Video by Andrey Gembitsky

Hear the radio episode here: The large instrumental band Snarky Puppy, which just won its second Grammy Award, is hard to pin down to one place. Its core is now in New York, but The Pups have toured and recorded all over the world. And their spiritual home is still Dallas, Texas. It’s where they’d take in gospel performances in area churches; it’s near where they initially met at music school at the University of North Texas in Denton. As bassist and bandleader Michael League explains, you can hear all those collisions in the pocket of their complex and beyond-category grooves. Snarky Puppy makes “music for the brain and booty“ alike. Jazz Night in America flies down to Dallas to visit Mike League’s old stomping grounds, and takes a deep dive into his fascinating compositional process. Then we witness its execution in a sold-out, live, hometown Snarky Puppy concert at The Door in Dallas. SKIP TO 1:51 - “Lingus” 11:35 - Going to Church 15:58 - “Thing of Gold” 23:39 - There are things that need to be done, so we do ’em.* 27:50 - “Shofukan” *A correction has been made to identify the tune Mike League samples during the songwriting segment as a work by Lebanese artist Melham Barakat. Recorded Sept. 11, 2015 @ The Door, Dallas, Texas MUSICIANS Michael League (bassist, composer, bandleader), Chris Bullock (saxophone), Jay Jennings (trumpet), Mike Maher (trumpet), Justin Stanton (keyboards, trumpet), Shaun Martin (keyboards), Nate Werth (percussion), Jason ‘JT’ Thomas (drums), Bob Lanzetti (guitar), Mark Lettieri (guitar), Chris McQueen (guitar) FOLLOW US! Facebook: Twitter: Instagram: