It was Adoration, an original ballad flecked with classical filigree, and he gave it a warmly dignified calm. He seemed unhurried and introspective, already pulling away from the frenetic clamor of the show. The moment played out like a curtain call, when an actor leaves his character in the wings and you think, So this is who he really is. Not that you actually know him any better.
Mr. Eubanks is being released into the wild as one of the most recognized jazz headliners in the country, and musically one of the least recognizable. To the extent that hes a household name, its as a comic foil and fail-safe, the guy with the grim duty of laughing at Mr. Lenos jokes (or being the brunt of them). Since he took the reins from the saxophonist Branford Marsalis, who never warmed to the role of sidekick during his three-year run, Mr. Eubanks has dismissed any suggestion that the show was an artistic drain.
But is it really possible to think otherwise? He joined the Tonight Show Band under Mr. Marsalis in 1992. His most recent album to receive widespread distribution, Live at Bradleys (Blue Note), was recorded in 1994. He has a steady group, with a lineup nearly identical to the members of the Tonight Show Band, but it tends to appear sporadically at the Baked Potato in Los Angeles. (Last year the group played the Blue Note in New York, but before that it had been ages.)
Ive missed his voice on the scene, said the bassist Dave Holland, who worked closely with Mr. Eubanks from the late 1980s through the mid-90s, and who currently employs two of his brothers, Robin, a trombonist, and Duane, a trumpeter. Im really looking forward to being able to hear him more and to see him more active again.
Mr. Eubanks, 52, has said that it was a desire to refocus on music, rather than any problem with Mr. Leno or NBC, that motivated his decision to leave the show. I want to play some music, and not just jazz, he told The Philadelphia Inquirer recently. Other genres too. Its weird but I dont consider myself just a jazz musician. (Mr. Eubanks did not respond to interview requests for this article.)
His resistance to pigeonholing is true to form, and to his own history. Growing up in Philadelphia, Mr. Eubanks played extensively in Top 40 and funk bands, even as he built a jazz career. A virtuoso who had synthesized jazz-rock, funk and the blues, he was well suited to the task of a late-night bandleader. Im just trying to take advantage of the fact that Im able to access a lot of different types of music genuinely, he told me in 1999.
