It’s 4:00 in the afternoon, and the set of Late Night With David Letterman is crowded with people. Cameramen are setting up shots, electricians are adjusting lights, stagehands are moving things around, various assistants are checking innumerable details, and Steve Jordan is working with the sound engineer, trying to get the rented Simmons drums to sound right before Herbie Hancock arrives to rehearse with the Late Night house band. Nearby, bassist Will Lee is listening to something on a Walkman, his body moving in time to whatever it is he’s listening to. (It turns out to be a tape of the song that the band is going to play with Hancock.) Jordan is slightly bugged. “I don’t know, man. I had the sounds worked out at home on an SDS5, but this thing [an SDS7] is different.” Suddenly, they find the sound they’ve been looking for, and Jordan relaxes as […]

June 1985 Issue