One of the most difficult aspects of being a musician in today’s guitar-dominant world is to actually have a distinctive voice. While holding down the guitar chair for the acclaimed band Snarky Puppy, Marj Lettieri showed the audience at The Scherr Forum in Thousand Oaks that he is able to leave the litter and create a personal sound and feel that makes him not only an act to follow, but even be influenced by.
Teamed up with simpatico team of Jason Thomas/dr, Wes Stephenson/b and Daniel Porter/keys, Lettieri used the first half of the 90 minute concert to deliver deep grooves with passioned and plugged in solos. The opening “Bubinga” mixed spacey stringed effects, and sinewy guitar excursions over Stephenson’s thick bass and around Porter’s pretty keys. The leader stretched o ut on over Thomas’ nimble sticks on the exciting and passionate “Lotus” while the drummer popped into double time and rocked hard with some double fisted keyboard work on “Future Fun”.
On the lighter side, Lettieri was lyrical and relaxed, with the strings meowing like the Cat in the Hat on “Seuss Pants” building up to a heated climax, before the guitar turned into a longboard to surf over the groove of “Point Iz”.
Things took an intriguing turn for the second half of the set, as Lettieri picked up the little-used baritone guitar, which sounded a bit like a clavinet as he dug in deep on the supercharged “Red Dwarf” and strutted alongside the relentless rivulet from Stephenson and Thomas on “Voyager One”. Lettieri then tapped into his inner Chet Atkins for a swinging shuffle of “Tidal Tale” that had the drummer create some high white caps before going into hi hat heaven for the chunk funk of “Magnetar”. Closing off with gentle droplets on the slinky and graceful “Spark N’ Echo” and encoring by presenting a t hick and dreamy “Montreal”, Lettieri proved to the audience filled with guitar players and Snarky Puppy fans that there are still new voices to make with six strings, put in the right hands.
Upcoming shows at BAPAC include Three Dog Night 02/09, Rosanne Cash 02/19, Chicago 03/05, JD Souther 03/09 and Gipsy Kings 04/17