Page 37 - ION Indie Magazine MayJune 2018 Issue

Back to the quasi-collective idea…every performance has a different make-up of players. In most concerts
you anticipate what songs a band might play. Coming to see Snarky Puppy, you wonder which musicians
(and how many) will be on the set. In any other group, such fluidity would lead to less tightness, less
experimentation, and lower expectations about the performance at hand. But in this case, you get the
opposite – complex song structures, complex time forms, complex melodies and harmonies…and whichever
member of the Snarky Puppy collective participates, they nail it and then-some. And it seems like the
changing dynamics from show to show make it interesting for the band as well. When they don’t seem to be
simply having fun, they at times seem to be shocked (in a great way) at the results of the music they are in
the middle of playing. Now based in Brooklyn and counting members in the many dozens, Snarky Puppy has
become a self-sustaining animal where brilliant musicians are on-call to push the boundaries of their original
music. They maintain a constant touring schedule that is selling out theaters in every region of the planet.
Despite my attempts to describe the fact that the group is hard to define, any fan of the
group/band/community/funky co-op has moved past that. There’s no need to try to understand when
you’ve been wrapped up in their output. After a few times experiencing their music, you almost begin to feel
like you are part of the collective…a musical Matrix? Once you are, you don’t care.

And as you might guess, the same undefinable aspect goes to the music as well. It’s not jazz per se, but
there’s some in there. It wouldn’t work to simply call it “funk” -- but you can’t escape it. Even the term
“fusion” -- which is supposed to lack specific meaning -- has come to have a distinct meaning. So even if it’s
a fusion of so much, you would do a disservice to label as such. Snarky Puppy already has 3 Grammy awards,
one being for R&B and another had a full symphonic orchestra. But no one listening is trying to label them,
so forget labeling their style, just listen to it…a LOT of it…and turn it up LOUD!