The Late Show Band is a band originally founded and led by

American American(s) may refer to: * American, something of, from, or related to the United States of America, commonly known as the "United States" or "America" ** Americans, citizens and nationals of the United States of America ** American ancestry, p ...

musician

Jon Batiste Jonathan Michael Batiste (born November 11, 1986) is an American singer, songwriter, musician, composer, bandleader, and television personality. He has recorded and performed with artists including Alicia Keys, Stevie Wonder, Prince (musician), ...

as Stay Human. They became the

house band A house band is a group of musicians, often centrally organized by a band leader, who regularly play at an establishment. It is widely used to refer both to the bands who work on entertainment programs on television or radio, and to bands which ...

for

Stephen Colbert Stephen Tyrone Colbert ( ; born May 13, 1964) is an American comedian, writer, producer, political commentator, actor, and television host. He is best known for hosting the satirical Comedy Central program ''The Colbert Report'' from 2005 to ...

late-night talk show A late-night talk show is a genre of talk show, originating in the American Media, United States. It is generally structured around humorous monologues about the day's news, guest interviews, comedy sketches and music performances. It is charact ...

The Late Show with Stephen Colbert ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert'' is an American late-night talk show, late-night news satire, news and liberal political satire talk show hosted by Stephen Colbert, which premiered on September 8, 2015. Produced by Stephen Colbert, Spartin ...

'' on September 8, 2015. When Batiste departed the show on August 12, 2022,

Louis Cato Louis Cato (born May 3, 1985) is the bandleader of the Late Show Band, the house band for ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert''. Cato is a singer, songwriter, producer, and multi-instrumentalist who plays bass, guitar, percussion, Brass instru ...

became the new bandleader and Stay Human was renamed The Late Show Band, a change that took effect on September 6, 2022.

History

Previous Late Show band

From 1993 to 2015, the band formerly known as

Paul Shaffer Paul Allen Wood Shaffer (born November 28, 1949) is a Canadian musician, actor, and comedian who served as David Letterman's musical director, bandleader, and sidekick on ''Late Night with David Letterman'' (1982–1993) and ''Late Show with D ...

and the

World's Most Dangerous Band Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band is an American musical ensemble led by Paul Shaffer. It was David Letterman's house band for 33 years. The band formed in 1982 to serve as house band for NBC's ''Late Night with David Letterman'' ...

served as the '' Late Show's'' house band under host

David Letterman David Michael Letterman (born April 12, 1947) is an American television host, comedian, writer, producer, and auto racing team owner. He hosted late-night television talk shows for 33 years, beginning with the February 1, 1982, debut of ''Late N ...

. During Letterman's tenure as host, the band used the name "CBS Orchestra."

Stay Human

Jon Batiste met fellow musicians Joe Saylor and Phil Kuehn in 2004 while attending

The Juilliard School The Juilliard School ( ) is a Private university, private performing arts music school, conservatory in New York City. Founded by Frank Damrosch as the Institute of Musical Art in 1905, the school later added dance and drama programs and became ...

. Batiste began performing in

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

in 2005 with Saylor and Kuehn as a trio with Kuehn on

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Wood * Bass or basswood, the wood of the tilia americana tree Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in th ...

and Saylor on

drums The drum is a member of the percussion instrument, percussion group of musical instruments. In the Hornbostel–Sachs classification system, it is a membranophones, membranophone. Drums consist of at least one Acoustic membrane, membrane, c ...

. They were joined by two more musicians: Eddie Barbash on

alto saxophone The alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments. Saxophones were invented by Belgians, Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in the 1840s and patented in 1846. The alto saxophone is pitched in the key of E♭ ( ...

and Ibanda Ruhumbika on

tuba The tuba (; ) is the largest and lowest-pitched musical instrument in the brass instrument, brass family. As with all brass instruments, the sound is produced by lip vibrationa buzzinto a mouthpiece (brass), mouthpiece. It first appeared in th ...

. They then became known as Stay Human. In 2013, they released their first full-length album, ''Social Music'', through

Razor & Tie Razor & Tie was an American entertainment company that consisted of a record label and a music publishing company. It was established in 1990 by Craig Balsam and Cliff Chenfeld. Based in New York City (with additional offices in Los Angeles and ...

along with the single "Express Yourself," co-written and produced with

Austin Bis Austin Bisnow (born June 9, 1987), is an American musician, songwriter, record producer, and lead singer of the alt band Magic Giant and co-lead singer of the indie folk duo Somewhere In Between. He has written and produced songs for artists su ...

. On June 4, 2015,

announced on his

YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...

channel that Stay Human and its bandleader would be the house band for ''The Late Show with Stephen Colbert''. Batiste and Stay Human's "stirring"

2014 The year 2014 was marked by the surge of the Western African Ebola epidemic, West African Ebola epidemic, which began in 2013, becoming the List of Ebola outbreaks, most widespread outbreak of the Ebola, Ebola virus in human history, resul ...

performance of "Express Yourself" on Colbert's previous TV show, ''

The Colbert Report ''The Colbert Report'' ( ) is an American late night television, late-night Late-night talk show, talk and news satire television program hosted by Stephen Colbert that aired four days a week on Comedy Central from October 17, 2005, to December ...

'', was the basis for Colbert's decision to name Batiste as bandleader on ''The Late Show''. At this time Batiste also invited multi-instrumentalist Louis Cato to join the band. In February 2016, the band released an album entitled ''The Late Show EP''. On April 22, 2017, Batiste and Stay Human played for the

March for Science The March for Science (formerly known as the Scientists' March on Washington) was an international series of rallies and marches held on Earth Day. The inaugural march was held on April 22, 2017, in Washington, D.C., and more than 600 other cit ...

rally at the Washington Monument in Washington, D.C. In the mission statement for the March for Science it states, "The March for Science champions robustly funded and publicly communicated science as a pillar of human freedom and prosperity." During the

COVID-19 pandemic The COVID-19 pandemic (also known as the coronavirus pandemic and COVID pandemic), caused by severe acute respiratory syndrome coronavirus 2 (SARS-CoV-2), began with an disease outbreak, outbreak of COVID-19 in Wuhan, China, in December ...

in 2020–2021, the band was introduced as "Jon Batiste and Stay Home-in", as they recorded their musical segments from home. On August 12, 2022, Stephen Colbert announced that Jon Batiste was leaving ''The Late Show'' to focus on his solo career. The band was renamed ''The Late Show Band'', with Cato promoted to band leader. The change took effect on September 6.

Members

(electric and acoustic guitar, banjo, bass, drums, percussion, trombone, tuba, vocals) * Joe Saylor (drums, vocals) * Nêgah Santos (percussion, vocals) * Louis Fouché (saxophone, vocals) * Endea Owens (bass, vocals) * Jon Lampley (trumpet, tuba, vocals) * Corey Bernhard (keyboards) * Eli Janney (piano, keyboards) *

Fred Wesley Fred Wesley (born July 4, 1943) is an American trombonist who worked with James Brown in the 1960s and 1970s, and Parliament-Funkadelic in the second half of the 1970s. Biography Wesley was born the son of a high school teacher and big band le ...

(trombone)

Former members

(piano,

melodica The melodica is a handheld free-reed instrument similar to a pump organ or harmonica. It features a musical keyboard on top, and is played by blowing air through a mouthpiece that fits into a hole in the side of the instrument. The keyboard usu ...

, vocals) 2015—2022 * Eddie Barbash (alto saxophone) 2015—2016 *

Grace Kelly Grace Patricia Kelly (November 12, 1929 – September 14, 1982), also known as Grace of Monaco, was an American actress and Princess of Monaco as the wife of Prince Rainier III from their marriage on April 18, 1956, until her death in 1982. ...

(saxophonist) 2015—2016 * Phil Kuehn (bass) guest * Maddie Rice (electric and acoustic guitar), 2015—2020, now with the

Saturday Night Live Band The Saturday Night Live Band (referred to in the closing credits as The Live Band) is the house band of the NBC television program ''Saturday Night Live'' (''SNL''). Role on ''Saturday Night Live'' The band consists of mostly jazz, R&B, and ...

. * Ibanda Ruhumbika (tuba, trombone) *

Michael Thurber Michael Thurber is an American composer, songwriter, bassist and actor. He is a co-founder of CDZA, a YouTube music collective that performed at the YouTube Music Awards in 2013. Thurber has composed scores for theater productions such as ''Anton ...

(bass) 2015—2016

References

External Links

* * {{DEFAULTSORT:Late Show Band American rhythm and blues musical groups Radio and television house bands Musical groups established in 2004 The Late Show with Stephen Colbert