Snarky Puppy
The five-time GRAMMY-winning juggernaut Snarky Puppy returns to Oakland's Paramount Theatre for a highly anticipated performance of what they call "music for your brain and booty." Led by bassist and composer Michael League, this global collective features a revolving cast of up to a dozen world-class instrumentalists whose résumés include work with Erykah Badu, Marcus Miller, Justin Timberlake, Roy Hargrove, and John Mayer.
Snarky Puppy isn't exactly a jazz band, fusion band, or jam band — as The New York Times' Nate Chinen advised, it's best to "take them for what they are, rather than judge them for what they're not." Their genre-defying sound blends jazz-ified funk with Southern rock, electric blues, classic soul, R&B, and gospel, creating what the Village Voice called "an exultant throwdown of smart danceability."
Their 2022 album Empire Central earned their fifth GRAMMY win for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, drawing inspiration from their Dallas roots. The band's latest release, 2025's Somni, created with the acclaimed Metropole Orkest, expands their boundary-blurring aesthetic with lush orchestral textures — DownBeat praised it as "a sweeping, cinematic evolution of the band's groove-driven aesthetic."
Live, Snarky Puppy transforms into a musical organism where horns lock into grooves, keyboards cascade into counter-rhythms, and percussion anchors constant motion. Recent reviewers have noted their "feral precision" and how each musician gets moments to shine while always serving the collective whole. Their performances feature intricate polyrhythms and time signature shifts that somehow never lose the danceable funk at their core — percussion standout Marcelo Woloski's "hypnotic Latin grooves and shaman-like drum patterns" particularly captivate audiences.
This Oakland show finds the collective on an extensive world tour that's taken them from major festivals like Newport Jazz to intimate venues across five continents. They've earned recognition as JamBase noted: "Snarky Puppy has gone from an underground secret to one of the most internationally respected names in instrumental music."