Interview: Paul Shaffer of PALACE 100: THE GENIUS OF RAY CHARLES at Palace Theatre

Former LATE NIGHT WITH David Letterman bandleader Paul Shaffer made quite a first impression on Ray Charles the first time they played together.

And that was not a good thing.

“I was a nervous wreck,” Shaffer said in a telephone interview. “I was in my 20s and just getting started. I kept thinking about my dad (a huge jazz fan) and I thought, ‘What a position to be in.’

“I froze. Charles stopped the whole rehearsal and said, ‘There was supposed to be a solo there.’ I was like, ‘Oh my God.’

“Finally, (tuba player) Howard Johnson spoke up for me. He said, ‘Ray, cut it out. He’s got it.’ I got to work with him many times after that and played with him a number of times on Letterman, but I would remind him of that time. It ended in a positive way but that was devastating for a while.”

Shaffer will host the Palace 100: The Genius of Ray Charles concert at 7:30 p.m. Nov. 14 at the Palace Theatre. The concert is in conjunction with the 100th anniversary celebration of the Palace Theatre.

Producer Gregg Field, a Grammy Award-winning drummer who performed alongside Charles, has assembled an extraordinary cast for the show. Grammy-winning vocalists Patti Austin and Lisa Fischer join Aloe Blacc, Blessing Offor, and Monica Mancini to perform selections from Charles’ massive songbook.

Grammy-nominated conductor Chris Walden, lead arranger for the Academy Awards, will lead an orchestra featuring Grammy-winning composer and keyboardist Matt Rollings (Mark Knopfler), Columbus Hammond organ legend and frequent Ray Charles band member Bobby Floyd, guitarist Dean Parks (Steely Dan), bassist Nathan East (Luther Vandross, Eric Clapton, Phil Collins), and saxophonist Tom Scott. Musicians from the Columbus Symphony, Columbus Jazz, and the Ohio State School of Music will also perform.

“I’m really looking forward to it,” Shaffer said. “I don’t think I’ve been to Columbus, but I’ve heard so much about this theatre.”

While Shaffer may have never played in the city, residents should be familiar with his work. He is best known for his collaboration with David Letterman, serving as the leader of the former talk show host’s house band for 33 years.

Those who go to bed before 10 p.m. might know Shaffer from his work on The Weather Girls’ “It’s Raining Men” (which he co-wrote), Scandal’s “Goodbye to You,” or from Robert Plant’s side project The Honeydrippers. He was also the musical director and producer for every Rock and Roll Hall of Fame induction ceremony since 1986 as well as the 1996 Summer Olympics closing ceremony.

Non-music fans might remember Shaffer from roles as Artie Fufkin in the two SPINAL TAP movies, Hermes in Disney’s animated movie HERCULES or cameos in movies like BLUE BROTHERS 2000 and LOOK WHO’S TALKING and TV shows LAW & ORDER: CRIMINAL INTENT, HOW I MET YOUR MOTHER and SCHITT’S CREEK. Fun fact: Shaffer was considered for the role of George Costanza on SEINFELD, but he wasn’t interested.

Yet Shaffer is most proud of the six seconds he appeared in the Bill Murray Christmas classic SCROOGED. Murray’s character Francis X. Cross interrupts Shaffer and jazz legends Miles Davis, David Sanborn, and Larry Carlton’s version of “We Three Kings” with a terse “Great, rip off the hicks, why don’t you? Did you learn this song yesterday?” The foursome recorded a six-minute version of “We Three Kings” for the soundtrack the night before, an experience the bandleader still treasures.

“What an honor,” Shaffer said. “It was a million-dollar music lesson for me to watch Miles in a recording studio.”

Shaffer has played with a who’s who of rock legends including Mick Jagger, David Bowie, and James Taylor. Yet playing with the musicians his dad Bernard admired still gives him chills.

“My dad was a lawyer up in northern Canada and Sunday was his day to relax,” he said. “His vinyl would come out, and I’d hear great jazz vocalists like Billy Eckstine, Sarah Vaughan, and Ray Charles.”

Shaffer said his mom Shirley’s musical tastes leaned more toward Ethel Merman and Mary Martin than Ray Charles. Shaffer reached the top of that field too. In 1972, Stephen Schwartz invited Shaffer to be the musical director for the Toronto production of GODSPELL.

“On the surface they wanted me to have a ‘steady job,’ but both of my parents were secretly thrilled I went into show business,” Shaffer said.

Although he played in a band in high school, Shaffer went to the University of Toronto to pursue a degree in sociology. (“I think that’s what you do when you don’t know what you want to do with your life,” he said.)

Once he was separated from music, Shaffer fell into a deep depression. During his freshman year, he constantly felt fatigued. On the rare occasions he made it to his 9 a.m. class, he came right back to the dorm and went back to bed.

What pulled Shaffer out of his nosedive was a chance meeting with jazz guitarist Tisziji Muñoz the summer before his sophomore year. The two began playing together and soon Shaffer’s mental fog lifted because he had a creative outlet.

Shaffer’s parents weren’t overjoyed when he told them he decided to drop out of school and pursue his dream of playing music.

“I made a deal with my parents: ‘Let me see what happens in a year. If I'm starving in a year, I'll go back to school,’” he said. “By the end of that year, I was offered the job with GODSPELL.”

GODSPELL was a pivotal moment for the musician, not only occupationally but also psychologically.  The musical featured Gilda Radner, who would go on to become one of the original Not Ready for Primetime Players on SATURDAY NIGHT LIVE, as well as Martin Short, Eugene Levy, and Dave Thomas, who later starred together on SECOND CITY TELEVISION.

The cast helped Shaffer break out of his emotional shell and improvise.

“When I started out, I was a very shy kid from northern Canada,” Shaffer said. “Suddenly I’m in a company with all these funny people and they seemed to be having more than I was. I said to myself, ‘I want to be a little more like that.’”

Three years after GODSPELL, that quiet kid from Canada was playing keyboards with Murray’s Nick the Lounge Singer sketch on SNL and later he was the one cracking wise with Letterman.

“For Letterman, I had to develop a personality,” he said with a chuckle. “I learned to improvise. I’d talk a little bit with Dave, which was really all ad lib stuff.”

However, Shaffer’s job as a musician is to make someone else look good and sound even better. The key to doing that is doing your homework on the musician you’re playing with and listening to the words of Ray Charles.

“The main thing is you have to treat performers like the star they are, even if they're way down to earth,” he said. “When you're doing their music, you’ve got to respect it.

“I read an interview with Ray and one thing he said was so great: ‘Every music has its own beauty, no matter what style it is.’ He was basically saying, ‘Don't try to hip it up. Just do it the way it deserves to be done.’”

And that will be Shaffer’s mission when he comes to Columbus.