By Dimitri Ehrlich
If you had a time machine, think of all the great musical scenes you could visit: Studio 54 in the summer of 1977. Liverpool in 1962. Or Seattle in the early ’90s. A musician’s musician might choose New York City during the heyday of late-night television, when a rotating cast of towering talents inhabited the studios where David Letterman, Conan O’Brien and Saturday Night Live held court. It wasn’t merely what happened on TV but the madness and magic that continued after hours, behind the scenes and in the jam sessions that took place when the cameras stopped rolling.
While there’s no going back in time, this summer 300 lucky ticket holders will squeeze into the sold-out Hilarie and Mitchell Morgan Theater (better known as Guild Hall), for two of the most sought-after musical events of this summer in the Hamptons. On July 19, former SNL bandleader G.E. Smith will be joined by Paul Shaffer (of David Letterman fame) and Louis Cato (band leader for The Late Show With Stephen Colbert). The second show, on August 23, will feature Smith and Jimmy Vivino (who led the band for Conan O’Brien) along with another special guest, as yet to be announced.
“I’m just an old bar band guitar player that got lucky,“ says Smith, “but I knew a lot of songs. And the first person I ever met that knew more songs than me was Paul Shaffer.” The two met while working on a Broadway play with Gilda Radner, and nearly overlapped at SNL—Shaffer was in the SNL house band from 1975 to 1980; Smith led it from ’85 to ’95. (Shaffer also once hosted SNL in 1987.)
“We were both amazingly lucky,” says Shaffer. “I had taken piano lessons, so I knew something about music, but I was not at the level of the players in the SNL band.”
Shaffer acknowledges there were some wild and crazy times, but says he and Smith were generally too busy working to really be up all night at parties. “I remember driving home in a taxi and thinking, ‘Oh, the Mudd Club, I should go check that out,’” he says. “But I never made it there. Because we were playing all the time. Certainly we ran into everybody and it was an era of wildness. I remember the Rolling Stones—a favorite band for both me and G.E.—partying nonstop when they got to SNL. By air time, they were drinking Wild Turkey and Keith Richards said, ‘I just call the company and say I’m Mick Jagger and they send cases of it.’ We were wild for sure, but we were also working hard and trying to deliver every time we played.”
That dedication to their musical craft and their extensive knowledge of popular music will be on display during the shows at Guild Hall, which will be a mix of performances as well as informal interviews about the creative process, during which the musicians will share anecdotes and memories and conversation. “The idea is kind of like if we were in our living room—we talk and we play,” says Smith.
The concept for the concerts, known as Portraits, came from Smith’s wife, Taylor Barton, who also produces the series, now in its 10th year. Previous guests have included Roger Waters, The Avett Brothers, Kevin Bacon and other celebrated storytellers, actors and musicians. In addition to music, audiences will be treated to unscripted stories of what it was like behind the scenes at Conan, Letterman and SNL, when being the band leader meant being a celebrity in your own right. guildhall.org