Michael League, a Modern American Bass Player, Guitar Player, Label

Michael League, a modern american bass player, guitar player, label owner, composer, and band leader for the band Snarky Puppy1 was born into a musical family in Long Beach, California on April 24, 1984. His mother was a classical flautist and his father enjoyed listening to classic rock.2 Because his parents were in the military they could never stay in one place long so he spent most of his youth in southern Alabama and northern Virginia.3 His love for music started when he started taking drumming lessons for a short time then he and started playing violin for his school band. By age 13 he was set on playing guitar. His older brother who was a drummer suggested that he started playing jazz so he did. When he got to high school he started his own jazz-funk band. When he was a senior in high school his band director asked if he would play the bass guitar in the senior Jazz band instead of the guitar. He remembers the first night when he took the instrument home he said, “I fell totally in love with it.”

After his last year of high school he applied for a guitar scholarship. He was later turned down for his scholarship because of post 9/11 budget cuts. Eventually he applied to the University of North Texas as a bassist and he was accepted! In his first year of college he called up nine of his classmates and asked if they might want to start jamming. They all said yes. In jam sessions Michael would often show off the band pieces that he had wrote. Almost every time the band loved the songs. Months later those songs would first be shown off in the basement of a pizza place in Denton, Texas. 2 In 2005 he would still be playing and touring with Snarky Puppy and come 2006 they released their first album, The Only Constant with all the music written by Micheal4. Between 2007 and 2016 years Michael and snarky puppy released 10 more albums such as The World Is Getting Smaller, Bring Us The Bright, Tell Your Friends, groundUP, Amkeni, Family Dinner Vol. 1 and Vol. 2, We Like It Here, Sylva, and finally, Culcha Vulcha.5 One of their first awards were for a song on the album Family Dinner Vol. 1. It was nominated for a Grammy Award in the Best R&B Performance category for their performance of the Brenda Russell song "Something" and they won!6 Later in 2015 they were voted Jazz Group of the Year by Down Beat Readers Poll. They won other awards. Like when they released their album Sylva it won many awards and reached many achievements it was #1 on the iTunes Jazz Chart when it was released on May 26 it had also debuted on multiple Billboard charts including but not limited to being #1 on the Heatseekers Chart, #1 Top Current Jazz Album and #1 Contemporary Jazz Album7.

These days he is still playing with snarky puppy and it has become an even bigger thing than it was, way, way back in 2005 Literally. Back in 2005 the band only consisted of 9 people but the band is now normally 25 people and they often others sit in1. Some famous people that they had played with would be Jacob Collier and David Crosby just to name a few.5 Some famous things that he has wrote are Lingus (We Like It Here), Tio Macaco (We Like It Here), Kite (We Like It Here), and many others. In my opinion I think that he is and will be a big influence on future musicians. I think that he is because he has a very unique sound. I would describe that sound as simple but with a bigger picture in mind. Bass Player Magazine describes it saying, “Michael League brings a composer’s mentality, deft phrasing, deep pockets, tonal colors, and an adventurous spirit to his Snarky Puppy bass lines” I would say that this could be influential because it would encourage bass players to think less about staying in the key signature and showing off their chops and more how they can back up what other people are playing and give the band a real backbone. I think that he is specifically influential to bass players because he writes songs. Often times a bass player won’t write music because they don’t know how to play chords be not only does he write music be he writes a lot of music. Think that he will have a legacy. I think that when he is gone a lot of people will remember him because of his talent for writing, and playing music. Something else he will be remembered for is his creation of the record label GroundUp Music that he launched in early 2012. He did it under Ropeadope Records. Something else that he will be remembered for is that he is very generous. Michael has given a lot of music education. He has given clinics at over 100 schools throughout the United States, Canada, Asia, Pacific, and Europe.

1 About Snarky Puppy. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2017, from http://snarkypuppy.com/about

2 Electric & Acoustic Bass Gear, Lessons, News, Video, Tabs and Chords - BassPlayer.com, C. J. (2014, August 12). Michael League: Top Dog with Snarky Puppy. Retrieved December 10, 2017, from http://www.bassplayer.com/artists/1171/michael-league-top-dog-with-snarky- puppy/48326

3 Michael League – Pigtronix. (2014, June 24). Retrieved December 10, 2017, from https://pigtronix.com/artists/michael-league 4 THE ONLY CONSTANT [CD]. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2017, from https://store.snarkypuppy.com/collections/music/products/the-only-constant- cd?variant=4765062660 5 Snarky Puppy | Music. (n.d.). Retrieved December 10, 2017, from http://www.snarkypuppy.com/music 6 Larsen, C. (2017, November 07). How did Lalah Hathaway make 'Something'? Retrieved December 11, 2017, from https://www.grammy.com/grammys/news/making-something-learn- lalah-hathaways-special-talent 7 J. (n.d.). Snarky Puppy Reaches #1 on Multiple Billboard Charts with. Retrieved December 14, 2017, from https://jazztimes.com/news/snarky-puppy-reaches-1-on-multiple-billboard-charts- with-sylva/