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Saturday Night Live Band | |
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| Origin | New York City, U.S. |
| Years active | 1975–present |
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| Past members | See below |
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).
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.
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.
Mariah Carey utilized the horn section of the Saturday Night Live Band (Lew Delgatto, Lenny Pickett, George Young, Earl Gardner, and Steve Turre) for her performance of "If It's Over" during her 1992 MTV Unplugged special.
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.
Founders
1970s additions
1980s additions
1990s additions
2000s additions
The Rutles were a rock band that performed visual and aural pastiches and parodies of the Beatles. This originally fictional band, created by Eric Idle and Neil Innes for a sketch in Idle's mid-1970s BBC television comedy series Rutland Weekend Television, later toured and recorded, releasing two studio albums and garnering two UK chart hits. The band toured again from 2002 until Innes' death in 2019.
The Blues Brothers are an American blues and soul revue band founded in 1978 by comedians Dan Aykroyd and John Belushi, who met and began collaborating as original cast members of Saturday Night Live.
Saturday Night Live (SNL) is an American late-night live sketch comedy variety show created by Lorne Michaels and developed by Michaels and Dick Ebersol that airs on NBC and streams on Peacock. Michaels currently serves as the program's showrunner. The show's premiere was hosted by George Carlin on NBC on October 11, 1975, under the original title NBC's Saturday Night. The show's comedy sketches, which often parody contemporary American culture and politics, are performed by a large and varying cast of repertory and newer cast members. Each episode is hosted by a celebrity guest, who usually delivers the opening monologue and performs in sketches with the cast, with featured performances by a musical guest. An episode normally begins with a cold open sketch that was usually based on political events and ends with someone breaking character and proclaiming, "Live from New York, it's Saturday Night!", properly beginning the show.
George Edward Smith is an American guitarist. Smith was the lead guitarist for the duo Hall & Oates during the band's heyday from 1979 to 1985, playing on several albums and five number one singles. When Hall & Oates took a hiatus in 1985, Smith joined the sketch-comedy show Saturday Night Live, serving as bandleader and co-musical director of the Saturday Night Live Band.
"More Cowbell" is a comedy sketch that aired on Saturday Night Live on April 8, 2000. The sketch was written by regular cast member Will Ferrell and playwright Donnell Campbell and depicts the recording of the song "(Don't Fear) The Reaper" by Blue Öyster Cult. The sketch stars guest host Christopher Walken as music producer Bruce Dickinson, and Ferrell as fictional cowbell player Gene Frenkle, whose overzealous playing annoys his bandmates but pleases producer Dickinson. The sketch also features Chris Parnell as Eric Bloom, Jimmy Fallon as Bobby Rondinelli, Chris Kattan as Buck Dharma, and Horatio Sanz as Joe Bouchard.
Spinal Tap are a fictional English heavy metal band created by the American comedians and musicians of The T.V. Show, who wrote and performed original songs as the band: Michael McKean, as the lead singer and guitarist David St. Hubbins; Christopher Guest, as the guitarist Nigel Tufnel; and Harry Shearer, as the bassist Derek Smalls. They are characterized as "one of England's loudest bands".
The Juan de la Cruz Band was a Filipino rock group formed in 1970, that pioneered what became known as Pinoy rock.
Cybotron were an Australian electronic, experimental music band formed in 1975 by Steve Maxwell Von Braund on synthesiser, electronic percussion, and alto saxophone; and Geoff Green on keyboard, organ, and synthesiser. The group issued three studio albums, Cybotron (1976), Colossus (1978) and Implosion (1980) and disbanded by 1981. Australian musicologist, Ian McFarlane, noted that they were "a bona fide experimental outfit, and the band's eponymous debut album featured a mix of heavy synthesiser kinetics, organ drones and pulsating electronic beats".
Paul Shaffer and the World's Most Dangerous Band is an American musical ensemble led by Paul Shaffer. It was David Letterman's house band for 33 years.
Southside Johnny and the Asbury Jukes are an American musical group from the Jersey Shore led by Southside Johnny. They have been recording albums since 1976 and are closely associated with Bruce Springsteen and The E Street Band. They have recorded or performed several Springsteen songs, including "The Fever" (1973) and "Fade Away" (1980). Springsteen has also performed with the band on several occasions. In 1991, Springsteen and the E Street band appeared on Southside Johnny's Better Days album.
Blues Brothers 2000: Original Motion Picture Soundtrack is a soundtrack album that features the Blues Brothers. It is a soundtrack album to the 1998 film, Blues Brothers 2000, the sequel to the 1980 film, The Blues Brothers.
The TCB Band is a group of musicians who formed the rhythm section of Elvis Presley's band from August 1969 until his death in 1977.. The initials TCB stand for Taking Care of Business, a personal motto Presley adopted in the early 1970s. Although personnel changed over the years, the original members were James Burton, Jerry Scheff (bass), John Wilkinson, Larry Muhoberac (keyboards) and Ron Tutt (drums). They first appeared live at Presley's first Las Vegas performance at what was then known as the International Hotel on July 31, 1969.
Auktyon is a Russian alternative rock band from Saint Petersburg.
Super Active Wizzo is the only album by the short-lived Wizzo Band, formed by Roy Wood in 1977 to fulfill his more jazz-oriented ambitions. The band also released the two singles "The Stroll", preceding the album, and "Dancin’ at the Rainbow’s End". Neither singles nor album charted and the band split up in 1978.
The Tonight Show Band was the house band that played 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 was an important showcase for jazz on American television. During the Carson era, the band was always billed as "The NBC Orchestra" and sometimes "Doc Severinsen and the NBC Orchestra".
Jack Mack and the Heart Attack is an American soul and R&B band that was formed in 1980 in Los Angeles, California. Their debut album, Cardiac Party, was produced by Glenn Frey of The Eagles on Irving Azoff's Full Moon Records/Warner Bros. label. They are known for performing in and writing songs for many major motion pictures and television shows as well as being the house band for Fox TV's The Late Show. They were the band that was performing at the 1996 Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia when a pipe bomb exploded near the sound tower. This event is depicted in the film Richard Jewell, directed by Clint Eastwood, which was released on December 13, 2019, as well as the Netflix TV series Manhunt Season 2, released in 2020.
Tabou Combo is a Haitian compas band that was founded in 1968 in Pétion-Ville, a suburb of Port-au-Prince. The orchestra has performed throughout the world. Tabou Combo was the first Haitian band to perform in Japan, Ivory Coast, Senegal among others, and were named the "Official Panamanian Band" in Panama due to their popularity, while also becoming the first Caribbean band to have a number one single in the French Hit Parade. They dynamically sung their songs in both English, French, Spanish and in Haitian Creole. Tabou Combo refer to themselves as the "ambassadors of konpa."
Leroy Leon Pendarvis is an American session musician. He plays keyboards and is a background vocalist. He is also an occasional guitarist. The artists he has worked with over the years include Bonnie Raitt on her Streetlights album which was released in 1974, Van McCoy on his Disco Baby album which was released in 1975, Barbra Streisand on her Songbird album which was released in 1978, Eric Clapton on his August album which was released in 1986, Don Johnson on his Let It Roll album which was released in 1989, Avril Lavigne on her Keep Holding On album which was released on 2007, and many more. He was at one time a member of the group Passion. He is also the musical director and conductor for NBC's Saturday Night Live (SNL) Band, with which he has played since 1980. Since 1986 he has been a member of The Blues Brothers band. He was the husband of singer and chorist Janice Pendarvis, who sang for Roberta Flack, Sting, Philip Glass, David Bowie, and the Naked Brothers Band.
The forty-eighth season of the NBC sketch comedy series Saturday Night Live premiered on October 1, 2022, during the 2022–23 television season with host Miles Teller and musical guest Kendrick Lamar, and concluded on April 15, 2023, with host Ana de Armas and musical guest Karol G. The season was originally scheduled to air 21 episodes and conclude on May 20, 2023. However, due to the 2023 Writers Guild of America strike, the last three planned episodes were cancelled.
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