Eubanks in new role at L.A.'s Playboy jazz fest

06/10/2005 7:42 AM, Reuters
Tony Gieske

Can it really be the Playboy Jazz Festival without Bill Cosby, absent for the first time this year as its master of ceremonies? Well, jazz lovers will just have to wait till Saturday and Sunday, when the 27th annual event fills the Hollywood Bowl with such acts as Roy Ayers, Dr. John, Keb' Mo' and Brenda Russell.

What's certain is that the new master of ceremonies is the notably affable Kevin Eubanks, leader of "The Tonight Show" band.

Eubanks got a tryout in the host role on the second day of last year's festival and found it good.

"My friends, they knew I was nervous, I was so used to playing festivals. Man, I'm not used to hosting things, but Bill Cosby was real positive toward me and once I got onstage -- the support from the people and the crew and everybody there, (festival director) Darlene Chan . . . and before you know it I felt very much at home.

"It was an honor to introduce Herbie Hancock and Wayne Shorter, Dave Holland, to introduce musicians that have changed music around the world. To look him in the face and bow to Herbie because he's changed my life, listening to him on 'Miles in Europe,' how's he playing the harmony in 'Autumn Leaves,' how that chromatic line's going through that whole thing. That gives you focus, opens your mind up, it changes things."

Since he took over from Branford Marsalis as bandleader in 1995, Eubanks has become a latter-day Ed McMahon, serving as a foil for host Jay Leno.

"I guess it kinda worked its way into that," Eubanks said. "Jay and I started doin' our thing. 'Course, we take care of the music and all that, and Jay and I just get along naturally anyway, so it just weaved its way into whatever it is." Eubanks accompanied this observation with a taste of the familiar laughter with which he's been responding faithfully to Leno's bon mots.

Eubanks and his cohorts on the little bandstand are exposed to the bloom of 1,000 flowers, guest bands from System of a Down to k.d. lang, and they flit from one to the next with the greatest of ease.

How do they do it?

"That's one of the cool things growing up playing guitar," said Eubanks, whose uncles, pianist Ray Bryant and bassist Tommy Bryant, used to rehearse their trio with drummer Jo Jones in the Eubanks living room in Philadelphia.

"I love playing loud rock music," Eubanks confessed. "Like Jimi Hendrix, (the late guitar player for Chicago) Terry Kath, Grand Funk Railroad, Emerson, Lake and Palmer, John McLaughlin; then I started getting into jazz with George (Benson) and Wes Montgomery, then knowin' who Grant Green was; and then going into the blues side of it, Albert Collins and Son House; and hanging out at Buddy's Club in Chicago, and then you go, man, you're a part of a big body of something here.

Reuters/Hollywood Reporter