Many thanks to Matt Recchia, Snarky Puppy Sound Engineer for providing the overall tour stats and for making this full writeup possible.
Snarky Puppy, the three-time Grammy winning, funk-jazz-world-instrumental ensemble just wrapped their 123 date world tour in support of their excellent 2019 release Immigrance. The tour spanned four continents, 26 countries and 38 of the 50 states in the U.S. This article reviews some of the highlights of the tour and also details the recorded shows posted at LiveSnarky.com for fans that want to purchase specific show downloads based on song or personnel preferences.
As usual, Snarky Puppy rotates its set list and personnel so that each show is unique. Personally I saw 10 shows this year and each one was special in its own rite. Twenty one different artists formed the core battery for each lineup which typically ranged from eight to 10 for each show.
The group played thirty seven different songs over the year, starting with an unveiling of the Immigrance album at the GroundUP Music Festival 2019 and stretching back to rekindle some older tunes like Alma and Intelligent Design. Overall Xavi, a Moroccan rhythm based tune on the Immigrance album was played most often on 97 of the dates with 63 different recorded versions as shown on the chart below.
Several of the songs were played less than five times but most all were recorded at least once so fans can hear all the songs through proper selection of their music purchased. Bardis was played only in Jackson Hole, WY; Big Ugly only in Charlotte, NC; and 34 Klezma only in Covington, KY. Something with Lalah Hathaway was only played at GUMFest in February and not recorded but you can watch our video of that take below.
Including Lalah, there were 36 special guests during the tour, with several covering multiple dates. Some of the highlights include the L.A. Philharmonic; Ghost-Note leader and former Snarky Puppy drummer, Robert “Sput” Searight; Cory Henry, former Snarky Puppy keyboardist and leader of Cory Henry and the Funk Apostles; Nicolas Payton, Weedie Braimah, Chris Potter (artist at large at GUMFest 2020), Jacob Collier, Louis Cole, Jeff Coffin and Malika Tirolien.
Overall, just over 1/2 of the tour was recorded live (64 shows) with one from London’s Royal Albert Hall made available for purchase as a special CD/vinyl edition. The rest are available for on the Snarky Puppy website. Of the 63 (without RAH), Lingus was the most popular song as an encore, being played 21 times. In fact as the chart below shows, nearly 90% of the time it was played, it was an encore. Other popular finales include Shofukan and What About Me?
Of the 37 songs played, eleven were recorded on less than 10% of the tour, or 11 times or less. Several of these were recorded less than five times. If you have a favorite rarity, you might want to look at the chart below to select one of the dates where that song was played to purchase the live show.
On the other hand, if you’re a fanatic like me, and you want to have at least one live version of every song, you can accomplish that by purchasing the eight shows listed below. You can see that all the rarely and more frequently played songs are included on the list at least once.
Someday, I may end up purchasing ALL and I’m already well on the way. If any fan wants some guidance, I’m sure either myself or my friendly Snarky Elves would be glad to help. In the meantime, we wish everyone a great holiday season and Happy New Year! Hope to see everyone at GroundUP Music Festival 2020 in Miami Beach!