Max Weinberg Seven
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The Max Weinberg Seven is the house band for the Late Night with Conan O'Brien television program. The band is led by drummer Max Weinberg and also features Jimmy Vivino on guitar, Richie "La Bamba" Rosenberg on trombone, Scott Healy playing keyboard, Mike Merritt on bass guitar, Mark Pender playing trumpet and acoustic guitar, and Jimmy's younger brother Jerry Vivino playing a variety of woodwind instruments. The band also occasionally features James Wormworth filling in for Weinberg on the drums.
After a chance meeting in 1993, Conan O'Brien agreed to give Weinberg an audition as bandleader for his forthcoming show. Weinberg had been a member of the E Street Band since 1974, and was now looking for work since Bruce Springsteen had stopped using the band and a try at law school had failed. Weinberg quickly put together The Max Weinberg Seven, recruiting musicians he had worked with during his career, and got the job.
Rosenberg and Pender had played with The Miami Horns, and had a long joint history with Weinberg from touring or recording together with Springsteen, Southside Johnny, Little Steven, Gary U.S. Bonds, and Darlene Love. In the early 1990s Weinberg and Pender were also in a band together called Killer Joe, which also featured Jimmy and Jerry Vivino. The Vivino brothers were experienced New York session musicians and had been members of various Broadway pit bands. They recruited the final two members of the band, Healy and Merritt, who had played together in various bands such as Jimmy Vivino & The Black Italians and The Vivino Brothers Band. Fill-in James Wormworth also came from those bands.
Members of the Max Weinberg Seven often participate in skits on the show, particularly fedoraed La Bamba—who rarely speaks on air and is often the punchline of O'Brien's jokes—and bald, bespectacled Mark Pender, who will often sing a tribute to one of the show's guests only to invariably launch into hysterical shrieking as he climbs the scaffolding of the theater's seating area. Max is often involved in short, awkward, and humorous banter with host Conan O'Brien.
The band has also performed a "scat" vocal only intro, all on the respective intruments they each play. The piece was enjoyed by the audience as part of a skit displaying budget cuts due to NBC's falling to 4th place in the ratings.
External link
- [The Max Weinberg Seven biographies] at NBC
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