Page 33 - ION Indie Magazine MayJune 2018 Issue

The band Snarky Puppy is difficult to define -- if you could even categorize
the group as a band in the first place. More of a community, a co-op or a
collective (on their own website they call themselves a “quasi-collective”),
this gathering of top-notch musicians is a unique indie music success
story. The cooperative had its origins among a group of college students
as far back as 15 years ago at one of the most respected (and very first)
jazz studies programs, the University of North Texas. This early group
intermingled with some of the gospel and R&B great talents of Dallas,
which not only influenced the music but also absorbed some new faces
into Snarky Puppy.

Just as undefinable is their music. The core of the sound’s pulse is funk,
overwhelmingly so, and it pays homage to all the greats that came before
in both the popular realm and especially the jazz-funk world. Much of this
can be attributed to the mastermind behind the Snarky Puppy
community, bassist Michael League. Not only does he absorb his
influences in his playing, but he and the group have crafted their own
unique funk identity that puts a jazz-virtuoso mindset against a willingness
to push the sound to the deepest pocket they can reach. They do this
while maintaining an energy that makes it danceable to any listener --
even when experimenting in complex time structures.