Kevin Eubanks

Kevin Eubanks, currently the Music Director of The Tonight Show Band, is a gifted musician and prolific composer whose own band, the Kevin Eubanks Quartet, has been evolving for close to twenty years. In both situations, Kevin has won over audiences with a laid back style and an affability that seems to belie the concentration and focus that have made him both a household word for TV viewers and a consummate guitarist.

Kevin was born into a musical household in Philadelphia, PA. His mother, Vera Eubanks, is a gospel and classical pianist and organist who was a music educator, both privately and in the school system, until her recent retirement. Vera’s brother, Ray Bryant, is a respected jazz pianist whose musical affiliations brought many of the most noted players in the genre to the Eubanks home. Kevin was thus exposed to world-class music in his formative years, when he began to play the violin.

Along with his older brother Robin, an accomplished trombonist and also a professional musician, Kevin played in small groups around the hometown and spent countless hours practicing at home. Kevin studied the trumpet before making his commitment to the guitar, which was solidified with his entrance to the renowned Berklee College of Music in Boston. There he met many of the finest jazz musicians of his generation, including Branford Marsalis, who formerly led The Tonight Show Band during Jay Leno’s early tenure as host.

When Kevin moved to New York after graduating from Berklee, his career kicked off in earnest. He played with some of the stalwarts of jazz, like Ron Carter, Slide Hampton, Art Blakey, McCoy Tyner, Sam Rivers, and Roy Haynes. In addition to working in other bands, Kevin became the leader of his own quartet and traveled to Jordan, Pakistan, and India on a tour sponsored by the US State Department. Kevin taught at the Banff School of Fine Arts in Canada, at Rutgers University, and at the Charlie Parker School in Perugia, Italy.

His first album as a leader, Guitarist, was released on the Elektra label when Kevin was 25. It documented a sophisticated, nuanced voice on the instrument, and was graced by the presence of some peers who still work with him today: tenor saxophonist Ralph Moore, a member of The Tonight Show Band, and Robin. Kevin’s cousins, the late bassist David Eubanks and the pianist Charles, also appeared on the album, which was so well received that it led to a seven album contract with the GRP label. Those albums, based largely upon Kevin’s compositions, gained him a wide audience through extensive radio airplay and showed the range of his skill on both acoustic and electric guitar. Kevin became a fulltime bandleader, and traveled the world with his group.

Kevin was then signed to the Blue Note label, and his Turning Point CD, released in 1992, was just that. One song led into another in a seamless exploration of mood, sound, and rhythm. The compositions, all originals, defied structural song-form limitations. This approach was explored further on the subsequent CDs Spirit Talk and Spiritalk2. Live At Bradley’s, recorded at the famed New York jazz club, which is no more, marked Kevin’s final Blue Note release.

By this time, Kevin had moved to the West Coast to assume the guitar spot in The Tonight Show Band. In 1995, Marsalis passed the leader’s torch to Eubanks, whose versatility enables him to write music that satisfies the huge and varied audience for the show. He has assumed the role of Leno’s sidekick, sometimes participating in skits, and his engaging personality as well as his musicianship has drawn attention. The position has also afforded Kevin the opportunity to work with fine musicians from all genres.

As a result of living close to LA, Kevin has become involved in writing scores for both TV movies and full-length independent feature films. He has done volunteer and charity work at a number of West Coast institutions, and maintains an active relationship with The Children’s Hospital of Los Angeles. He has appeared on Hollywood Squares, the NAACP Entertainment Awards show, and has served as a host or master of ceremonies at numerous entertainment galas and sporting events. In 1999, Kevin and his brother Robin were the co-honorees of Philadelphia’s Mellon Jazz Festival, an award accorded musicians from Philadelphia who have had distinguished careers in jazz.

Kevin continues to lead his own band. The unit is buoyed by his subtle and astute leadership; its stylistic range is wide and its simpatico is so fine-tuned that the members of the band seem to breathe as one. Kevin has recorded several albums of music featuring a variety of distinguished jazz artists, and plans to release them on his own label, Arch Records, still in the formative stages. One of the most accomplished guitarists of his or any generation, Kevin Eubanks has deservedly become known to millions and will undoubtedly remain the forefront in the new millennium--he is an American original.