Snarky Puppy

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Biography

Snarky Puppy is the umbrella name for a project launched in north Texas in 2004 by producer, composer and bass player Michael League. It features an aggregation of musicians who play a mix of smooth jazz, rock and funk. Many of the players were students along with League at the University of North Texas. They include drummers Robert 'Sput' Seawright, Larnell Lewis and Jason 'J.T.' Thomas, percussionists Nate Werth, Marcelo Woloski, Bobby Sparks, Caleb Sean and Shaun Martin, Bill Laurence on keyboards, guitarists Chris McQueen, Bob Lanzetti and Mark Lettieri, Justin Stanton, Mike 'Maz' Maher and Jay Jennings on trumpet and flugelhorn, Andy Hunter on trombone, Chris Bullock and Bob Reynolds on tenor saxophone and Zach Brock on violin.

Their debut album 'The Only Constant' came out in 2006 followed by 'The World Is Getting Smaller' in 2007, 'Bring Us the Bright' in 2008 and 'Tell Your Friends' in 2010. Their 2012 release, 'groundUP' reached number 14 on the Billboard Jazz Albums Chart, 'Family Dinner: Volume 1' hit number five the following year and 'We Like It Here' went to number four in 2014. 'Sylva' with the Dutch Metropole Orchestra topped the Jazz Chart in 2015 and won the Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album. A single from the album, a cover of Brenda Russell's 'Something' featuring Lalah Hathaway, won the Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance.

Their 2016 release 'Culcha Vulcha' gave them two number one Grammy Award-winning hit albums in succession followed quickly by 'Family Dinner: Volume 2', which also topped the chart that year. Recorded live in New Orleans, it features guests from the Big Easy such as Ivan Neville and Terence Blanchard. On their Facebook page, Snarky Puupy call themselves an "eclectic, unclassifiable jazz/funk/global collective" and say they always seek different demographics, nationalities and age groups to play to. They toured South America at the end of 2017 with 2018 dates set for several States in America.