Paul Shaffer on the set of the “Late Show with David Letterman” in 2001. (John Paul Filo\/CBS via Getty Images)<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
For more than 30 years, Shaffer served as David Letterman’s sidekick, musical director and band leader on his two late-night\u00a0television shows. Since Letterman’s first show aired on NBC\u00a0in 1982, Shaffer has been known for his sparkling suits and quirky sunglasses, and for backing some of the biggest musicians in the world, including Miles Davis, Carole King and Steve Winwood.<\/p>\n
But now, on a steamy late spring evening, Shaffer has an audience of one as he sits down at an old Hammond organ near a window.\u00a0The instrument once belonged to the late James Brown, Shaffer said, and he picked it up years ago at an auction.<\/p>\n
Shaffer turns on the\u00a0large multi-tiered organ, lets it warm up and starts playing a walking bass line on the bass pedals.<\/p>\n
\u201cI used to stay away from [the bass pedals], I was too afraid of them,\u201d he said with a smile. \u201cNow I\u2019m getting to the point where I really want to play them all the time.\u201d<\/p>\n
Time is something Shaffer, 67, has had since\u00a0Letterman retired in 2015.<\/p>\n
\u201cI thought, let\u2019s take a break and enjoy a few things other than show business,” he told JTA. “I guess I don\u2019t have the depth for that because I just got bored right away \u2014 and depressed.\u201d<\/p>\n
So Shaffer soon found himself in a recording studio with his “Late Show” band. An album, “Paul Shaffer and The World\u2019s Most Dangerous Band,\u201d was released in March, and features an array of guest vocalists, including\u00a0Bill Murray (yes, that Bill Murray).<\/p>\n
Shaffer is currently in the middle of a short tour \u2014 something he hasn’t done since 1980, when he played\u00a0with the Blues Brothers band led by Dan Aykroyd and the late John Belushi, whose songs he helped arrange.<\/p>\n
He has just returned from a gig at the Ryman Auditorium in Nashville (\u201cthe church of country music,\u201d as he calls it), and he will play some dates across the Midwest and in Beverly Hills later this month.<\/p>\n
The new record, which consists mostly of covers of R&B classics, is something of a return to his roots. A nice Jewish boy from Thunder Bay, Ontario, Shaffer recalled how his father \u2014 a lawyer he describes as “conservative” but “hip\u201d \u2014 played Sam Cooke and Ray Charles around the house.<\/p>\n
The Shaffers were among some 40 Jewish families in a Lake Superior town, and the only synagogue was Orthodox. So Shaffer had an Orthodox bar mitzvah and learned to love Orthodox services, which he says he still attends from time to time at\u00a0a synagogue in Manhattan. He brought up his daughter and son Jewish in the New York City suburbs of Westchester County; his son also had an Orthodox bar mitzvah.<\/p>\n
Far from having the stereotypical dreams of “my son, the doctor,” Shaffer said\u00a0his parents \u201csecretly\u201d wanted him to succeed in music.<\/p>\n
\u201cThere was the Jewish attitude of, \u2018That kid is going to play the piano if I have to break every one of his fingers,'” he recalled. “I was going to be musical, I had that kind of Jewish mother.”<\/p>\n
Shaffer didn\u2019t hide his Jewish identity as he rose through the ranks of show business. His career began in earnest in 1972 when he was the musical director of the Toronto production of the hit rock musical \u201cGodspell” — its impressive cast included Victor Garber, Gilda Radner, Eugene Levy and Martin Short.<\/p>\n
Shaffer\u00a0then played in the original \u201cSaturday Night Live\u201d band before becoming the music director on the Letterman shows \u2014\u201cLate Night\u201d on NBC and then \u201cThe Late Show\u201d on CBS. A New York magazine article<\/a> from 1986 described him as a \u201cmusician, comic, celebrity, fan, workaholic, hipster and ethical Jew\u201d who seems \u201cequally comfortable at a rock concert or a cocktail lounge, at a comedy club or a seder.\u201d<\/p>\n<\/div>\n
Shaffer, in what New York magazine called one of the city’s “most bizarre rituals,” hosted what became known as the “Paul Shaffer Celebrity Seder” for the cast and crew of \u201cSaturday Night Live” during the show’s early years. One year, Shaffer recalled, Murray showed up with his mother and brother. Another year Eddie Fisher, there with his daughter Carrie and her eventual husband, Paul Simon, sang \u201cMy Yiddishe Mama.\u201d<\/p>\n
\u201cI have to confess I broke halachic rules and accompanied [Fisher]\u00a0on the piano,\u201d Shaffer said.<\/p>\n
Shaffer said he and Letterman remain in touch. In fact, the comedian\u00a0showed up at a Chabad fundraiser dinner a few months ago to present Shaffer with an award.<\/p>\n
These days, Letterman sports a long, bushy Hasidic-style beard \u2014 and it didn\u2019t go unnoticed by the guests.<\/p>\n
\u201cHis opening sentence was, \u2018I can\u2019t tell you, ladies and gentlemen, how many people have approached me tonight and said, rabbi what time is sundown?\u2019\u201d Shaffer recalled. \u201cAt the end they presented him with a black hat.\u201d<\/p>\n
What\u2019s next for Shaffer after the tour?<\/p>\n
He’s not sure yet, but at least one thing is clear: His organ practice will continue.<\/p>\n
With his hands moving swiftly\u00a0around the keys and his feet hitting the bass pedals, Shaffer sounds like an eager piano student all over again.<\/p>\n
\u201cI\u2019m trying to get to the point \u2014 and I\u2019m achieving it, too \u2014 where it\u2019s just natural,\u201d\u00a0he said.<\/p>\n
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