No matter what it plays, Snarky Puppy is itself

    1 of 1 2 of 1

      Michael League has a simple explanation for why his alternative big band Snarky Puppy has become an underground sensation: unlike too-cool-for-school indie rockers or geeky laptop jockeys, its musicians put out.

      “People definitely like to see people working for them, I think,” he says, reached on the afternoon of a Snarky Puppy show in San Francisco. “It’s always just a cool thing to see a large group of people playing music together. There’s just something really fun about seeing a large group of people doing something in unity. It’s powerful, I think.”

      Snarky Puppy is arguably spearheading a big-band revival that has also benefited Darcy James Argue’s Secret Society and Vancouver’s own Hard Rubber Orchestra, but it hasn’t been easy getting the movement in gear.

      Although the now New York–based band formed in Denton, Texas, in 2004, it’s only been within the past year that it’s been able to afford such fripperies as hotel rooms and tour buses. (Early outings apparently involved small audiences, word-of-mouth promotion, and a lot of couch-surfing.)

      But the group’s impressive work ethic also comes with a heaping portion of play. The band’s new live album, We Like It Here, includes a DVD recorded in various European locales, and what jumps off the screen is a profound sense of joy. The tunes range from smooth, California-inflected film jazz to Fela-approved Afrobeat to the kind of dressed-up funk grooves George Clinton would kill for, but they all share an irresistible sense of forward momentum.

      “We just take all of our favourite shit from all of the music that we listen to, music from all around the world, and we try to put it in one place,” League says. “Over so many shows, I think we’ve developed the sound of the band so that no matter what we play we still sound like Snarky Puppy—which is kind of liberating, in a way. It sounds confining, but if you can take elements from all different styles of music and run them through the filter of your sound, what comes out is something fun and interesting to play.”

      League even goes so far as to say that the band’s collective ethos is more important than any of its individual members. “I feel like I could die tomorrow and the band would continue just fine without me,” he says, noting that like many big bands Snarky Puppy employs a rotating cast of players. There’s no denying, however, that his massive tone on both electric and synthesizer bass is one of the band’s signature components—along with its willingness to stretch out on-stage.

      “I write a set list every night, and then I abandon it every night, you know,” League says with a laugh, when asked how important improvisation is to his well-oiled unit. “We improvise endlessly, but I think when you have trust there’s really no uncertainty. There’s the unknown of what’s going to happen—but we have confidence that it’s going to be fun and musical and communicative.”

      Snarky Puppy plays the Vogue Theatre on Sunday (June 21) as part of the TD Vancouver International Jazz Festival.

      Comments