A mainstay in the arena of televised musical direction, Paul Shaffer has influenced the sound of a generation. From his early days orchestrating the band on Saturday Night Live to his more than 30 years as musical director for David Letterman, Shaffer has had a hand in the sounds and songs that peppered the landscape of late night television. Still behind the keyboard, he now spearheads The World’s Most Dangerous Band, the group of musicians who formed from the CBS Orchestra and from some of his many other professional endeavors. Solid and powerful, this group of accomplished musicians brings a gravitas to their shows that cannot be denied.

Paul Shaffer
From Saturday Night Live to The Late Show with David Letterman, Canadian-American singer, actor, voice actor, author, comedian and multi-instrumentalist Paul Shaffer remains as keyboardist and heart-beat of The World’s Most Dangerous Band, the select group of accomplished musicians and friends who once made up the CBS Orchestra from the David Letterman days. Shaffer, a Grammy Award winner, served as David Letterman’s musical director, bandleader and sidekick on the entire run of both Late Night with David Letterman (1982–1993) and Late Show with David Letterman (1993–2015), as well as serving as musical director in the early days of Saturday Night Live (1975). He occasionally teamed up with the Not Ready for Prime-Time Players off the show as well, working on Gilda Radner’s highly successful Broadway show and acting as the musical director for John Belushi and Dan Aykroyd during the recording and performing as The Blues Brothers.

While the membership of The World’s Most Dangerous Band has been fairly fluid over the years, its current configuration boasts Shaffer on keyboards, Anton Fig on drums, Felicia Collins on guitar, Sid McGinnis on guitar, Tom “Bones” Malone on trombone, trumpet, sax and piccolo, Will Lee on bass guitar, Aaron Heick on saxophone and Frank Greene on trumpet.

Valerie Simpson
Valerie Simpson is half of the songwriting/performing/producing entity formerly known as Ashford and Simpson. Their award-winning collaborations began four decades ago and she, along with her late husband Nick Ashford, have penned classic hits such as, “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough,” “You’re All I Need to Get By,” “Reach Out and Touch Somebody’s Hand,” “I’m Every Woman,” “Ain’t Nothing Like the Real Thing” and many others.

June 29, 2017 – 8:00pm
Ticket price(s):$62.50 Platinum, $57.50 Gold, $52.50 Silver, $45.50 Bronze

Kresge Auditorium

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