For some listeners, jazz is an introverted, intimate genre that seems to require a degree in musicology just to appreciate. Yet, many musicians turn such notions completely on their head—among them, the members of the Snarky Puppy "family."
When Michael League founded Snarky Puppy at the University of North Texas in 2003, he did so—paradoxically—because he had failed to make the cut for any of the school's official ensembles. Little did he know then that this humble student project would evolve into a five-time Grammy Award winner and one of today’s most influential instrumental bands. From the start, the group defied categorization; League himself describes their sound as a "street-bred hybrid" that naturally blends jazz sophistication with the energy of funk, rock, and soul. Success, however, did not come overnight; the musicians spent their first decade endlessly touring in battered vans and playing for handfuls of people in obscure clubs.
