G.E. Smith, a soulful guitarist, composer, singer, and bandleader, is a native of Stroudsburg, Pennsylvania. He started playing the guitar as a child, and was supporting himself as a musician by the age of eleven, when he received his first electric, a Fender Telecaster, on his birthday.

He cut his teeth on numerous gigs in Poconos resorts and at high school dances, often performing with musicians more than twice his age. In his teens he moved to New Haven, Connecticut where he established himself as a "top gun" guitarist and hooked up with the legendary Scratch Band, playing up and down the East Coast in the 1970s. He was hired as the guitarist for Gilda Radner's 1979 Broadway show Gilda Live, and soon married Ms. Radner.

He took a job as lead guitarist with soul musicians Daryl Hall and John Oates, touring and recording with the band from 1979-85. During the 1985 Live Aid concerts, the Hall & Oates group became the house band and Smith the de facto music director as they backed Mick Jagger, Tina Turner, and others. He recorded on Jagger's albums She's the Boss and Primitive Cool. His commanding position as a first-call blues/rock guitarist also brought him to the attention of David Bowie, Peter Wolf, and others.

He became musical director of Saturday Night Live, leading the SNL band from 1985-95 and winning an Emmy for his work. He was musical director for the Emmy Award-winning SNL 25th Anniversary Special. During his years with SNL he simultaneously toured with Bob Dylan.

He was musical director for the 1988 Emmy Awards, the 1993 Rhythm & Blues Foundation Awards, the Bob Dylan 30th Anniversary Concert at Madison Square Garden, the Rock N' Roll Hall of Fame Museum Concert in Cleveland, and the Muddy Waters Tribute. For the Kennedy Center Honors, Smith was musical director and bandleader for the Honor given to Bob Dylan in 1997, for Willie Nelson in 1998, and Chuck Berry in 2000.

He has been musical director for the Kennedy Center Mark Twain Prize program since its inception in 1998. G.E.'s band -- with G.E. on guitar -- for the 2001 performance was:

Keyboard: Clifford Carter
Trumpet: Earl Gardner
Bass: Mike Merritt
Drums: Rich Pagano
Saxophone: Baron Raymonde

For the performance of Celia Cruz and Three Mo' Tenors, the following artists joined G.E. Smith:

Piano: Victor Simonson
Piano: Isidro Infante
Percussion: Luis Quintero