Late night musician and funnyman returns with a star-studded solo album
To say Paul Shaffer gets around is an understatement. Best known for his 33-year association with David Letterman in the role of friend/musical director/first banana, the 67-year-old pianist has enough experience under his belt to serve as the lives of three or four other people. He was house band member for the initial five-year run of Saturday Night Live’s original Not Ready for Prime-Time Players from 1975 to 1980, was part of the inner circle of a number of comedic legends (Martin Short, Gilda Radner, Victor Garber, Eugene Levy, Dave Thomas and Andrea Martin), was offered the role of George Costanza on Seinfeld and can be heard pounding out the distinctive synthesizer solo at the heart of the 1982 Scandal hit “Goodbye to You.” The affable Canadian musician’s connection for most people is via Letterman, so when the talk show host walked away from the late night world in 2015, Shaffer suddenly found himself with lots of time on his hands.
