Musician and future Academy Award winning film composer Howard Shore was the original musical director and bandleader from 1975 until 1980.
Paul Shaffer (himself, one of the original band members from 1975-1980) recounted that Jean Doumanian (who was taking over as the executive producer for season 6 of Saturday Night Live) offered him to be the new musical-director in light of Howard Shore leaving, but he turned it down, citing in part that he didn't want to start the show again with a brand new cast, and he felt five years was enough time to do the show.
Original band member and trombonist Tom Malone took over leadership duties under executive producer Dick Ebersol's tenure from 1981 to 1985.
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.
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.