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The Saturday Night Live Band (referred to in the closing credits as The Live Band) is the house band of the
NBC television program Saturday Night Live (SNL).
Role on Saturday Night Live
The band consists of mostly
jazz, R&B, and some rock musicians and features a strong horn section. They normally play the opening theme music (after the cold opening), musical pieces in between commercial breaks, and the closing theme music "Closing Theme (Waltz in A)," written by founding member
Howard Shore.[1][2] Often, the band will provide the music to a sketch when necessary.
Band leaders and musical directors
Musician and future
Academy Award winning film composer
Howard Shore was the original musical director and bandleader from 1975 until 1980.
Singer and songwriter
Kenny Vance (who appeared previously as a musical guest on the May 21, 1977 episode) became the musical director for the show's sixth season (1980–81). Original band member and trombonist
Tom Malone took over leadership duties under executive producer
Dick Ebersol's tenure from 1981 to 1985.
Hall & Oates guitarist
G.E. Smith came on board as the new musical director once original producer
Lorne Michaels returned and stayed in that position until 1995 when lead saxophonist
Lenny Pickett was promoted as bandleader.
Katreese Barnes also served as the music director for a time, around the year 2000.[3][4]
Keyboardist
Leon Pendarvis (who has been a member of the band since 1980) is also 2nd musical director alongside Pickett.
Tom Malone, Lou Marini, and Alan Rubin were members of the
Blues Brothers band fronted by SNL cast members
John Belushi and
Dan Aykroyd. They were also featured in the
first Blues Brothers movie, with Malone as a member of fictional lounge act "Murph and the Magic Tones," Rubin as maitre d' of an expensive French restaurant, and Marini as a fry cook at
Aretha Franklin's soul food restaurant.
Paul Shaffer was also involved in early Blues Brothers performances, but had scheduling conflicts and could not appear in the film, until
the sequel.