\t\t\t\t\t\t<\/p><\/div>\n<\/p><\/div> \t\t\t\t\tJeff Babko and Cleto Escobedo III<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tCourtesy of Jeff Babko<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tAnd Cleto Jr. was in that band. Singing, playing sax. We really bonded there. One night after a gig, we all ended up at Jerry\u2019s Famous Deli in Studio City. Cleto was holding court with the backup singers, telling horrible stories about his ex-girlfriend, animated and loose and hilarious. And I remember thinking, How do I not know this guy?<\/em> He liked the way I played, especially the wah-wah pedal I used on keyboards. We kind of found each other right away \u2014 instant click. We became inseparable from that Jerry\u2019s Deli moment.<\/p>\n \n\tWe started doing everyday life together \u2014 cotton commercial auditions with the whole 13-piece band shoved into a tiny casting office (the band didn\u2019t get the spot, but the overweight trumpet player did, which we thought was hilarious). We were broke together. If one of us needed $100 to get through the weekend, whoever had it loaned it. We ended up in the same apartment building \u2014 he was downstairs, I was upstairs. We hung out constantly. We built a little act at Caf\u00e9 Cordiale on Ventura Blvd. in Sherman Oaks, playing twice a month for six years. He was too humble to make a fool of himself onstage, and I had no problem doing that for both of us. That little band became the nucleus of the Cletones.<\/p>\n \n\tBy the early 2000s, our Cordiale gig had become a kind of valley sensation \u2014 part middle-aged pickup joint, part musicians hang, and absolutely packed. Rumor was Jimmy Kimmel was going to get his own show after The Man Show <\/em>ended. One night Jimmy came in with [executive] Lloyd Braun from ABC. We did our act \u2014 R&B, Stevie Wonder, Rufus, some bizarre Borscht Belt rock-and-roll humor. Lloyd stayed for three songs, smiled, left. Next thing we knew, we had a gig. This was late 2002.<\/p>\n \t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<\/h2>\n<\/section>\n \n\tCleto was out with Marc Anthony at the time, and I was juggling touring with Toto and working on The Martin Short Show<\/em>. But the call came: help build the show open, figure out the music. We all knew most shows aren\u2019t built to last \u2014 three weeks and gone. But we knew we loved Jimmy, and we knew we loved Cleto. We were all in.<\/p>\n \n\tThe early days of Kimmel<\/em> were chaos. Total party. The green room was a party. The show was trying to be what late night really<\/em> was in Hollywood, which, it turns out, is not sustainable. We\u2019d get three-week, six-week, nine-week pickups. The smell of pizza at rehearsal meant celebration: We got renewed again. That was how we lived. Two years in, it started to feel like maybe we would stick around.<\/p>\n \n\tCleto had zero experience as a bandleader. None. If you asked him, he\u2019d say, \u201cI just hired the baddest motherfuckers I know and hoped for the best.\u201d And that\u2019s exactly what he did. Thankfully, Toshi [Yanagi],and I had done the Martin Short Show<\/em>, the Wayne Brady Show<\/em>, a few pilots \u2014 we had enough TV tricks to keep the train on the tracks. And Cleto trusted us. Always. He hired people he knew knew more than he did, which made him the best kind of leader.<\/p>\n \n\tWatching him with his dad was something beyond words. His dad had hung up his horn to get a steady job, to raise a family. He hung up his dreams. So when he picked up that horn again \u2014 because his son was giving him the stage he deserved \u2014 it was powerful. Music did what words could never do. It was soul-to-soul transmission. All of us \u2014 me, Toshi, Junior \u2014 we\u2019re only children. That bond with a parent is deep. The three of them had this magic triangle. When Senior played with Junior, it was like watching someone step back into the life they were meant to live.<\/p>\n \n\tMusically, Cleto loved groove. He loved Stevie Wonder, Rufus, Donny Hathaway, Tower of Power, Sting. He loved the truth. His playing was soulful, genuine \u2014 no math, no patterns, no cerebral showing-off. Just purpose and soul. Every note meant something.<\/p>\n \n\tWe connected deeply on early Late Night With David Letterman<\/em> \u2014 Paul Shaffer, Steve Jordan, Hiram Bullock. If you shared that OG Letterman<\/em> DNA, you instantly understood each other\u2019s humor, timing, worldview. Letterman was our connective tissue. It fast-tracked me into his life, and honestly into Jimmy\u2019s.<\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t \t\t\t\t\tKimmel and Escobedo in 2012<\/span><\/p>\n \t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tRichard Cartwright\/Disney General Entertainment\/Getty Images<\/cite><\/p>\n<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n \n\tAs the show evolved, our music evolved. Early on we were trying to pilfer the KROQ playlist \u2014 Queens of the Stone Age, Foo Fighters \u2014 instrumental versions that kept the energy young. But as the show grew up, we leaned into what two saxophones are supposed to do. A little more classy, a little jazzier. And Cleto always trusted me to write music that featured what we did well. He gave us freedom. If I needed to miss a show to record a film score, he insisted I go. \u201cYou never know how long a show will last,\u201d he\u2019d say. He was never threatened. He just wanted his people to shine.<\/p>\n \n\tAnd now \u2014 now that he\u2019s gone \u2014 it\u2019s hard to imagine coming back without him. For decades, Toshi, Cleto, and I could communicate entire conversations with a single look. Cultural opposites, but an only-children family. One of us is missing now.<\/p>\n \n\tThe end was brutal. He got sick, and I won\u2019t go into details, but I\u2019ve never seen doctors and nurses love a patient like they loved him. He knew every RN, every tech, every doctor. Even when he couldn\u2019t communicate, they experienced Cleto through us. They felt his spirit. I\u2019ve never seen medical professionals break down like that. It was a testament to him \u2014 his kindness, his light.<\/p>\n \n\tJimmy got everything right in that monologue, except one thing: it was a BB gun, not a shotgun, shooting down kites. Cleto corrected that story eight times. But Jimmy painted the picture. Cleto was humble. He wanted respect, but hated attention. Hard place to live. Those who knew, knew. And he got his flowers.<\/p>\n\n
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