Snarky Puppy brings the funk, brings the jazz (photos)

Snarky Puppy returned to The Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts Tuesday night for an Artown-sponsored performance. The first time the group played in Reno was in 2016, also in the Pioneer Center.

They were founded in 2004 by Michael League when he was a second-year student in the music program at the University of North Texas. League stole the name from his brother, who had considered it a possible band name.

I had a chance to speak to League before the show, and he talked about how the band came to be.

“I had only been playing upright bass for about a year-and-a-half so I couldn’t get into any of the ensembles at school,” he said. “Plus, I’d just recently switched to electric bass, and nobody cared about that in college, so I started the band as a way to play the songs I’d been writing.”

Michael League, founder of Snarky Puppy, playing Sept. 19, 2023 at Pioneer Center for the Performing Arts in Reno, Nev. Image: Nick McCabe / This Is Reno

I also asked how he would characterize Snarky Puppy’s unusual style of music.

“Mainly instrumental music with Black American traditions as well as non-American traditions,” League said. “The band is influenced by a lot of different genres of music, so we employ a lot of different influences. Some songs are through-composed, so nothing ever repeats. Some are like a pop format, and some songs, like ‘Take It,’ are a vamp with different things layered on top of it. It just depends on the song.”

Their opening number, “Portal,” began sounding like morning music accompanying a film where the world is waking up, almost Disneyesque in style. It then quickly moved into a much more raucous arrangement, as if a busy day had begun. A Justin Stanton trumpet solo played over a very percussive bottom layer that moved into Keita Ogawa’s tight, crisp hand drum solo. When the whole band rejoined, the musicians ramped up to a climax capped off with a staccato keyboard run.

The moods and images conjured were plentiful. Listening to the performance, one could easily imagine being in another space. The fluidity with which the musicians move from one scene to another is magical. I could easily imagine myself lying in a field of tall grass, moving in a breeze, or bouncing around like a pinball in an arcade machine.

Throughout the evening, Snarky Puppy created dreamscapes of sound and color, taking the listeners away from their day-to-day reality and into another universe. On the surface, some of what they do might seem simple, but, like an expressionist painting by Van Gogh or Picasso, for example, the magic is in the details. It takes a lot of skill.

“How do you get to Carnegie Hall? Practice, practice, practice.”Anonymous

Snarky Puppy is a collective of some of the world’s finest funk and jazz musicians. They have several musicians available to cover any instrument. The roster of players numbers around 26 but shifts as requirements demand. Case in point: Tuesday night’s drummer was Nikki Glaspie, and this was her first gig as a Snarky Puppy member. Among others, her resume includes playing with Beyonce.

The 10-piece touring band is assembled based on musician availability, as they all have other commitments with their own bands or working with other world-class musicians. Sometimes members will also produce other bands or teach.

Their show in Reno was in the middle of a six-week tour of the United States. Counting the stage crew, bus drivers, and other staff, there are 24 people traveling on the two buses to bring this show to life. That’s a lot of rooms, a lot of meals, and a lot of expenses. I raised the question of revenue versus expenses for the tour with League.

“From a band perspective, we try to make it comfortable and enjoyable without it being luxurious,” he said. “We try to make sure everybody’s comfortable because we’re not getting younger, and it’s a very difficult exercise on the body to go out on tour, [sometimes] sleeping on the bus. I think that over the last 8 to 10 years, we’ve been extremely financially responsible and managed money in a good way, and every year, everybody gets a raise. We haven’t had major financial complications since the band became more profitable [in 2016].”

After this tour, they will have a few weeks off before beginning a tour in Mexico.

A couple of League’s favorite places to play have been the Théatre Romain in Vienna, an ancient Roman amphitheater in the south of France, and the Palau de La Music in his hometown of Barcelona. “To play where you live and feel so well supported [is special],” he added.

Near the end of the show, League shared the story of the group’s former keyboard player, Bernard Wright, who was tragically killed after being struck by a car last year. The band was thankful they had recently captured his performance in their video of “Take It!” It’s my favorite video of theirs. It’s worth tracking down.

Throughout the show, the audience was enraptured with the music. Without a doubt, Snarky Puppy has built a solid fan base. They succeeded after struggling for over 10 years to get themselves off the ground. Their hard work and perseverance have paid off well. There aren’t a lot of bands of this type out there who have this kind of success, so it’s good to see. There was no shortage of fabulous solos by these fantastic musicians. Everything was clean, tight, and sonically solid. It was an impressive evening of music.