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Kevin Eubanks

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Kevin Eubanks
Born (1957-11-15) November 15, 1957 (age 67)
Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, U.S.
OccupationMusician
WebsiteKevin Eubanks.com

Kevin Tyrone Eubanks (born November 15 1957 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania), is a jazz guitarist who has been the leader of the Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno since 1992. He composed the Tonight Show's closing theme music, "Kevin's Country", in 1992.[1]

He has collaborated with Art Blakey, Roy Haynes, Slide Hampton, and Sam Rivers before starting to lead his own groups in 1983. Like his brother Robin Eubanks, a jazz trombonist, he has played on record with world renowned double bassist Dave Holland. His current lineup consists of Bill Pierce on sax and Marvin Smith on drums.

Kevin's guitar style owes much to early influences including Wes Montgomery, Jimi Hendrix, Pat Martino, and John McLaughlin, a combination of sophisticated harmonic vocabulary and explosive fingerstyle technique. Eubanks' discography includes a wide spectrum of styles from GRP styled smooth jazz to avant garde acoustic to straight ahead trio to newer electric fusion.

In 2005, Eubanks received an honorary doctorate degree from the Berklee College of Music, of which he is an alumnus, but not a graduate. He is also a member of Kappa Alpha Psi Fraternity, Inc. He has served as an active member of the Artistic Advisory Panel of the BMI Foundation since 1999.

Aside from his music, Kevin is known for his lingering, amused laughter following many of Leno's sharper jokes, and for Leno routinely poking fun at his alleged marijuana, pornography and masturbation addictions. He is also known for being a huge Philadelphia Eagles and Philadelphia 76ers fan, which is often seen when he wears hats with their logos, and on occasion Philadelphia Flyers' and Philadelphia Phillies logos, during shows. Following the Eagles' Super Bowl loss to the Patriots, he memorably stuck his entire body into a giant tub of chunky New England clam chowder soup.

Eubanks is a vegetarian.[2] Kevin joked on December 15, 2006 to Tobey Maguire and Leno that he's "practicing" vegetarianism (because he was still eating fish during those times) and promotes the vegetarian diet as being healthy. Leno commonly mentions this on the show when jokes involve vegetables (such as in typos on supermarket flyers during the "Headlines" segment). On the April 21st, 2008, episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno, Eubanks said that he has given up eating seafood. On June 26, 2007, PETA selected Eubanks as the sexiest vegetarian alive. Carrie Underwood was the female counterpart.[3]

Eubanks is a big fan of Stephen King novels and occasionally attends the AVN Awards as time permits.

Relationship With Fans

Kevin Eubanks has a close relationship with fans especially through his self-run web page. He offers a section where you can e-mail him questions and he tries to answer most of them through the web page's section entitled "Personals"

Discography

References

  1. ^ "LIGHTS, CAMERA, REACTION! KEVIN EUBANKS", International Musician, July 2007
  2. ^ USATODAY.com - Kevin Eubanks beefs up without meat
  3. ^ http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20070626/ap_on_en_ot/people_sexiest_vegetarians;_ylt=Amf54_SauFKZd_HngJcWEmXMWM0F
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