The Max Weinberg 7 was bandleader from 1993 to 2010.
Max Weinberg was the drummer for
Bruce Springsteen as a member of the
E Street Band until its dissolution in 1989. Weinberg returned to college to finish his communications degree and contemplated law school, but soon desired to resume drumming. He auditioned to be the principal drummer for the Broadway show
Tommy, but was selected as the second substitute. That night, Weinberg had a chance sidewalk meeting outside the
Carnegie Deli with newly selected
Late Night host
Conan O'Brien, where Weinberg spoke about his ideas for music on the show. O'Brien agreed to give Weinberg an audition as
bandleader for his forthcoming show. Weinberg quickly put together The Max Weinberg 7, recruiting musicians he had worked with during his career, and got the job. Rosenberg and Pender had played with
The Miami Horns, and had a long joint history with Weinberg from touring or recording together with Springsteen,
Southside Johnny,
Little Steven,
Gary U.S. Bonds, and
Darlene Love. In the early 1990s Weinberg and Pender were also in a band together called Killer Joe, which also featured Jimmy and Jerry Vivino. The Vivino brothers were experienced
New York session musicians and had been members of various
Broadway pit bands. They recruited the final two members of the band, Healy and Merritt, who had played together in various bands such as Jimmy Vivino & The Black Italians and The Vivino Brothers Band. Fill-in James Wormworth was also a member of the Vivino bands, but was initially left out of the ensemble because there was no need for two drummers. Jimmy Vivino and Weinberg reworked the
Late Night theme into a "less manic"
The Tonight Show theme. The backdrop used for the bandstand depicts the
Empire State Building and the
Chrysler Building set within a Los Angeles skyline, in recognition of the
Late Night roots.
The Legally Prohibited Band In April 2010, Conan O'Brien began his
The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour. While the rest of the group was part of the tour under the moniker The Legally Prohibited Band, Weinberg was not, though he did appear at the tour's New York stop. Weinberg later revealed that he had undergone complex open
heart valve repair surgery two weeks after the conclusion of
The Tonight Show and had taken three months to recover from it.
Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Band was bandleader from 2010 until the group disbanded in 2018. In September 2010, Vivino told an interviewer for the
St. Louis Riverfront Times that Weinberg would not be part of the new late night show on
TBS, now named
Conan. Jimmy Vivino was now the leader of the band, with Wormworth full-time on drums, and the band was firmly ensconced in Los Angeles as a base. Both looked forward to Weinberg occasionally stopping by to sit in on the new show. Weinberg made a cameo appearance in a monologue bit on the October 28, 2014 episode of
Conan, briefly "filling in" on drums for regular drummer Wormworth, who had "gone missing" in the middle of the episode. On October 4, 2018, with the announcement of the show’s switch to a half-hour format, it was announced that The Basic Cable Band would no longer appear regularly on the program. Members did reunite for four special episodes at
San Diego Comic-Con in July 2019, and for the show's final eight episodes (as Jimmy Vivino and the Basic Cable Four) in June 2021. ==Discography==