Jazz, rock and funk are combined in the music of Snarky Puppy, a well-known instrumental jazz-fusion supergoup that was formed in Brooklyn and has won three Grammys. The leader of the band is the composer, producer and bass player Michael League, who has been living in Barcelona for some time now. A few years ago, League went to Montreal, and he unexpectedly met the singer and pianist Malika Tirolien, a Canadian who is originally from the Caribbean island of Guadeloupe, hearing her sing in French and Criole. The two artists discovered they were kindred spirits and began exchanging lyrics and melodies. The relationship led League to change his bass for a guitar, add music of various cultural origins and eventually create Bokanté, a band whose name in Guadeloupan Criole means ‘exchange’. This parallel project for the founder of Snarky Puppy combines jazz, blues and world music from Cuba, Jamaica and the Mississippi Delta, as well as from West Africa. As they say themselves, the overall result is a strange combination of ‘African sounds, Delta blues and Led Zeppelin’, with lyrics sung in Criole and French. They have already released two albums, Strange Circles and What head, in which we hear the extraordinary voice of Malika Tirolien singing about today’s world and the problems we face: from racism and migration to indifference to other people’s suffering. Now the band is preparing their third album, which they are recording this summer in Barcelona and playing live at the Barcelona Grec Festival after performing concerts in Montreux and Lugano.
Music performed by: Michael League (baritone guitar), Roosevelt Collier (lap steel guitar), Malika Tirolien (vocals), Chris McQueen (guitar), Bob Lanzetti (guitar), Julia Adamy (electric bass), André Ferrari (percussion), Jamey Haddad (percussion), Keita Ogawa (percussion) Photography: Reinout Bos, York Tillyer
