COLUMBIA — Starting Jan. 29, USC School of Music Assistant Professor of Jazz Studies Colleen Clark will sit down behind the drum kit and perform as part of the 8G Band, the house group for the hit NBC talk show "Late Night with Seth Meyers."
Clark will spend four nights total playing drums for the band, which rotates percussionists in and out. It’s certainly a thrilling opportunity, but Clark has been preparing for this her whole life.
Clark started playing drums before she was out of first grade, and over the years she’s been featured on many great jazz albums and showered with critical acclaim. She’s shared the stage with Branford Marsalis, Rodney Whitaker, Catherine Russell, Camille Thurman, Rudresh Mahanthappa and Mimi Jones, among others. She’s been featured in DOWNBEAT magazine, and she’s led her own ensemble at the Kennedy Center.
It’s not like she’s not prepared for her four nights behind the kit for the 8G Band, which is led by comedian and Meyer's fellow "Saturday Night Live" alum Fred Armisen. But she’s thrilled for the opportunity.
“It's exciting,” Clark said. “I'm not sure 100 percent what to expect, but I have had friends that have played on the show and said it was just an amazing, fun time. I think what I'm looking forward to is just that active collaboration and just working together and making music and just having fun.”
Seth Meyers, comedian and host of NBC's "Late Night with Seth Meyers."
Clark is appearing on "Late Night" thanks to one of the show’s producers, who happened upon her at the perfect moment.
The invitation came thanks in part to Clark’s invited drum set clinic for The Percussive Arts Society International Conference 2023 (PASIC) in Indianapolis last November. Eric Leiderman, a producer at "Late Night with Seth Meyers," saw Clark perform that PASIC weekend and extended an invitation.
In a sense, we’re lucky to see Clark strut her stuff on national television, because there was a point early on when things could have gone very differently.
One of Clark’s early instructors discouraged her from playing drums in favor of the flute, which the instructor saw as an instrument more suited for young girls. Clark’s father, a musician himself, put a stop to that quickly by telling the band director that Clark would start drum set lessons immediately. When the band director protested, her Dad promised him it would be worth giving her the chance to play the drums. The rest is history.
Fred Armisen, comedian and leader of Seth Meyers' 8G Band, arrives at the Saturday Night Live 40th Anniversary Special at Rockefeller Plaza on Sunday, Feb. 15, 2015, in New York. (Photo by Evan Agostini/Invision/AP)
It’s an incident that has stayed with Clark since her childhood, and it has motivated her to seek ways to bring more young girls into the world of jazz.
She founded “Jazz Girls Day,” a recurring event that invites girls to a day filled with learning, playing and performing. The idea behind Jazz Girls Day is not only to welcome girls to start or continue playing jazz, but also encourage music educators to provide opportunities for girls to play jazz.
And you’d better believe that Clark sees her appearances on "Late Night with Seth Meyers" as another way to encourage young girls, and children in general, to follow their dreams.
“The more people see us play our instruments, the better,” Clark said. “So the more people see me play my drum set, the more normal it’s going to become in their head. So yeah, 100 percent it's for every little kid to watch it and say, ‘Oh I can do that!’ But it's especially for girls because we see this drop off between high school and college where girls stop participating in jazz ensembles.”
As if to illustrate the point about how much representation matters, Clark connected one of her earliest memories to the fight she’s in now for female representation.
“I remember I walked into our local drum shop when I was a little kid, and they had a big poster of (drummer/percussionist) Sheila E,” Clark said. “And I asked my Dad, ‘Who's that?’ He said, ‘That’s Sheila E! That's one of the best drummers on the planet!’
"We need to be visible, so these girls can see themselves as being the next Sheila E.”
