“Freshman year? I couldn't read music, and I could barely play,” League says with a chuckle. “I wouldn't have had an easy time believing that.”
The four-time Grammy winner is returning home with his shapeshifting jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy, who are scheduled to open for Steely Dan at the Dickies Arena on Thursday, June 2.
While the show was originally scheduled for June 2020 before numerous postponements, Snarky Puppy was a last-minute addition to the tour after original opening act Steve Winwood pulled out due to issues brought on by the pandemic. League says it’s a dream come true to tour with Steely Dan.
“It's been amazing,” he says. “We've played three gigs now, and I've seen every second of every gig. It's incredible watching them play every night. They’re one of my favorite bands ever. And to have the ability to check them out time after time is something that I don't think anybody in Snarky Puppy has taken for granted.”
Despite having played these handful of shows so far, League has yet to personally speak to the Dan’s head honcho, Donald Fagen.
“I haven't bothered Donald yet just because COVID protocols are pretty intense and I'm trying to be respectful of that stuff,” he says. “But I'm sure at some point, maybe near the end of the run or something, I’ll initiate a conversation with him.”
According to League, Snarky Puppy’s inclusion on the tour may have something to do with music legend David Crosby, with whom League has recorded a handful of collaborative albums under Crosby’s name.
“This tour is David's fault,” League says laughing. “I think David has been putting pressure on Donald to collaborate with us in some context for a long time. And this was the opportunity when Steve Winwood canceled.”
League says his time in Denton was not only informative to his music education, it was essential to the essence of what Snarky Puppy became, particularly thanks to his relationship with late North Texas music stalwart Bernard Wright, who died on May 19.
“When we were in North Texas, we sounded like a band from North Texas,” League says. “It was definitely more cerebral. And our perspective on music and the way we were approaching it was heavily influenced by a collegiate music environment. And what Bernard and all of those musicians from the Dallas music scene did was basically expose the group to a different mentality and purpose.”
League goes as far as to say that Wright’s influence on him was the connective tissue between his studies at UNT and the real world.
"The scene was so accepting and so warm and generous that then by the time I moved to New York, I felt like I understood what it was like to be a professional musician.” –Michael League
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“[Wright] kind of took me under his wing and brought me into the Black American music scene in Dallas,” he says. “The gospel, R&B, hip-hop, soul thing that was happening. He opened up this whole incredibly artistically rich world to me. We were playing at church three times a week together, and then after church, he would take me out to jam sessions or gigs or whatever, and he effectively became my mentor.”
During his time on the UNT campus, League says the school became a source for more technical music education rather than informing him on outside experiences.
“[UNT] gave me exactly what I needed because when I showed up in North Texas, I really wasn't technically proficient on my instrument, and I couldn't read all this kind of stuff, " he says. "So, it served me perfectly. I never had the impression that when I leave these walls, I'm going to be perfectly prepared for a life of professional musicianship. Dallas was a really great way of easing me into that.
"The scene was so accepting and so warm and generous that then by the time I moved to New York, I felt like I understood what it was like to be a professional musician without just getting thrown straight from a little school in Texas to like the biggest music city in the world.”
Perhaps most important, League says the thing he learned the most in DFW was how to relax.
“I would show up to gigs, super stressed out,” he says. “’Do I know all the songs? Do I know all the breaks?’ And then we'd go on stage, and it always went well. To play a gig like that, you need a different set of skills. You know, you need to have ears, you need to be flexible, you need to be open to things happening. All of the musicians in the Dallas scene, they're just very easygoing and relaxed people and music flows out of them in a way that's a part of life.”
As for working with Crosby again, League says new music is coming sooner than later.
“We just finished a third [record],” he says. “We also made a live DVD at a concert in Tarrytown, New York, four years ago with the Lighthouse Band — Becca Stevens, Michelle Willis, David and myself — and that is, I think, going to mastering this week. So that'll be coming out before the end of the year. And then last year, we made our third studio record of David and I together."
That recording came together at Sunset Studios in Los Angeles, and for the first time, the group used a drummer on it, "the great Aaron Sterling," League says.
"I'm more excited about it than any of the ... records that we've done together," League says of their latest effort. "It's very special. So, I think that'll be coming out first thing next year.”
