Kevin Eubanks Clinic

Kevin Eubanks is a gifted musician and prolific composer whose own band, the Kevin Eubanks Quartet, has been evolving for close to 20 years. Eubanks is also well-known as the music director of The Tonight Show band, a role he held from 1992–2010. In any situation, Eubanks wins over audiences with a laid-back style and affability that seems to belie the concentration and focus that made him both a household name for television viewers and a consummate guitarist.

Eubanks was born into a musical household in Philadelphia, PA. His mother Vera is a gospel and classical pianist and organist with a master's degree in music education. She has taught both privately and in the school system until her recent retirement. Vera's brother Ray Bryant is a journeyman jazz pianist who has recorded and toured with jazz greats such as Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins, John Coltrane, and Sarah Vaughan, not to mention a few hit records of his own. Eubanks was thus exposed to world-class music in his formative years, when he began to play the violin. With his older brother Robin, an accomplished trombonist and also a professional musician, Eubanks played in small groups around his hometown and spent countless hours practicing at home. He 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.

When Eubanks moved to New York, his career kicked off in earnest. He played with some of the stalwarts of jazz, like Ron Carter, Slide Hampton, Art Blakey, McCoy Tyner, and Roy Haynes. In addition, he became the leader of his own quartet and traveled to Jordan, Pakistan, and India on a tour sponsored by the United States State Department, not to mention the European/Japanese jazz circuit which so many jazz artists frequent. Eubanks 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 Eubanks 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. The album was so well received that it led to a seven-album contract with the GRP label. Those albums, based largely on Eubanks's compositions, gained him a wide audience through extensive radio airplay and showed the range of his skill on both acoustic and electric guitar. Eubanks became a full-time bandleader, and traveled the world with his group.

In 1992 Eubanks moved to the West Coast to assume the guitar spot in The Tonight Show Band. In 1995 the leader's torch was passed to him, drawing on the versatility that let him write and choose music that satisfied the huge and varied audience for the show. He also assumed the role as Leno's sidekick, sometimes participating in skits, drawing attention with his engaging personality as well as his musicianship. The position afforded Eubanks the opportunity to work with fine musicians from all genres. As a result of living close to Los Angeles, Eubanks became involved in writing scores for television movies and full-length independent feature films. He loves to do volunteer work for charities and maintains an active relationship with the organization dearest to his heart, the Children's Hospital of Los Angeles. He has also appeared on various television shows, from Hollywood Squares to VIP to Days of Our Lives, to name a few.

But his passion is clearly seen when he is on stage performing. Eubanks and his touring band, which features Marvin "Smitty" Smith and Bill Pierce, who holds the woodwinds chair at Berklee, continue to travel the country. "It's wonderful to feel the music surging through you and touching people from the inside out. That's what happens when everyone is open and the music takes hold. What an honor it is to be invited into so many peoples lives, if only for a brief melodious moment," Eubanks says.

Eubanks has recorded several albums that feature various distinguished artists, and plans to release them on a new label called Insoul Music. He was also awarded an honorary doctorate from Berklee. In March 2010, Eubanks was named the artistic director of the Jazz in the Classroom program for the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz, where he works with up-and-coming middle and high school musicians in the Los Angeles public schools. "Young people need to be able to express themselves in ways that educate, uplift, and inspire self-confidence," Eubanks says. "It's important that everyone in the neighborhood gets to see that."

As one of the most accomplished guitarists of his generation, Eubanks has deservedly become known to millions through music, television, and what so many artists know so well: "lots of hard work."