Berklee Today: TV Realities

It's 2:00 p.m. on a Thursday afternoon, and Kevin Eubanks '79 and the eight-piece Tonight Show Band are holed up in a rehearsal room in the basement of the NBC television studio complex in Burbank, California. In a few hours, together with Leno and the show's guests, Eubanks and company will play their part in the taping of the latest episode of The Tonight Show with Jay Leno before a live studio audience for later broadcast to millions of TV viewers.

The night's guests will include Lindsay Lohan, star of the Disney film Herbie: Fully Loaded; Jeremy Piven, who plays Ari in the HBO series Entourage; and comedian Mo Rocca. The musical guest is the Backstreet Boys, who will perform on a soundstage outside the studio. Like a number of Leno's musical guests these days, the Backstreet Boys is a self-contained unit, so Eubanks and his crew won't play with them.

Read more about Kevin Eubanks '79 and the Tonight Show Band in Berklee Today.