Paul Shaffer says that jamming with James Brown was the highlight of his career

By Steve Newton

Sometimes it’s the little things in life that matter. Or the stories behind them.

Like Paul Shaffer’s barely noticeable appearance in the 1988 Christmas comedy Scrooged. At one point in the film Shaffer is seen performing in a New York City street band, playing keyboards along with saxophonist David Sanborn, guitarist Larry Carlton, and trumpet legend Miles Davis. The quartet is shown briefly playing a bit of “We Three Kings of Orient Are” as Bill Murray’s selfish, Scrooge-like character blusters by, insulting them as he goes.

“Only about six seconds of it appeared in the movie,” recounts Shaffer from his home in the Big Apple, “but we’d gotten to do a whole six-minute version of it in the studio, a couple of nights before we shot it, and boy was that a thrill. Because Miles just, in a most wonderful way, took over and arranged it in his style, and it was like a million-dollar music lesson for me, watching him work. He was very supportive of me and he knew I was not really well-versed in his style of music, but I sure learned a lot that evening.”

The Toronto-born Shaffer has a million such memories from his fabled career. Many of them can be found in his 2009 memoir, We’ll Be Here for the Rest of Our Lives: A Swingin’ Showbiz Saga. As for where it all started, the 72-year-old’s earliest recollection of music involve his mom playing piano at home.

“They always had music in the house, purposely, for my sake,” says Shaffer on the phone from his Big Apple home. “Classical music, and Broadway music, and my dad loved the great jazz singers: Sarah Vaughan, Billy Eckstein. And I remember being underneath the piano when my mother was playing. Then when I turned six that was when my mom said, ‘Now’s the time to start lessons.’ My parents were the type that said, ‘That kid is going to play the piano if it’s the last thing he does.’

“So I started lessons, but as soon as I had one lesson I started figuring out stuff that I could play by ear. I noticed that you could play ‘William Tell Overture’ all on black keys–[and] just one white key. So right after my first lesson it started to make sense. And I didn’t realize that my love of music had begun, but I was just sort of drawn to it. And then when I heard rock ‘n’ roll obviously that was it.”

Rather surprisingly, the historic Stateside arrival of those four lads from Liverpool wasn’t what first inspired Shaffer to pursue a career in music.

“So many people, especially here in the States–professional musicians, friends of mine, and older guys too–say, ‘I became a musician when I saw the Beatles on Ed Sullivan.’ But we Canadians, I think…I don’t know, we knew about the Brits, we were used to them. We loved American music; at least that was my feeling. I loved American music.

“The Four Seasons–I was still reeling from their appearance [on Ed Sullivan] when the Beatles came on. It took me a minute to get the Beatles, to tell you the truth. But I loved Jackie Wilson; I loved ‘A Hundred Pounds of Clay’ by Gene McDaniels. And R&B attracted me very early, I don’t know why.”

Most people know Paul Shaffer best from his lengthy stint as bandleader and musical director for David Letterman’s talk shows, Late Night with David Letterman (which ran from 1982 to 1993 on NBC) and Late Show with David Letterman (1993 to 2015 on CBS). The day before our chat was actually the 40th anniversary of his first show with Letterman, which he says was an honour and a privilege to do for 33 years, but also–especially for its final decade–quite exhausting. He points to the performance by James Brown in the show’s early days as the biggest musical highlight for him.

“He was one of the first guys to do it,” he recalls. “He heard me playing his music with my band, going in and out of commercials, and his agent called and said he wants to come on and do it. And I never thought I’d be playing with James Brown, you know, he was my absolute idol since I saw him in something called The T.A.M.I. Show–the initials stood for something that nobody even knew.

“It was his first performance in front of a mass audience,” Shaffer adds, “and I never got over it. Me and my band, all four of us, were on top of the world for months after that.”

Late-night TV watchers may also remember Shaffer for his pre-Letterman days with Saturday Night Live. One of the recurring skits he was involved with in the ’70s was Nick the Lounge Singer, featuring future Scrooged star Murray.

“I was part of a group of writers who would put this together every time he did it, Billy leading the way of course. This group included Danny Aykroyd, who appeared in almost every one of those scenes, usually as a sort of a caretaker if it was a ski lodge that Nick was performing in. Lots of laughter and lots of contributions, but Billy always picked the songs, ’cause he knew what was gonna be funny.”

Shaffer was still in his twenties when his fleet fingers started tinkling the ivories as a member of the SNL house band. But he isn’t concerned about any physical challenges that might come with performing as a septuagenarian.

“You know, Arthur Rubinstein played into his nineties,” he reasons. “It’s not the fingers, so to speak. As long as you practice–and I’ve been practicing, I’ll have you know. But certainly in a rock ‘n’ roll context, I get on stage thinking that I can just scream and dance like I always have, and it turns out I can–but only for 30 seconds.”

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