Vicki Randle (born December 11, 1954)Hillgirlz, the lesbian Community of San Francisco
. Retrieved October 12, 2007. is an American singer, multi-instrumentalist (primarily acoustic guitar, bass and percussion) and composer, known as the first permanent female member of

The Tonight Show Band The Tonight Show Band is the house band that plays on the American television variety show '' The Tonight Show''. From 1962 until 1992, when the show was known as '' The Tonight Show Starring Johnny Carson'', the band was a 17-piece big band, and ...

,AfterEllen.com – The Tonight Show's Vicki Randle
. Retrieved October 12, 2007.NBC.com > The Tonight Show with Jay Leno
. Retrieved October 12, 2007. starting with host

Jay Leno James Douglas Muir Leno (; born April 28, 1950) is an American television host, comedian, writer, and actor. After doing stand-up comedy for years, he became the host of NBC's '' The Tonight Show'' from 1992 to 2009. Beginning in September 20 ...

in 1992.

Career

Randle was born in San Francisco, California. She began her career as a singer-songwriter/guitarist, playing in such venues as the Bla-Bla Cafe, McCabe’s and The Ice House. She also recorded and toured with several

women's music Women's music is music by women, for women, and about women. The genre emerged as a musical expression of the second-wave feminist movement as well as the labor, civil rights, and peace movements. The movement (in the USA) was started by lesbia ...

artists, such as

Cris Williamson Cris Williamson (born 1947) is an American feminist singer-songwriter and recording artist. She was a visible lesbian political activist, during an era when few who were unconnected to the lesbian community were aware of Gay and Lesbian issues ...

Ferron Ferron (born Deborah Foisy on 1 June 1952) is a Canadian-born singer-songwriter and poet. In addition to gaining fame as one of Canada's most respected songwriters, Ferron, who is openly lesbian, became one of the earliest and most influential ...

June Millington June Millington (born April 14, 1948) is a Filipina-American guitarist, songwriter, producer, educator, and actress. She was the co-founder and lead guitarist of the all-female rock band Fanny, which was active from 1970 to 1974. Millington has ...

and

Linda Tillery Linda may refer to: As a name * Linda (given name), a female given name (including a list of people and fictional characters so named) * Linda (singer) (born 1977), stage name of Svetlana Geiman, a Russian singer * Anita Linda (born Alice Lake ...

. She has recorded and/or toured with

Aretha Franklin Aretha Louise Franklin ( ; March 25, 1942 – August 16, 2018) was an American singer, songwriter and pianist. Referred to as the " Queen of Soul", she has twice been placed ninth in ''Rolling Stone''s "100 Greatest Artists of All Time". With ...

Mavis Staples Mavis Staples (born July 10, 1939) is an American rhythm and blues and gospel singer, actress, and civil rights activist. She rose to fame as a member of her family's band The Staple Singers (she is the last surviving member of that band). Durin ...

George Benson George Washington Benson (born March 22, 1943) is an American guitarist, singer, and songwriter. He began his professional career at the age of 19 as a jazz guitarist. A former child prodigy, Benson first came to prominence in the 1960s, pla ...

Lionel Richie Lionel Brockman Richie Jr. (born June 20, 1949) is an American singer, songwriter, record producer, and television personality. He rose to fame in the 1970s as a songwriter and the co-lead singer of funk band the Commodores; writing and recordi ...

Kenny Loggins Kenneth Clark Loggins (born January 7, 1948) is an American guitarist, singer and songwriter. His early songs were recorded with the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band in 1970, which led to seven albums recorded as Loggins and Messina from 1972 to 1977. His ...

Celine Dion Céline Marie Claudette Dion ( ; born 30 March 1968) is a Canadian singer. Noted for her powerful and technically skilled vocals, Dion is the best-selling Canadian recording artist, and the best-selling French-language artist of all time. Her ...

Herbie Hancock Herbert Jeffrey Hancock (born April 12, 1940) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, bandleader, and composer. Hancock started his career with trumpeter Donald Byrd's group. He shortly thereafter joined the Miles Davis Quintet, where he help ...

Wayne Shorter Wayne Shorter (born August 25, 1933) is an American jazz saxophonist and composer. Shorter came to prominence in the late 1950s as a member of, and eventually primary composer for, Art Blakey's Jazz Messengers. In the 1960s, he joined Miles Davi ...

Branford Marsalis Branford Marsalis (born August 26, 1960) is an American saxophonist The saxophone (often referred to colloquially as the sax) is a type of single-reed woodwind instrument with a conical body, usually made of brass. As with all single-reed inst ...

Jeffrey Osborne Jeffrey Linton Osborne (born March 9, 1948) is an American singer-songwriter, musician, and lyricist. He is the former drummer and lead singer of the American R&B/soul group L.T.D., with whom he began his musical career in 1970. Biography Earl ...

Laura Nyro Laura Nyro ( ; born Laura Nigro; October 18, 1947 – April 8, 1997) was an American songwriter, singer, and pianist. She achieved critical acclaim with her own recordings, particularly the albums ''Eli and the Thirteenth Confession'' (1968 ...

and

Lyle Mays Lyle David Mays (November 27, 1953 – February 10, 2020) was an American jazz pianist, composer, and member of the Pat Metheny Group. Metheny and Mays composed and arranged nearly all of the group's music, for which Mays won eleven Grammy Awar ...

.Vicki Randle
. Retrieved October 12, 2007.Vicki Randle: Artist Update: Modern Drummer Magazine 10/12/2007
Retrieved October 12, 2007. She appeared in the

HBO Home Box Office (HBO) is an American premium television network, which is the flagship property of namesake parent subsidiary Home Box Office, Inc., itself a unit owned by Warner Bros. Discovery. The overall Home Box Office business unit is ba ...

documentary ''

Mavis! ''Mavis!'' is a documentary film about musician and civil rights activist Mavis Staples, directed by Jessica Edwards. The film premiered at the South by Southwest Film Festival in March, 2015, and was acquired for US broadcast by HBO. Cast Ma ...

''. Randle became the first female permanent member of the Tonight Show Band with

, starting in May 1992 and continuing through May 2009. She continued her association with

under his five-nights-a-week primetime ''

The Jay Leno Show ''The Jay Leno Show'' is a talk show created and hosted by Jay Leno. Premiering on NBC on September 14, 2009, the program aired on weeknights at 10:00 p.m. ET/ PT through February 9, 2010. The program was modeled upon the format of a late ...

'' on NBC as a musician with

Kevin Eubanks Kevin Tyrone Eubanks (born November 15, 1957) is an American jazz and fusion guitarist and composer. He was the leader of The Tonight Show Band with host Jay Leno from 1995 to 2010. He also led the Primetime Band on the short lived ''The Jay Le ...

' renamed "Primetime Band". The show premiered September 14, 2009. She returned to ''The Tonight Show with Jay Leno'' with the primetime show's cancellation on February 9, 2010 and continued until May 2010. In 2006, Randle released her first solo album titled ''Sleep City: Lullabies for Insomniacs''. The album was produced by

Bonnie Hayes Bonnie Hayes is an American singer-songwriter, musician and record producer, born in San Francisco, California, United States, and currently lives between Los Angeles and New York City. Her songs have been recorded by Cher, Bette Midler, Bonnie ...

and included Hayes,

Nina Gerber Nina Gerber is an American guitarist who first came to attention when she accompanied singer-songwriter Kate Wolf from 1979 until Wolf's death in 1986. Gerber was born and raised in Sebastopol, California. In 1975, Gerber was still at high schoo ...

Barbara Higbie Barbara Higbie (born 1958) is an American Grammy Award, Grammy nominated, Bammy Awards, Bammy award winning pianist, composer, violinist, singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist. She has played on over 100 CDs including songs with Carlos Sant ...

Teresa Trull Teresa Trull is an American female singer, musician, songwriter, and record producer from Durham, North Carolina. She is recognized as a pioneer in Women's music, with her debut album ''The Ways a Woman Can Be'' released on Olivia Records in 19 ...

, Freddie Washington,

Herman Matthews Herman Matthews (born December 28, 1960 in Houston, Texas) is an American drummer and composer. Matthews works as a session and touring musician, most notably for Tower of Power, Kenny Loggins and toured with Tom Jones for more than 7 years. He ...

Stephen Bruton Turner Stephen Bruton (November 7, 1948 – May 9, 2009) was an American actor and musician. Background Born in Wilmington, Delaware, United States, he moved with his family to Texas at the age of two. He fell into the Fort Worth music scene after ...

with a track produced by

Val Garay Val Garay (born May 9, 1942, in San Francisco, California, United States) is an American recording engineer and record producer who has worked with Kim Carnes, Linda Ronstadt, James Taylor, Neil Diamond, and others. Garay also co-founded Los An ...

. She is part of the predominantly black all-female rock band Skip The Needle as bassist, percussionist, co-lead singer and composer. The band consists of Randle, Shelley Doty, Kofy Brown and Katie Cash. In 2022, Randle joined Greg Loiacono's band as percussionist and vocalist, and will be touring on bass with the

MC5 MC5, also commonly called The MC5, is an American rock band formed in Lincoln Park, Michigan, in 1963. The original line-up consisted of Rob Tyner (vocals) Wayne Kramer (guitar), Fred "Sonic" Smith (guitar), Michael Davis (bass), and Dennis ...

led by guitarist Wayne Kramer and featuring singer Brad Brooks, guitarist

Stevie Salas Stevie Salas (born November 17, 1964) is a Native American guitarist, author, television host, music director, record producer, film composer, and former advisor of contemporary music at the Smithsonian National Museum of the American Indian. ...

and drummer Winston Watson.

Personal life

Randle is openly lesbian. She has residences in

Venice Beach Venice is a neighborhood of the city of Los Angeles within the Westside region of Los Angeles County, California. Venice was founded by Abbot Kinney in 1905 as a seaside resort town. It was an independent city until 1926, when it was annexed by ...

and

Oakland, California Oakland is the largest city and the county seat of Alameda County, California, United States. A major West Coast of the United States, West Coast port, Oakland is the largest city in the East Bay region of the San Francisco Bay Area, the third ...

References

External links

* * * {{DEFAULTSORT:Randle, Vicki 1954 births Living people Guitarists from San Francisco Lesbian singers Lesbian songwriters American lesbian musicians American rock guitarists American women drummers American percussionists African-American guitarists African-American women singer-songwriters African-American drummers American LGBT singers American LGBT songwriters LGBT African Americans The Tonight Show Band members Singers from San Francisco Songwriters from San Francisco LGBT people from California Drummers from San Francisco Women's music 20th-century American drummers 20th-century American guitarists 20th-century American women guitarists 20th-century American LGBT people 21st-century American LGBT people 20th-century African-American women 20th-century African-American musicians 21st-century African-American people 21st-century African-American women Singer-songwriters from California American bass guitarists American acoustic guitarists American lesbian writers