Conan O’Brien’s former bandleader is returning to late night for a one-night stint on Jimmy Kimmel Live!.
Jimmy Vivino will sit in with Jimmy Kimmel’s house band, Cleto and the Cletones, next Tuesday.
Vivino’s run in late-night began as a member of the Late Night with Conan O’Brien house band, The Max Weinberg 7, going back to the show’s very beginning in 1993. He continued in that capacity on The Tonight Show with Conan O’Brien when the band became The Tonight Show Band, filling in as bandleader when Max Weinberg was out on tour. When O’Brien launched TBS’ Conan in 2010, Vivino became the permanent bandleader of what was then renamed The Basic Cable Band—a position he held through 2018, when the show eliminated the band in its shift to a half-hour format.
The guitarist, keyboardist, and singer released a new record, Gonna Be 2 of Those Days, on Gulf Coast Records in February. He’s been active touring in support of it since, both solo and as a special guest on select dates of Bill Murray’s “Bill Murray and His Blood Brothers” Tour.
Vivino isn’t the first former late-night bandleader to return to drop-in with Cleto and the Cletones. In 2017, Paul Shaffer joined the band for the mini-residency while Kimmel was producing a week of shows in New York. (Shaffer filled in for The Roots on The Tonight Show earlier this year, promping David Letterman to make a surprise appearance himself.)
Vivino’s appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live! airs Tuesday, April 8.
