Snarky Puppy

Genre-blurring musical collective Snarky Puppy is in town for one night only. Playing together since 2004 and led by bassist Michael League, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk that has won it five Grammy Awards (Best R&B Performance in 2014, Best Contemporary Instrumental Album in 2016, 2017, and 2021).

They’re exactly a jazz band, and they aren’t exactly a fusion band, and they definitely aren’t a jam band. All of that makes Snarky Puppy really quite special – a big band with a difference. The musicians (usually 19 or so drawn from a pool of around two dozen, playing in regular rotation) are configured atypically, to say the least. Any given song might include three electric guitars, three or four keyboard players, two trumpets/flugelhorns, two saxophones/flutes, a violin, three drummers, three percussionists and League’s ever-prominent funky bass.

It helps that the band’s members are all excellent musicians who maintain busy schedules as sidemen (with the likes of Erykah Badu, Snoop Dogg, Kendrick Lamar, D’Angelo), producers (for Kirk Franklin, David Crosby, and Salif Keïta), and solo artists.

At its core, the defining characteristic of Snarky Puppy’s music is the joy of performing together in the perpetual push to grow creatively. They also seem to have a great time playing together. This is one highly recommended gig.