Snarky Puppy

[PaulyT]

This is Snarky Puppy with orchestra, although not the same gig from the videos I posted earlier. Will post more when I can find my jaw.

EDIT: Found jaw, wiped off slobber, reinstalled in groove (there's a lot of 'em flying around right now).
OMG! This is an incredible music set! HUGE amount of musicians: orchestra, three keyboardists, 5 'bones, 3 trumpets, 5 french horns, 3 guitarists, electric bass and a tuba, 2 drummers, 2 percussionists, flautists, even a bass clarinet; only things missing were vocalists of any kind, and turntablists! (there's even a kalimba, an African thumb piano!)
The last ten years or so of my bar band career, I refused to play in any band that had two or more guitarists, I hate overplaying. This huge group are obviously well-trained, they know how to SHUT UP where required and let the Magic happen! And can KILL as a full group when required. I really, really love this!
Pauly, I think you'd like this. :handgestures-thumbup:
:bow-blue: :bow-blue: :bow-blue:

Ok just finished watching this one. And yeah... I like this. I LOVE this. So much that I'm starting a new thread on this band.

This concert is a fascinating blend of contemporary jazz/funk/fusion, with orchestral backing. I've never heard anything quite like it, although the initial bit kinda brought to mind Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain. Great SQ (even though it's only a DVD with DD 2.0, I really wish it were in surround), quite good PQ for a DVD, and a terrific performance. Yeah it's a headphone-fest, all the band/orchestra and even the audience members (although the band+orch probably outnumbered the "audience" by a least 3:1) had headphones. But it kinda makes sense, as it was a smallish venue with a ton of people in it, no way any one person could possibly hear everything that's going on, without electronic assistance. A very interesting way to perform a concert, again never seen anything quite like it. Being an audio engineer for this would've been a hoot.

And there's a mostly chordal piano solo towards the end of "The Curtain" that was AWESOME (even if he was playing a Yamaha piano ). I mean, to me, to the point of bringing tears to my eyes, I'm un-ashamed to admit. I cherish when that happens, as it's not something that happens frequently.

Anyway, I'll definitely be exploring this group some more. Botch, what do you think of the other albums of theirs that you've heard? I've seen you post a few of them...

 

[Botch]

Pauly, after I posted my recommendation to you I took the CD out to the car, and listened for a few days. It's not good car music, sounded like a movie soundtrack. You really need to listen to this in a good environment, and the video adds so much, what a band!
It WAS "The Curtain" that made me think of you and make the recommendation, gorgeous piece! So glad you liked it! When I bought this disk Amazon showed me the "Customers also bought:" and I got the three disks at one price. I wish I'd done a bit more research, the other two CD-only disks I got were also done in DVD+CD sets, wish I'd bought them instead.
Read up a bit about the band on Wikipedia, the bass player/principle composer/leader has won a couple Grammies. What amazes me is that such a large band can continue for 8 years and make a living (I have no doubt they all do other things, and probably a lot of personnel turnover with a band that big).
Something else that's cool: the three disks I have are ALL LIVE, no overdubs or punch-ins. Yeah, you can hear a biff here and there, but overall the performances were Excellent! I love that kind of professionalism.
And I agree, the blend of jazz, funk, big band, and orchestral, I've never seen before; Bravo!
Again, glad you liked it!

 

[PaulyT]

Thanks, good to know. Ok I've ordered three more of the CD+DVD concerts - Tell Your Friends, groundUP, and We Like It Here.

 

[Deleted member 133]

This is Snarky Puppy with orchestra, although not the same gig from the videos I posted earlier. Will post more when I can find my jaw.

EDIT: Found jaw, wiped off slobber, reinstalled in groove (there's a lot of 'em flying around right now).
OMG! This is an incredible music set! HUGE amount of musicians: orchestra, three keyboardists, 5 'bones, 3 trumpets, 5 french horns, 3 guitarists, electric bass and a tuba, 2 drummers, 2 percussionists, flautists, even a bass clarinet; only things missing were vocalists of any kind, and turntablists! (there's even a kalimba, an African thumb piano!)
The last ten years or so of my bar band career, I refused to play in any band that had two or more guitarists, I hate overplaying. This huge group are obviously well-trained, they know how to SHUT UP where required and let the Magic happen! And can KILL as a full group when required. I really, really love this!
Pauly, I think you'd like this. :handgestures-thumbup:
:bow-blue: :bow-blue: :bow-blue:

Ok just finished watching this one. And yeah... I like this. I LOVE this. So much that I'm starting a new thread on this band.

This concert is a fascinating blend of contemporary jazz/funk/fusion, with orchestral backing. I've never heard anything quite like it, although the initial bit kinda brought to mind Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain. Great SQ (even though it's only a DVD with DD 2.0, I really wish it were in surround), quite good PQ for a DVD, and a terrific performance. Yeah it's a headphone-fest, all the band/orchestra and even the audience members (although the band+orch probably outnumbered the "audience" by a least 3:1) had headphones. But it kinda makes sense, as it was a smallish venue with a ton of people in it, no way any one person could possibly hear everything that's going on, without electronic assistance. A very interesting way to perform a concert, again never seen anything quite like it. Being an audio engineer for this would've been a hoot.

And there's a mostly chordal piano solo towards the end of "The Curtain" that was AWESOME (even if he was playing a Yamaha piano ). I mean, to me, to the point of bringing tears to my eyes, I'm un-ashamed to admit. I cherish when that happens, as it's not something that happens frequently.

Anyway, I'll definitely be exploring this group some more. Botch, what do you think of the other albums of theirs that you've heard? I've seen you post a few of them...

Just reserved a copy (CD + DVD) from the library. Looking forward to hearing / watching it.

Jeff

 

[PaulyT]

Watched "We Like it Here" tonight. Not as much of a formal concert as Sylva, more of a documentary of making an album. But still there are audience members in the room (a studio, not a concert venue), and they show the entire songs. In-between though, there's interview snippets, glimpses of live concerts (where they don't actually wear headphones ), etc. I love this sort of stuff, behind the scenes looks at what they're up to, gives me a greater sense of connection with the band and the intention of their music. And this one's pretty funny in places!

Music was right up there with Sylva. The one that stood out most to me was "What About Me?" - the drummer was AMAZING, and he did this cool thing where he put a pause in the beat, like where 99.999% of drummers would put a hit of some sort in, he left a space. It was an amazing effect. And from what you gather from the interviews and such, he was a replacement drummer when their regular guy couldn't make it for some reason, and showed up only the morning of the first recording session.

Anyway, I'm loving this band. I'm pretty sure I'll soon own all of their recorded material. I have the four live/DVD albums already, kinda moving backwards towards the earlier audio-only albums.

 

[PaulyT]

Actually I think Botch may have posted this one already... but here's the one I was talking about above, with the drum thing starting around 2:20 :

[youtube]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=fuhHU_BZXSk[/youtube]

 

[Botch]

^^^ Thanks Paulie, We like it here is one I don't have yet, CD or Combo; boughted! :handgestures-thumbup:

 

[heeman]

This is Snarky Puppy with orchestra, although not the same gig from the videos I posted earlier. Will post more when I can find my jaw.

EDIT: Found jaw, wiped off slobber, reinstalled in groove (there's a lot of 'em flying around right now).
OMG! This is an incredible music set! HUGE amount of musicians: orchestra, three keyboardists, 5 'bones, 3 trumpets, 5 french horns, 3 guitarists, electric bass and a tuba, 2 drummers, 2 percussionists, flautists, even a bass clarinet; only things missing were vocalists of any kind, and turntablists! (there's even a kalimba, an African thumb piano!)
The last ten years or so of my bar band career, I refused to play in any band that had two or more guitarists, I hate overplaying. This huge group are obviously well-trained, they know how to SHUT UP where required and let the Magic happen! And can KILL as a full group when required. I really, really love this!
Pauly, I think you'd like this. :handgestures-thumbup:
:bow-blue: :bow-blue: :bow-blue:

Ok just finished watching this one. And yeah... I like this. I LOVE this. So much that I'm starting a new thread on this band.

This concert is a fascinating blend of contemporary jazz/funk/fusion, with orchestral backing. I've never heard anything quite like it, although the initial bit kinda brought to mind Miles Davis's Sketches of Spain. Great SQ (even though it's only a DVD with DD 2.0, I really wish it were in surround), quite good PQ for a DVD, and a terrific performance. Yeah it's a headphone-fest, all the band/orchestra and even the audience members (although the band+orch probably outnumbered the "audience" by a least 3:1) had headphones. But it kinda makes sense, as it was a smallish venue with a ton of people in it, no way any one person could possibly hear everything that's going on, without electronic assistance. A very interesting way to perform a concert, again never seen anything quite like it. Being an audio engineer for this would've been a hoot.

And there's a mostly chordal piano solo towards the end of "The Curtain" that was AWESOME (even if he was playing a Yamaha piano ). I mean, to me, to the point of bringing tears to my eyes, I'm un-ashamed to admit. I cherish when that happens, as it's not something that happens frequently.

Anyway, I'll definitely be exploring this group some more. Botch, what do you think of the other albums of theirs that you've heard? I've seen you post a few of them...

Just ordered it!

:music-rockout: :music-rockout:

 

[Barney]

WOW!
This is strange. My son feel in love with this group. So guess what ? They will be playing in Austin on Sept 12th so I ordered 3 tickets for us. Just this morning I had to email them because I haven't got my tickets yet (ordered them on Aug 17th) so all I have to do is show my photo ID at the box office.
My son has showed me a youtube of them and all we listened to was the drummer. Also found out my son's percussion teacher is going.

 

[PaulyT]

:handgestures-thumbup:

 

[Botch]

:handgestures-thumbup:

 

[heeman]

:handgestures-thumbup:

 

[PaulyT]

Just watched / listened to "Tell Your Friends". And, compared to the other two I reviewed above... meh. Good music, still, but nowhere near the "drive" of the newer ones. It's a little older; like they're finding their groove, but not quite there yet.

 

[Barney]

Well, me & my son are here at the Historic Scoot Inn...1st band will be Foe Distroyer from 8 to 8:45, not sure if we can take it, then at 9 Snarky Puppy for 2 sets.
This place is outdoors.

 

[Barney]

Outstanding performance ! Each performer had a solo or pairs/solos. ...the percussionists were out of this world. My son said he didn't recognize the drummer's name (guess a guest player) and a guy from Indiana (I think).
Such a great show with lots of energy & happiness that carried over to the huge standing room only crowd. They will have a recording of the show sometime next week & a new album in Jan 2016. They are ending their tour soon. Hope they do another tour again, we'll be there and I suggest to everyone, if they are near you....go, no, run and witness such a beautiful concert and the children can go.....my 15 yr old son turned me onto this group.

 

[PaulyT]

I agree about their energy. Their latest two "concert" cd/dvd shows are filled with it. They're kinda different because they're something somewhere in between a studio album recording session and a live concert. I like their willingness to experiment with the format; I gather from a few comments in one of the vids that they did this to bring more of a live energy to the recordings, but with the ability to maintain a studio quality sound.

 

[Barney]

:text-bump:
My son checked their site and the live recording in Austin is available now so we bought it in FLACK lossless (I hope it was losses). Their site gives a link to a company that is selling the recordings (has many live locations) which also sells recordings of other artists.
He put it on my phone & plan of listening to it tomorrow.

 

[PaulyT]

Giving this one another spin. After having bought + seen all of the videos Snarky Puppy has produced, I think this is still my favorite. It's the most sophisticated and polished, IMHO. Of course, a lot of that is because they're backed by a full orchestra, with a nice balance between full ensemble and parts played by just the core band. Lots of good solos. But what gets me most, still, is the piano solo towards the end of The Curtain. It's one of the most emotionally moving contemporary piano performances I have seen.

Great stuff. It maybe doesn't have quite the energy of We Like It Here, as it's a rather different style. But musically/compositionally this one appeals to me probably the most.