Puppy Power and a Party Premiere New A&L Season 

For some reason, UCSB Arts & Lectures has decided to open its season on a mocking note dripping with sarcasm. Make that a lot of notes, as Snarky Puppy arrives at the Arlington Theatre on Tuesday, October 1, to kick off the 2024-25 slate of events. Not that the Texas-bred quasi-collective that boasts around 25 members in regular rotation – 10 will be on stage for the Arlington concert – are nasty folks. That’s just the name that bassist Michael League chose when the then-freshman studying jazz at the University of North Texas gathered a bunch of friends to form what has become an insanely versatile if hard to categorize jazz-funk-world-jam-fusion ensemble. 

Even using those genres to define the band is somewhat limiting, even as Snarky Puppy has snagged Grammy Awards in three different categories (jazz, contemporary and R&B), clearly proving the group has plenty of bite to go with its bark. But suffice it to say that no matter the overall sound, the band always features ridiculously tasty solos soaring over a deep rolling groove throughout nearly every track. 

“There was no real plan when we formed this thing, just a bunch of guys from the school who liked playing with each other,” said Bob Lanzetti, one of the original guitarists who still plays on most Puppy tours. “But we began to diversify and attracted members from the Black church community who played R&B, so we became more of a cross between the jazz school and rootsy gospel music.”

What the current members all share is not just a lot of technical skill, but also an artistic vision and temperament that can quickly adjust to a changing line-up. 

“When somebody switches out, it’s exciting to have a new sound come in,” Lanzetti said. “We all play differently, but we respect the songs even as we put our own artistic spin on them. What’s great is that we’ve all been doing it long enough that we know how to settle into the basic vibe.”

In addition to League and Lanzetti, the lineup for A&L includes two keyboardists, two trumpeters, a saxophonist and a violinist as well as drums and percussion. 

“No matter who is playing, it’s definitely very jazz based in the sense that there’s a lot of improvising and things are never really the same from night to night,” the guitarist said. “But it’s also very influenced by hip hop, gospel and even rock. There’s composition over world music grooves, Brazilian, African music, and very funky. We’re all big fans of DeAngelo, James Brown, and Sly and the Family Stone, and also Miles Davis, the Beatles and Radiohead. It’s a mix of a lot of stuff.”

Despite the fact that virtually everything Snarky plays are original compositions from several of its members, usually there are no charts for the members to follow, Lanzetti said.

“We don’t really write anything down. We just kind of make demos on Pro Tools and share them with each other and everybody learns their parts and adds their own thing,” he said. 

In keeping with the Puppy’s heady yet groove-driven ethos, A&L has arranged for early arrivers (6 pm) to be greeted with a live set of offbeat tunes by KCRW’s Nassir Nassirzadeh as part of a “Jazz & Gelato” kickoff celebration. The party also features complimentary sweet treats from local creameries, math-based light installations by UCSB Alumni Tai Rodrig (‘14) and Udo Gyene (‘15), a handful of art galleries staying open late, raffle prizes and more fun.