As a core member of Snarky Puppy, a jazz-fusion collective founded in North Texas, guitar virtuoso Mark Lettieri ’05 performs all over the world, from the Longhorn Ballroom in Dallas to Royal Albert Hall in London. In 2021, a fan captured video of Lettieri onstage in Dubai, his sound evoking ’80s guitar legends before slipping into joint-gyrating funk.

Snarky Puppy, which has won five Grammy Awards and captures more than 450,000 monthly listeners on Spotify, has roster flexibility that gives Lettieri time to pursue other musical projects. Lettieri, who earned a Grammy nomination for his solo album in 2022, also is a member of the funk band the Fearless Flyers, and he leads the Mark Lettieri Group, a trio-turned-quartet.

Lettieri describes his sound as instrumental music for people who might not think they like instrumental music. “It’s high energy, but it’s sensitive,” he said. “It’s melodic. It grooves really hard.”

Strumming

The guitarist, composer, producer and instructor, originally from the San Francisco Bay Area, considered colleges in his home state, but none of them felt right. TCU did.

News that he was admitted and a conversation with Darryl Anderson, TCU’s former head track & field coach, sealed the deal. Lettieri walked on as a long jumper.

Music was only in Lettieri’s periphery during college, he said. He decided to follow in his parents’ footsteps and studied advertising and public relations.

Guitar effects pedals fill a rack in Mark Lettieri’s home studio in Fort Worth.

While settling into life as a Horned Frog, he kept an ear out for classmates he could start a band with. Drummer and classmate John Wesley Sargent caught Lettieri’s attention. Sargent was the only instrumentalist in the TCU Gospel Choir; Lettieri asked if he could join as a guitarist.

That connection led to playing in churches, along with R&B, hip-hop, gospel, soul and jazz gigs in Dallas and Fort Worth. “I loved the music, I loved the faith, and it was a really cool community to be welcomed into,” Lettieri said. “I owe a lot to deciding to join the gospel choir.”

Sargent and Lettieri also formed a band called the League, with Lettieri on guitar, Sargent on drums, Fabian Morice ’04 on bass and Vincent Guerin ’03 on keys. The group played at TCU functions, the Aardvark and all the usual haunts. The summer before his senior year, Lettieri interned at a public relations firm his father had worked for. “It was fun, but very clearly not where my heart was,” Lettieri said. “I knew deep down it wasn’t really going to work.”

Nonetheless, Lettieri finished his degree in advertising and public relations. Shortly after, he met Shalyn Sutton Lettieri ’07 (BSN ’09), a Bedford, Texas, native. The couple married in 2012 and welcomed a daughter in 2017.

Changing Tune

For two years after graduation, Lettieri worked for a custom promotional products company by day. By night, he was building connections in the DFW music scene. He started a couple of bands that included other TCU alumni. Eventually he quit his day job to pursue music full time.

“When I was younger and had no responsibility, I said yes to everything,” he said. “You take any gig with anybody for any amount of money because you’re hungry, and you want experience, and everything can be positive in some way.”

As his network grew, Lettieri met musician Michael League, who had formed jazz-fusion band Snarky Puppy with University of North Texas classmates in 2004. The two played various gigs together, and in 2008 League asked Lettieri to fill in on guitar with Snarky Puppy.

“Mark was really coming from this funk and church thing. He’s obviously more than that — he’s very versatile — but it was a flavor that we did not have in the Snarky Puppy guitar section,” League said. “He has an incredible groove and feel.”

In 2008, Mark Lettieri started playing with musician Michael League, who helped formed Snarky Puppy. By 2014, the group was picking up its first Grammy award.

Lettieri became a core member of the band, which has amassed dozens of musicians who rotate in and out of shows depending on availability. “Anytime a musician plays with a group, they move the music in a certain direction, and that imprint is always there,” League said. “Mark has definitely left an imprint.”

Snarky Puppy won its first Grammy Award in 2014 for best R&B performance, followed by a quartet of Grammys for best contemporary instrumental album in 2016, 2017, 2021 and 2023.

The most recent win was for the collective’s 15th album, Empire Central. Lettieri wrote the record’s first single, “Trinity,” a gently building groove named for the Texas river.

During Snarky Puppy shows, the sounds flow easily among the musicians. Lettieri plays his eight-string, locking grooves with League, changing effects with pedals and tossing back his curly hair.

“Onstage, he has rock star energy,” League said. “Mark is like an ’80s rock star that just was born a couple of decades too late.”

Beyond Snarky Puppy

When he’s not onstage, Lettieri often records himself playing guitar in his home studio. He posts videos to Instagram, including freestyle jams trying out new pedals or an attention-grabbing intro to promote an upcoming performance. Careful viewers might notice that his fingernails are sometimes painted, compliments of his daughter.

People in Lettieri’s circle are quick to point out riffs that have album potential. The guitarist said he catalogs ideas in his phone, computer and mind. He goes back through his notes and gathers the “little sparks” to flesh them out and “make a statement in the form of an album.” He calls his wife his muse.

Mark Lettieri’s line of electric guitars is named Fiore, the Italian word for flower.

Lettieri has his own line of electric guitars with Paul Reed Smith Guitars. His daughter helped name the line Fiore, which is a nod to his Italian heritage. Because Lettieri didn’t want his name on the front of the instrument, his mother, visual artist Marianne Lettieri, designed a tapestry-inspired symbol for the base of the guitar’s headstock.

In November 2017, when Vulfpeck guitarist Cory Wong was forming the Fearless Flyers and looking for a third guitarist, he remembered Lettieri’s Instagram videos. Wong told his bandmates about “this dude on the internet doing a baritone funk thing.”

Wong said his vision for the Fearless Flyers was to have four musicians — three guitarists and one drummer — at “Olympic-level funk.”

“Not everybody gets excited about two rhythm guitar parts interweaving and breaking up and then coming back together. Mark and I are both equally excited about that,” Wong said. “He’s got a lot of forward momentum in his time, and he’s just an incredible player.”

As a solo artist, Lettieri garnered a 2022 Grammy nomination in the same category Snarky Puppy has dominated — best contemporary instrumental album — for Deep: The Baritone Sessions Vol. 2.

“Just to have it even be recognized on that level … I felt a lot of validation,” he said. “It’s like, wow, I should be doing this. This is why I’m here. These songs are important. The stuff that I’m creating is reaching people, and I’m moving them in some way.”

Up Next

While Lettieri finds his collaborations gratifying, the artist said performing in three bands takes sacrifice. Lately, he said, he’s been more strategic about selecting which tours he goes on and how long he stays on them, while also balancing his work as a solo artist. His fellow musicians respect his approach and talents.

“It’s inspiring to see how committed and connected he is to his family and how grounded and down-to-earth of a person that he is,” League said. “The way he plays has inspired me … to get certain elements of my musicianship better in shape.”

“Mark is going to go down in history as one of the greats on guitar,” Wong said. “I love watching everything that he does because he does it with excellence.”

In August 2023, Lettieri released a live Mark Lettieri Group album, Out By Midnight: Live at the Iridium, recorded at the New York City jazz club where guitar legend Les Paul performed weekly for more than a decade.

“I have the most fun playing music onstage,” he said. “It’s a great feeling to have response for something that you created. … I like being up there and playing loud and making people pay attention.”

How good is Mark Lettieri? “Mark is going to go down in history as one of the greats on guitar,” Vulfpeck guitarist Cory Wong said. “I love watching everything that he does because he does it with excellence.”