Photo: 8G Band | By Eric Deggans, NPR | Budget cuts have killed the 8G Band. When producers at Late Night with Seth Meyers told keyboardist and associate musical director Eli Janney the show would eliminate its live backing group, The 8G Band, due to budget cuts, he wasn’t all that surprised. “This was a moment, honestly, we all saw coming,” said Janney, who made his name as a bassist and keyboardist for the indie rock band Girls Against Boys – and as a producer with artists like James Blunt – before musical director Fred Armisen asked him to join Late Night’s backing group in 2014.
Janney says Armisen was looking to bring an indie rock band into the world of late night TV.
Along with Janney on keyboards and Armisen on guitar, they had Seth Jabour on guitar, Marnie Stern on guitar, Syd Butler on bass and Kimberly Thompson on drums. But when Armisen’s performing career took off, he wound up leaving Janney in charge – returning for short stints as a guest drummer several times a year. “About six months into the show, [Armisen] was like, ‘Hey I have to go work on the next season of Portlandia, I should be back in about 30 days,” Janney said, laughing. “And then he just never came back [full time].”
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Looking back on more late-night bands worth remembering
As a musician and late night TV nerd, I have an accompanying obsession with the bands who back the shows, and I’ve seen lots of them live. Late night bands often embody and amplify the tone of a show – Johnny Carson’s Tonight Show had a rollicking, old school big band, while Jimmy Fallon’s version has the urbane cool of rap/soul/funk stars The Roots.
Now that 8G joins the ranks of bands of the past, I’m reflecting on more late night bands that have – or will one day – go down in history. Here’s a list of the best.
#1: The World’s Most Dangerous Band/CBS Orchestra
Late Night with David Letterman (NBC) and The Late Show with David Letterman (CBS)
This group was squarely in my generation – a band I was hooked on from their early days with Letterman on NBC in the mid 1980s, right up until his retirement on CBS in 2015. It began as a hip four piece packed with the best session musicians in New York, including drummer Steve Jordan (now with the Rolling Stones), bassist Will Lee and often-barefoot guitarist Hiram Bullock, led by keyboardist and Saturday Night Live alum Paul Shaffer. Their stripped-down, funky sound was a welcome change from Carson’s massive, more traditional jazz band. Over the years, the group evolved into a much larger unit with two guitar players and a horn section; P-Funk keyboard legend Bernie Worrell even played with them for a time. And the band was capable of everything from skin-tight backing of James Brown to including guest musicians like David Sanborn and trading quips with Letterman himself.
“I watched them all the time…and just felt like they were on another level from what I was doing,” Janney said. “Also, they seemed to be having the best f—ing time. It wasn’t uptight at all.”
#2: The NBC Orchestra
The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson (NBC)
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Go here to read the rest of Eric’s picks:
https://www.npr.org/2024/08/22/nx-s1-5081255/8g-late-night-with-seth-meyers-late-night-bands
Photo: 8G Band | From their Facebook page