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Michael League evidently has patience and efficiency to burn. His band, Snarky Puppy, varies in personnel between nine and 12 members, and the larger the group, the greater the demands on those qualities from its leader.
That would apply even if the band just played clubs, but League, also bassist and composer, has taken Snarky Puppy from Texan bars to world tours, kept the group happy and creative across two decades, and masterminded Grammy Award-winning albums.
“I think anyone in any position of leadership lives a very different experience than people who are not,” he says. “There’s a lot of skills you have to develop in order to survive. I would definitely say the last 20 years have helped me become a more patient, laid-back, accepting person.”
Snarky Puppy is a big beast to control on stage.Credit: Ignacio Orrego
The breadth of music – incorporating rock, jazz, funk and Middle-Eastern elements, spiced with virtuosity and rhythmic intricacy – reflects League’s listening habits when growing up. He cites the Teflon-slick Steely Dan, jazz bassist Dave Holland and funk pioneers Herbie Hancock’s Head Hunters as seminal influences, while also nominating less-expected sources, such as XTC’s excitable pop and Led Zeppelin’s heft.
“With XTC, it’s like you never hear a chorus the same twice,” he says. “They always add an extra backing vocal or an extra layer, and I think Snarky Puppy is the same. Zeppelin, for sure: the riff mentality is definitely inside certain Snarky Puppy songs.”
As is common in rock but rarer in jazz, League teaches his compositions by ear rather than sheet music. While this takes considerably longer, the payoffs are that the music is never forgotten and the players are more agile in performing it. This agility, and what he calls the band’s “shape-shifting” ability, is critical to the music’s success.
“The most generous thing you can do for an audience is be excited about what you’re playing,” he says. “In the case of Snarky Puppy, no one’s excited unless they’re surprised. We have to create the surprise on stage in order to have a good time and in order for the audience to have a good time.”
Like many high-calibre improvisers (including Miles Davis), League looks upon performance glitches, whether human or technical, as intriguing challenges, forcing players out of their comfort zones.