keep wanting to tell them they'll have to do better than that to erase any evidence of my attendance)!
A world-renowned music school, they have a "1-O'Clock Jazz Band," from which Johnny Carson's Tonight Show band, used to pluck a player or two, every once in a while, if/when they needed a quick substitute for a touring or ailing musician! I discovered, while there, that a music student/player would start out in the 12 O'Clock jazz band, and work their way up, "around the clock," to the ultimate 1 O'Clock! That's also when I discovered that percussion students had to learn piano, and take lessons....why? Piano is a percussion instrument! Who knew? I didn't!
It is astounding just how much Paul Shaffer has done - bandleading, arranging, producing for The Blues Brothers, people like Cyndi Lauper... one day, he deserves a deep dive!
and, of course, his legendary Artie Fufkin portrayal in 'Spinal Tap'.....He's quite the musicologist, too! It might be exhausting doing a sweeping look at his career, but picking and choosing might be cool....like the Evigan album, and some of his productions, like Lauper, etc.
Great spotlight on a unique and oft-overlooked source of creative music, Tad! The guest artists' appearances for these shows are well-documented (and, at times, historic), but the house bands are a petri dish of the talented, and often featured quite a few session cats we all have heard....a lot!
I've always been fascinated by the career, say, of G.E. Smith, who (at various times) was the band leader for SNL (he ended up marrying Gilda Radner), as well as a member of Hall & Oates' band! Back in the day, when I'd pick up a new album, and saw that it featured Shaffer's Will Lee and/or Sid McGinnis, and/or Anton Fig (or Shaffer himself), I knew, immediately, it was recorded in, or near NYC!
Which reminds me of my year (1973-74) at N. Texas State U (now U. of N. Texas...every college I attended seemed to feel the need to immediately change their name! I keep wanting to tell them they'll have to do better than that to erase any evidence of my attendance)!
A world-renowned music school, they have a "1-O'Clock Jazz Band," from which Johnny Carson's Tonight Show band, used to pluck a player or two, every once in a while, if/when they needed a quick substitute for a touring or ailing musician! I discovered, while there, that a music student/player would start out in the 12 O'Clock jazz band, and work their way up, "around the clock," to the ultimate 1 O'Clock! That's also when I discovered that percussion students had to learn piano, and take lessons....why? Piano is a percussion instrument! Who knew? I didn't!
It is astounding just how much Paul Shaffer has done - bandleading, arranging, producing for The Blues Brothers, people like Cyndi Lauper... one day, he deserves a deep dive!
Happy to collab on a Shaffer! I used to have a lot of his records.....like this: https://www.discogs.com/master/659346-Greg-Paul-A-Year-At-The-Top
and this: https://www.discogs.com/master/350094-Paul-Shaffer-Coast-To-Coast
and, of course, his legendary Artie Fufkin portrayal in 'Spinal Tap'.....He's quite the musicologist, too! It might be exhausting doing a sweeping look at his career, but picking and choosing might be cool....like the Evigan album, and some of his productions, like Lauper, etc.