Michael League

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Michael League (2016)

Michael League (born April 24, 1984 in Long Beach ) is an American fusion musician ( electric bass , keyboard , mandolin , composition ) and music producer . He is the leader of the band Snarky Puppy , with which he received three Grammy Awards , and the international music ensemble Bokanté . He is also the founder and owner of the record label GroundUP Music .

Act

League, whose mother is a classical flautist, took an early interest in music, played drums for a short time , then violin and began playing guitar at the age of 13 . He started playing bass at the age of 17 to join his high school jazz band. He then studied jazz for four years at the University of North Texas and then worked on the Dallas gospel and R&B scene for three years. He was also a regular member of Erykah Badu's backing band Gritz . League moved to New York City in 2009, where he initially played with Wayne Krantz , Chris Potter and Ari Hoenig .

League founded Snarky Puppy with fellow students in his first year of college . He composed most of the original music and produced all of the albums released by the band. In 2014, League won its first Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance with Snarky Puppy and Lalah Hathaway for an interpretation of the song "Something," which was released on the Family Dinner - Volume 1 album. In 2016 the album Sylva , which Snarky Puppy recorded with the Metropole Orkest under the direction of Jules Buckley , received the Grammy Award for the best contemporary instrumental album, as did the band's follow-up album, Culcha Vulcha, in 2017 .

League founded the world music and blues ensemble Bokanté in 2016 , with which he also addresses social and political issues; with him came the albums Strange Circles and What Heat (2018, also with Jules Buckley and the Metropole Orkest ).

League has played or recorded with artists from different genres, including Laura Mvula , Joe Walsh , Chris Thile , Michael McDonald , Terence Blanchard , Esperanza Spalding , Joshua Redman , Grace Kelly , Salif Keïta , Eliades Ochoa and Fatoumata Diawara , Bassekou Kouyaté , Susana Baca and Kardeş Türküler . In 2018 he was David Crosby's musical director in the Lighthouse tour band (alongside Becca Stevens and Michelle Willis) .

League has produced music for various artists, including David Crosby, Becca Stevens, Banda Magda, Sirintip, Alina Engibaryan and Roosevelt Collier, Forq, Lucy Woodward and Bill Laurance .

Web links

Commons : Michael League  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b c portrait
  2. ↑ a b c d portrait (bassplayer.com)
  3. ↑ a b Interview (AllAboutJazz)
  4. ↑ Portrait (Snarky Puppy)
personal data
SURNAME League, Michael
BRIEF DESCRIPTION American fusion musician (electric bass, keyboard, mandolin, composition) and music producer
DATE OF BIRTH April 24, 1984
PLACE OF BIRTH Long Beach