On a warm September night in the Hollywood Hills, Hiatus Kaiyote and Snarky Puppy joined forces to turn the Hollywood Bowl into a cosmic laboratory of funk, soul, and spacey jazz fusion. KJAZZ brought together two of the most adventurous bands on the planet for a double bill that felt less like a concert and more like a carnival of groove, color, and collective improvisation.

Before the big bands took the stage, the night began with Georgia Anne Muldrow, who conjured a kaleidoscope of sound with nothing but her voice, a laptop, and some synth wizardry. It was avant-garde, bold, and just the right portal into a night that would defy neat genre classifications.

Any conversation about modern jazz fusion heavyweights has to start with Snarky Puppy. Since forming in Denton, Texas back in 2004, this shapeshifting collective has racked up five Grammys and a reputation for being both precision-tight and wildly joyful. The late David Crosby once aptly described them as a “big, funky, romping, muscular jazz band.”

At the Bowl, Michael League led the charge on bass alongside a crew of heavy hitters that included Bobby Sparks II (keys), Justin Stanton (trumpet/keys), Bob Lanzetti (guitar), Mike “Maz” Maher and Jay Jennings (trumpets), Bob Reynolds and Chris Bullock (saxes, flute, clarinet), Zach Brock (violin), Nate Werth (percussion), and Jamison Ross (drums).

They wasted no time diving into a short-but-sweet set that spanned much of the band’s catalog. “Sleeper” and “Grown Folks” got the Bowl bobbing, while “Flood” and “Xavi” unfurled with layer after layer of rhythm and melody. Between songs, League explained that the band was “getting all the old music out” before Snarky Puppy drops their next album in the fall. He also noted that they’d be on a plane to Argentina by 2 a.m. that night, but you’d never have known they were on a clock; they played like they had all night.

The highlight of the set came during “Lingus”, when Zach Brock’s violin turned into a psychedelic shred machine, channeling pure guitar-god energy on four strings. The jam blasted the Bowl into another dimension, drawing cheers that echoed through the canyons.

Snarky Puppy – “Lingus” – 9/3/25

[Video: MKDevo]

Where Snarky Puppy deals in sprawling instrumental jazz-funk, Hiatus Kaiyote swims in psychedelic soul. The Melbourne, Australia-based outfit is all sorts of smoky, funky, and irresistibly weird. They’ve been sampled by Kendrick Lamar, Drake, Beyoncé, Jay-Z, and more, but live they’re a different beast: unpredictable, mystical, and communal.

Their stage setup looked like a cartoon dream. They were backed by a trippy banner with the band’s name splashed across it, v-shaped lights flashing in kaleidoscopic bursts, and two rainbow dragon sculptures glowing at the stage’s edge. It was part mystic temple, part neon playground.

Nai Palm floated at center stage, her vocals bending time and space, while Perrin Moss kept the drums slinky, Paul Bender drove the bass with swampy swagger, and Simon Mavin turned the synths into a rainbow of sonic textures.

Hiatus Kaiyote opened their set with “And We Go Gentle”, easing the crowd in before diving into their new record, Love Heart Cheat Code, with its title track and the shimmering “Rainbow Rhodes”. Favorites like “Get Sun” and “Jekyll” had the audience swaying in a blissed-out trance, while deep cuts like “Dreamboat” and “Rose Water” showcased the band’s softer, dreamier side. Nai encouraged the crowd to sing along to “Red Room”, which remains one of the group’s signature songs.

Things got downright surreal on “Only Time All the Time / Making Friends With Studio Owl”, which blurred into “Dimitri” before exploding into “Shaolin Monk Motherfunk”. The closer stretched into a sprawling, space-funk jam that left the Bowl glowing under the Hollywood stars.

Hiatus Kaiyote – Hollywood Bowl – Los Angeles, CA – 9/3/25

[Video: MKDevo]

Together, Snarky Puppy and Hiatus Kaiyote made a perfect pair: one band an unstoppable funk-jazz machine, the other a psychedelic soul caravan. Both stretched the limits of jazz fusion, showing that the genre’s future is wide open, boundary-free, and pulsing with color.

Snarky Puppy now heads south for a whirlwind run that, after its aforementioned stop in Argentina, will make stops across Chile, Brazil, Colombia, Ecuador, Peru, and Mexico through the end of September before shifting into the next album cycle.

Hiatus Kaiyote, meanwhile, will take their rainbow dragons abroad, with two shows in Japan this October.

At the Bowl, the two bands didn’t just share a bill—they shared a vision: that funk, jazz, and soul are best experienced as a living, breathing, genre-busting celebration. On this night in Hollywood, that vision was loud, proud, and gloriously funky.