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Matt Savage on "Late Night with Conan O'Brien" December 12, 2006
On Tuesday, December 12, 2006 we had one of our most exciting experiences ever! Matt had the honor and joy of performing on NBC-TV’s “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” show.
Our adventure actually started on Monday, December 11th when we flew to New York. NBC put us up at the beautiful Parker Meridien New York Hotel, home of the world’s most expensive omelet (for those of you who didn’t hear Matt’s interview). We didn’t order the omelet, but were allowed to keep a menu from the restaurant that describes the omelet (along with the prices). Matt got a kick out of the idea of a $100 and a $1000 omelet, the only difference in price between the two being the amount of caviar on top. I told him he’d have to be a REALLY successful musician to be able to afford even the $100 omelet one day. Also at the Parker Meridien is the burger joint with the best burgers in NY. The little hamburger joint is hidden away behind some curtains on the front lobby so you’d NEVER know it was there. But the restaurant has burgers, fries, and MAYBE hot dogs and chicken. I’m not sure about the last two items. It is a no-frills burger place that has great burgers and fries. Matt DID order one of the burgers and fries! “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” actually tapes from 5:30-6:30 PM, although it airs from 12:30-1:30AM. The amount of work that goes into producing a live television show of that magnitude is tremendous. The day starts EARLY morning for the load-in crew and sound people and members of the guest band. By 7 and 8 AM, people are setting up for the musical act of the evening. Matt’s drummer had to show up at 10 AM to set up his drums the way he wanted. Matt was fortunate. He and I didn’t have to arrive until 2:30 PM. The Bösendorfer piano on which he was to play that evening was delivered and tuned by Bösendorfer New York, so we didn’t have to do anything early in the day. When we arrived at the studio on Tuesday afternoon, we were ushered into a beautiful green room with mountains of food. Matt didn’t perform with his usual sidemen on this particular adventure. John and Steve couldn’t make the performance. So, we hooked up with two local-to-NY college students, Dave Robaire on bass and Joe Saylor on drums. The guys are your typical college students (and starving musicians) and each young man inhaled about 3 sandwiches in the first five minutes we were in the room. They are REALLY great guys and you will be hearing/seeing more of them in the future. Matt needs to have two sets of sidemen on whom he can call at any time for a performance…musicians who know all of Matt’s original tunes and are ready to perform a full gig without any pre-rehearsal. Dave and Joe are such terrific young men (and they MORE than proved themselves with the handling of their last-minute substitution on Matt’s song for the Conan show) that you will see their names linked with Matt’s again in the future. John and Steve are still The Matt Savage Trio as you all know and love them, but Matt needs to have sidemen on whom he can call last minute. And I think you all agree that Dave and Joe do a fantastic job.
Joe Saylor (drums), Matt Savage (piano) and Dave Robaire (bass) After dealing with the most critical task at hand (eating), the guys talked about the song they were going to perform together…Matt’s original tune, “Curacao.” The key to the performance of the tune was that the sound people at “Late Night” wanted a version very similar to the version on the CD…so Matt had to explain to the guys the “form” of the song and the specific time signature changes and interplays. I think they had about two minutes to discuss the song when they were called to the stage for sound check. They played the song through once. They discussed a few subtleties of the tune. They played the song a second time. Then the sound engineers said “Thank you very much. We are all set.” That was it. The guys expected to rehearse the song at least 3 or 4 times, but the sound check went so well that they had just two times to practice the tune. A little surprised but confident they had it, the guys headed back to the green room.
Matt and I then got a personal tour of the whole Conan show area and met with the producer, who spoke with Matt to find out things in which he was interested and get a sense of his personality. She is the one who comes up with lists of questions that might be asked by Conan for each guest, although what Conan will ask is not known in advance. The guest has an idea of the kind of questions that might be asked, but not told or “prepped”. They want spontaneous answers from the guests. But this “pre-interview” by the producer is nice, because it gets the guest relaxed and talkative. After that, it was time to head back to the room.
Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg and Matt Savage On the way back we saw an open door with “The Cats” listed on the nameplate. Sitting there on the couch were all the members of the Max Weinberg 7… Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg (trombone), Scott Healy (keyboard), Mike Merritt (bass guitar), Mark Pender (trumpet and acoustic guitar), Jimmy Vivino (guitar) and Jimmy's younger brother, Jerry Vivino (a variety of woodwind instruments). THAT was cool. They guys had heard Matt and his sidemen at sound check and were really impressed. They started talking jazz…musicians, songs, great tunes and albums to listen to, different versions of songs to play. They asked Matt about his favorite jazz musicians, and Matt started listing the “old guys”…Oscar Peterson, Art Tatum, Bill Evans, Thelonious Monk. The band members were REALLY excited that Matt was into the same kind of musicians as they…saying that he was definitely on target with his music appreciation. Not a lot of young jazz musicians today choose traditional (bebop/post bop) as their preferred style. But that’s what Matt likes best. He likes MANY forms of jazz, but that is how he describes his love…kind of bebop with modern influences. Matt was really into the discussion with the guys. When he is talking music, he is in his element. I just sat back and smiled, watching all the smiles across the faces of all the guys. We were told it was time for Matt to get on his performance clothes.
Matt and Mark Pender Heading on towards the green room, we bumped into our old friend, Max Weinberg, the leader of the Max Weinberg 7 (the band on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien” and the drummer for Bruce Springsteen). Max and Matt had performed together in Rhode Island as part of a benefit concert for The Wolf School in October of 2005. They chatted for a bit and then Matt left to get dressed.
Matt and Max Weinberg Suddenly the call was 5 minutes until the guys were supposed to head onstage. They sauntered through the stage doors while I waited outside with all the behind-the-scenes people. We got to watch everything from a large HDTV screen in the hall so we could see what was being taped by the cameramen. It was really cool. Here are some photos of the interview portion of the show.
After the show was over and everyone was done congratulating Matt, I asked if I could meet Conan. He came out and was VERY kind and said what a thrill it was to have Matt on the show. I asked if I could take a photo of the guys, which you see here.
Conan said he looked forward to having Matt come back and play again. Matt said he’d LOVE to return. We send ALL of our thanks to everyone who made possible our visit to NY and Matt’s appearance on “Late Night with Conan O’Brien.” And, yes, thanks also to Conan, who is a very charismatic person in real life. |
