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MARTIN SHORT
A celebrated comedian and actor, Martin Short
has earned numerous fans and accolades in tele-
vision, lm, and theater since making his break-
out appearance on
Saturday Night Live
over
years ago. He had been working with Canada’s
SCTV comedy network when he won his rst
Emmy Award in
, which attracted the atten-
tion of the
SNL
producers. Short soon crossed
over into lm, making his debut in
ree Amigos
,
following up with
Innerspace
,
ree Fugitives
,
Cli ord
,
Pure Luck
, and Tim Burton’s
Mars At-
tacks!
One of his most memorable roles came in
the remake of
Father of the Bride
, in which he
played Franck, the wedding planner, a role he
reprised in the sequel. He has also lent his voice
to such animated lms as
Madagascar
and Tim
Burton’s
Frankenweenie
. On the theater stage,
Short earned Tony,
eatre World, and Outer
Critics Circle Awards for his role in the
revival of
Little Me
, and he was nominated for
a Tony and won an Outer Critics Circle Award
with the
musical adaptation of Neil Simon’s
lm
e Goodbye Girl
. His credits also include
co-writing and starring in
Fame Becomes Me
on Broadway, and he most recently returned to
the stage for Terrence McNally’s
It’s Only a Play
.
A two-time primetime Emmy Award winner,
Short returned to television in
for the mini-
series
Merlin
and to host
e Martin Short Show
.
He subsequently launched the popular comedy
Primetime Glick
and earned critical acclaim for
his role in the FX drama
Damages
. In addition
to returning to
SNL
as a host three times, he has
also been seen in
Hairspray Live!
,
Maya & Mar-
ty
,
Mulaney
,
How I Met Your Mother
, and PBS’s
Cat in the Hat Knows a lot About at
. Short’s
New York Times
bestselling memoir,
I Must Say:
My Life as a Humble Comedy Legend
, was pub-
lished in
. Short was named to the Order of
Canada in
and inducted into the Canadian
Walk of Fame in
, and he recently received
a Lifetime Artistic Achievement Award from the
Governor-General of Canada. Martin Short is
making his rst appearance at Ravinia.
STEEP CANYON RANGERS
e Steep Canyon Rangers formed in
and
have developed a catalogue of original music
that links them to its roots but also demonstrates
their ambitious intent to bring string music into
contemporary relevance.
e Grammy Award–
winning sextet has spent the past two decades
bending and shaping the bluegrass aesthetic,
wedding it to elements of pop, country, and folk
rock. For their latest album,
Out in the Open
, the
Steep Canyon Rangers decamped to producer
Mitch Easter’s Fedilitorium Recordings to work
with three-time Grammy-winning producer Joe
Henry and engineer Jason Richmond. Unlike for
previous discs, all six members sang and played
in a single room and recorded no overdubs, an
organic process that allowed them to complete a
dozen tracks in less than a third as many days.
e result brought them the closest they have
been to bluegrass’s true form, yet still transcend-
ing it in their own inimitable way. In addition to
their now studio albums, including the
Grammy winner
Nobody Knows You
, the Steep
Canyon Rangers have made two studio albums
and one live recording with comedian and banjo
player Steve Martin. e Steep Canyon Rangers
are making their third appearance at Ravinia
with Steve Martin.
JEFF BABKO
Pianist and keyboardist Je Babko is a native of
Southern California and built a career as both
a studio and touring musician along the West
Coast. A er graduating from the University of
Miami’s Frost School of Music, he began touring
worldwide with Julio Iglesias, also appearing in
his “Tango” video. Babko subsequently toured
Asia and Europe with drummer Simon Phillips
and soon joined guitarist Robben Ford’s band,
later touring and recording with Larry Carlton.
He appeared on Ford and Carlton’s joint record
Live in Tokyo
, and he also backed Carlton on
his Grammy-winning disc with B’z guitarist
Tak Matsumoto. Babko began television work
with Martin Short in
on his syndicated talk
show, later joining Wayne Brady’s daytime show.
For more than a decade, he has been a compos-
er, arranger, and house band member for
Jimmy
Kimmel Live
, backing up innumerable rock, pop,
and jazz artists on the show as well as produc-
ing much of the music for the show’s comedy
segments, including co-writing the song “I’m
F***ing Ben A eck.” Babko has also been the
touring musical director and accompanist for
Martin Short since
. His recent recording
credits include Sheryl Crow’s
Miles from
Memphis
, also touring with her in support of the
disc; James Taylor’s album of covers, including
on the single “It’s Growing,” later backing Tay-
lor and Bonnie Raitt on their
stadium tour;
Jason Mraz’s
Love Is a Four Letter Word
; Frank
Ocean’s
Channel Orange
; Nathan East’s two solo
albums; and Smokey Robinson’s
Smokey and
Friends
. Babko has made four solo albums, in-
cluding the critically acclaimed
Crux
(
) with
Mark Isham, Tim Lefebvre, and Matt Chamber-
lain as well as
’s
Mondo Trio
with Je Co n
and Vinnie Colaiuta. His supergroup Band of
Other Brothers, featuring Co n, Will Lee, Nir
Felder, and Steely Dan’s Keith Carlock, recent-
ly headlined New York’s Iridium. Je Babko is
making his rst appearance at Ravinia.
AUGUST 6 – AUGUST 12, 2018 | RAVINIA MAGAZINE
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