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Life after Leno

Kevin Eubanks, musician-in-residence at Jazz on the Mountain, discusses his post-Tonight Show career
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Look, just because Kevin Eubanks left the Tonight Show doesn't mean he's finding the time to re-focus on his music or do what he's always wanted to do or any of the other generalizations the media had written after Eubanks announced his departure as Jay Leno's band leader in April 2010.

The fact is, he's always been focused on his music.

"I don't understand the idea that because I was on The Tonight Show for 18 years that somehow I was not involved with music. And now that I'm not on the The Tonight Show I can go back to being focused on music. That's completely erroneous. That's just not true," he says with a laugh. Anyone who's seen him next to Jay Leno in those 18 years will know that laugh well.

"I guess people assume that because that's the easiest picture to paint of somebody that did a job like that," he says.

Now, he has more time to do all the same things he was doing while he was on The Tonight Show : making records, playing shows and teaching workshops, much like he'll do this weekend at the Jazz on the Mountain at Whistler festival.

He's in town this week serving as the musician-in-residence for the Jazz on the Mountain festival, performing a series of gigs throughout the village and teaching a workshop for the Master Class Series. This will be a chance to see a side of Eubanks rarely seen while blazing through rock and funk standards on late night TV - the master jazz player.

Since 2001 he's released six albums on his own label, InSoul music, with a seventh recently finished and soon to be released. In total, he's played on over 100 albums since the 1980s and in the 15 years before landing the Tonight Show gig he earned a reputation as one of the most versatile guitarists in the business.

"I just play what I do," he says. "I would love to be in a blues band. I would love to do a tour with a blues artist. If I could go on tour with Buddy Guy, I'd love to do that. It's not just jazz."

He's speaking from a tour stop in Philadelphia - also his hometown and setting for his early musical development. His whole family is musical. His mother is a gospel and classical pianist. His uncle is the jazz pianist Ray Bryant. His brothers Robin and Duane are also professional musicians. Kevin started playing violin and trumpet, finally settling on guitar. He attended the Berklee College of Music in Boston and moved to New York to start his career.

And, naturally, it wasn't easy. He shared a one-bedroom apartment with three other people. Unable to find a gig, he worked odd jobs in restaurants, in a bakery - anywhere there was work.

"I was terrified. I guess it depends on the individual but I was just thinking that I wanted to get better and better at guitar before I decided to work as a musician. I wasn't gung ho in trying to prove that I could play with different bands in New York. I just wanted to practice more," he says.

Then some gigs came along and those turned into more gigs and for the next 15 years he was living the dream, hopping from one city to the next, working with one musician to the next. Eventually, Hollywood came a-knockin' and it was a world far beyond that of a travelling musician. The rules were different. The corporate structure that defines Hollywood took some getting used to but, he says, the gig opened up all kinds of doors.

"It's like a backstage pass to everything (being) on a late night show like that," he says. "You meet a lot of people that you never thought you'd meet. You make lots of friends with people. After 18 years of doing it you get to see quite a bit. It was wonderful. I would recommend it to anyone who could do it."

Every week brought in a new batch of fresh-faced actors, Hollywood veterans, top-tier musical acts. Every day brought something new. As Leno's right-hand man, Eubanks earned considerable screen-time, often on the receiving end of the comedian's projectile wit.

"By the end of the decade, you look up and go, 'Wow,'" Eubanks says. "And then you just keep going into the next day and the next day and then 18 years later, you go, 'Wow.'"

And now that it's over it's taking some time to adjust. Life has slowed a bit but in a way he finds necessary. He has more time for his family, for one. He has more time to travel. And, it seems he has more time to reflect.

"Things are starting to find a balance and I don't really know what that is," he says. "It's a process. I guess everyone goes through that at different periods in their lives. It's taking shape now and I'm just trying to follow what feels good.

"When you're in the business, you just - well for me anyway - you just take in one day at a time and do a good job with what's in front of me."