Mark Lettieri

The Snarky Puppy virtuoso looks back on the lessons and experiences that have made him one of the masters of contemporary funk fusion…

- Amit Sharma

Mark Lettieri’s CV reads a bit like make-believe. Beyond winning Grammys in fusion collective Snarky Puppy and fronting his own trio, the Californian-born, Texas-based 35 year-old has performed with the likes of Erykah Badu, Nelly and Dave Chappelle. He’s appeared on tracks alongside Eminem, Snoop Dogg, 50 Cent, David Crosby and Xzibit, as well as playing in the house band for the Marcus & Joni Show, a Christian variety programme that gets broadcast to over 200 countries. He is most definitely not your average guitar player. This year, he’s already released new music in Snarky Puppy’s Immigrance and solo album Deep: The Baritone Sessions – both bands hitting the road on either side of the pond and filling up his diary through to Christmas, having kicked off2019 touring through Japan, Australia and New Zealand. Here, the busiest man in funk not called Nile Rodgers gives TG a run through the secrets behind those watertight rhythms and fingertwisting chromatic leads, explaining how discipline and versatility helped get him to where he stands today… A lot of your playing comes down to feel and playing in the ‘pocket’. How exactly did you hone in on that? “You know what’s interesting? I think most of my time-feel came from playing to records rather than practising to a metronome. I did that every now and then, but mostly it was just learning parts from R&B and soul albums. I would learn the guitar parts and play along to the record as close to possible – I think doing that is what could really help people. To give you a blanket answer, any Stevie Wonder, Prince, Sly And The Family Stone or James Brown would work well for this. Especially James Brown, that stuff is like going to the gym for funk guitar!”

Is that how you warm up for shows?