Over the past few years, Snarky Puppy has gone from undefinable semi-obscurity to multi-Grammy Award-winning, yet still undefinable, success.
The 19-strong ensemble can be loosely described as jazz-fusion, but that does not do justice to the band's repertoire. Its Grammy wins are evidence enough of the weakness of this classification: one for best R&B performance for the group's orchestration and performance of Lalah Hathaway's "Something" (2013), and two for best contemporary instrumental album for "Sylva" (2015) and "Culcha Vulcha" (2016).
"The awards have obviously changed us as a band," says Michael League, 34, the band's leader, bassist, most frequent composer and producer. "But not in the way you might think. Each time we've won one, it's encouraged us to feel more free to do whatever the hell we want. I think a lot of the time that people attract attention by winning an award, they feel the pressure to please and say, 'OK, we need to create something that's going to make everyone happy.' Often that means the music goes to the lowest common denominator and artistically things get sacrificed.