Larnell Lewis is a Toronto-based drummer, composer, producer, and educator. He is best known for playing drums for the Brooklyn-based jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy.

Lewis was born in Toronto, Ontario, in 1984, and was first introduced to the drums in church where his father was the musical director. His parents, coming from St. Kitts and Nevis in the Caribbean, introduced him to a wide array of music that he soon learned to play, such as gospel, soca, calypso, reggae, zouk, and funk. Along with drums, Lewis took up electric bass and piano.

He attended Humber College for their renowned music program, where he received the 2004 Oscar Peterson Award for Outstanding Achievement in Music – the highest award given by the institution. His big break came in 2011, when he was playing at Toronto’s Rex Hotel the same night as Snarky Puppy. Impressed with his playing, bandleader and bassist Michael League invited him to sit in on a tune. Soon after, Lewis was asked to sub in for many gigs, before becoming one of their resident drummers.

In 2016 Lewis was featured on the cover of Modern Drummer magazine, alongside fellow Snarky Puppy drummers Robert “Sput” Searight and Jason “JT” Thomas. The year after, he was named one of the Top 35 Artists Under 35 by CBC Music and received the Emerging Jazz Artist award from the Ontario Arts Foundation. He served as musical director for a live performance during the Toronto International Film Festival for the premiere of Quincy, a documentary on the iconic producer Quincy Jones, who led performances for artists like Yebba, Mark Ronson, and Chaka Khan.

In 2018, he released his first solo album, In The Moment, with features performances from a wide range of musicians including Snarky Puppy bandmates, Shaun Martin and Mark Letteri, and fellow Canadians like Mike Downes and Robi Botos. In 2020, he released Relive The Moment which features re-imaginings of his original compositions on In The Moment. His third record, A Slice of Life, came out in 2024.

In February 2021, he recorded a video for the YouTube channel Drumeo in which he listened to the famed Metallica song “Enter Sandman” for the first time and played the drum part for the entire song after hearing it just once. The video went viral, with over 16 million views as of March 2024, earning Lewis a whole new influx of fans.

Lewis is an active member of Snarky Puppy and has performed with a variety of other artists such as Laila Biali, Fred Hammond, Michael Brecker, Jeremy Ledbetter, Gregory Porter, Lalah Hathway, John Scofield, Pat Metheny, and more. He currently teaches drums at his alma mater, Humber College, and is raising two kids with his wife and fellow musician, Joy Lapps.

He has played on one Grammy-award winning records with Snarky Puppy, Chulcha Vulcha (2016), and two Juno-award winning albums; Mike Downes’ Root Structure (2017), and Emilie-Clair Barlow’s Clear Day (2015).

Awards

• 2019 Juno Award Nomination – Jazz Album of the Year: Solo (In the Moment)
• 2017 Grammy Award – Snarky Puppy (Contemporary Instrumental Album of the Year)
• 2018 Ontario Arts Council
• 2017 Toronto Arts Foundation – Emerging Jazz Artist Award
• 2015 Toronto Arts Council – Recording Grant
• 2014 Ontario Arts Council – Access and Development Grant
• 2012 FACTOR – Demo Grant
• 2004 Oscar Peterson Award – Humber College Music
• 2003 Yamaha Kando Award – MusicFest Canada