The Strike Force Five wasn’t the only reunion on Monday night’s Late Show with Stephen Colbert.
Over in the bandstand, three members of the show’s original house band—Ibanda Ruhumbika, Eddie Barbash, and Maddie Rice—were back in the mix with Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine. Viewers only got a few fleeting on-camera glimpses of the trio, but Stephen Colbert made sure to call them out at the top of the show’s second act.
“Louis, you do not warn me in rehearsal today that not only would I be facing the Joy Machine but I would also be facing Ibanda Ruhumbika, Eddie Barbash, and Maddie Rice, original members of the band,” Colbert said. “Thank you so much for being here.”
Ruhumbika and Barbash’s history with the group predates Colbert’s Late Show. Both were part of Stay Human, the Jon Batiste-led band that had been performing for years before Colbert brought them with him to CBS in 2015. Barbash played alto saxophone with the show’s band during its first season, while Ruhumbika, on tuba and trombone, remained with the group through 2018.
Rice, meanwhile, joined the band when The Late Show with Stephen Colbert premiered in September 2015, quickly becoming one of the ensemble’s most recognizable on-camera members before departing in 2020. She has since become a fixture in the Saturday Night Live Band.
The mini-reunion comes as The Late Show is nearing the end of its run, giving Monday’s appearance an extra jolt of nostalgia. The band itself has gone through multiple identities over the years: first as Jon Batiste and Stay Human, then as Louis Cato and The Late Show Band after Batiste’s 2022 departure, and most recently as Louis Cato and the Great Big Joy Machine.
It wasn’t immediately clear whether the trio’s return was a one-night-only affair, or if we’ll be seeing more of them over the next two weeks as the show counts down to its May 21 finale. But an Instagram post from the Great Big Joy Machine seemed to suggest it was a one-off, thanking the three “OG members” for “coming through the Ed Sullivan one more time.”
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