Members of Denton-born jazz collective Snarky Puppy woke up Grammy winners. They share the award for Best R&B Performance with Lalah Hathaway. First time you’ve heard of this band? You aren’t the only one.
Twelve of Snarky Puppy’s almost 30 members arrived in Los Angeles as Grammy hopefuls. They walked the red carpet into the early ceremony, where the R&B Performance category was announced. The media wondered – who are these guys?
Snarky Puppy bassist and composer Mike League, who leads the group, said it was the same story after they won.
“Then we walk down the carpet again before the actual ceremony, right, and we walk by 300 reporters and nobody knows who we are.”
The press may just now be putting a name to their faces. But League’s too busy to check the blogs or see how the winning song “Something” is selling on iTunes.
“I’m working on a record … and trying to frantically finish this DVD we made in the Netherlands before we go on tour again on Wednesday,” he says.
That DVD is part of a forthcoming release the band recorded at Kytopia, a compound for artists in the city of Utrecht, in the so-named Dutch province. It’s set for release in February via GroundUp, an arm of Ropeadope records that League himself helms.
While League flies back to Brooklyn tomorrow, Lettieri is heading home to Fort Worth to play a gig in Dallas tonight. I read him a list of artists who’ve won this Grammy: Ray Charles, James Brown. Aretha Franklin.
Wow, he says. Cool to think about. It’s not like the band’s instantly famous. But Lettieri did notice something different about yesterday.
“I’ll tell you what. I woke up on a friend’s couch and I slept in a hotel. From the bottom to the top, all in one day,” he laughs.
You can watch Mark Lettieri play tonight with the Funky Knuckles in Deep Ellum at the Free Man Café.
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