Justin Stanton, an ETSU graduate and member of the unique jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy, won his third Grammy award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album on March 14.
The band has won four Grammy awards, the first in 2014, but Stanton was not featured in the album that won Snarky Puppy’s first Grammy. Stanton compared his first Grammy win to graduating from the kid’s table at family dinner to sitting with the adults. Due to COVID-19, their most recent Grammy win occurred virtually, but the excitement is the same.
Stanton is from Elizabethton, Tennessee, where he first discovered his passion for music attending the All-State Band competition. He went on to graduate from ETSU with a bachelor’s degree in music in 2005. After graduation, Stanton attended the University of North Texas for his master’s degree in jazz performance.
Stanton said his high school band directors, including Perry Elliot, “always inspired me to do great, and they always inspired the members of the band to do great.”
Stanton began his education with the goal of becoming a band director and then a college professor, but he
later realized his passion for music performance. While at the UNT, Stanton encountered many dedicated musicians and was inspired to pursue something larger in his career.
“It was just like a thirst to learn more and be more involved in anything, but always the central focus was music,” said Stanton.
In Texas, Stanton met the members of Snarky Puppy and began working with the band. At first, the band members worked other jobs to maintain Snarky Puppy, but after their first Grammy win, things took off. The band has amounted wild success and has toured across the globe in Europe, Australia, South America, Japan and China. Now, Snarky Puppy supports the band members’ side projects.
“It was really a one step at a time thing,” said Stanton. “Opportunities presented themselves along the way. If it felt right to make a change and go in a different direction, then I tried to pursue that path if it felt like the right thing to do.”
Stanton now lives with his girlfriend in Lisbon, the capital of Portugal, where he is still working on music. This fall, Stanton will release his newest album “Mirrors.” Stanton gathered three people from the United States, one person from Spain and his girlfriend, who sings traditional Portuguese music called Fado, to collaborate in the middle of COVID-19. Stanton constructed a studio space out of nothing, where the musicians co-wrote and recorded music over a span of two weeks.
Despite their Grammy wins, Stanton does not take the awards as validation of an endpoint and feels Snarky Puppy will always have room to grow. His own music career is ever-expanding.
“As long as I feel like I’m growing in something and I feel like I have something to strive for, I’m going to keep doing what I’m doing,” said Stanton, “It’s always like a path, it can diverge at any point.”
