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GroundUP Music Festival is back at the Miami Beach Bandshell in 2025 in a different but packed and stacked, star-studded lineup.  The Bandshell facility has been undergoing construction required a new, more intimate festival setting. The main stage area will also include a stage at the back of the bandshell for the bands so there will be minimal walking and maximum continuous music. If you’re reading this, you probably already know about the 5-time Grammy winning host band, Snarky Puppy. This will be the eighth GUMF event and I’m so excited for this 2-day program. In fact, we’ll get moreContinue Reading

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Shaun Martin, the vibrant, entertaining keyboardist passed away last week after a long illness. He was renowned for his work with Snarky Puppy and Kirk Franklin as well as his fantastic solo albums. Shaun was a very special talent but an even more special person and I’m proud to say, a friend of mine. One of his superpowers was making everyone around him feel special. The evidence is all over social media, as news spread of his passing, hundreds of people posted pictures with Shaun, always smiling and always ready to chat (like the main picture, taken just prior toContinue Reading

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Snarky Puppy is my favorite band and for me the most innovative and unique sounding over the last 25 years.  I got hip to them ‘late’, back in 2013 when they were already barnstorming around the U.S.  I had a chance to see them at Bear Creek Music and Arts Festival back in 2010, but somehow didn’t make it.  But back on September 12, 2013, I got pulled hard into the Snarky Puppy vortex at a show at Terminal West in Atlanta. After I left that show not quite sure what I had just witnessed and became fully ‘puppified,’ IContinue Reading

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This show took place at the beautiful Hill Auditorium at the University of Michigan. This particular room is very lively and more suited towards hosting acoustic and orchestral performances; however, this mix sounds great, and the band is still as high energy as ever. This show features mostly new music and lots of these versions sound quite different from the album versions. Something I thought was cool and didn’t notice until writing this, was that every song was grouped together alphabetically! I wonder if this was intentional. Track-By-Track Even Us – McQueen starts this one off like usual with aContinue Reading

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Sixteen years ago – at the time of the Immigrance tour in 2019 – Michael League and his friends founded Snarky Puppy at the University of North Texas.  On October 5, 2019, the Pups ended the final North American leg of the Immigrance tour at the Bomb Factory in Dallas, Texas, so it all came full circle.  For this show, longtime SP stalwarts Mark Lettieri and Shaun Martin sat in with the band.  And if that wasn’t enough, Jason “JT” Thomas and Robert “Sput” Searight hopped onstage to play with Jamison Ross & Keita Ogawa on “Tio Macaco.”  JT isContinue Reading

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Snarky Puppy always gets a positive reception in Florida, and this audience at the Plaza in Orlando is truly dynamite! Maybe it’s the scores of musicians and music lovers based in Florida…or maybe it’s the fact that Bob Reynolds and Jamison Ross are both from Jacksonville.  Who knows? This show also has TWO special guest musicians that are polar opposites, but amazingly gifted in their own ways.  Every single band member kills it in this show, but one of my favorite solos of the night belongs to one of the guest musicians.  Read on to find out more! House ofContinue Reading

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While this Snarky Puppy concert clocks in at under 90 minutes, the quality of the band’s performance is exceptional.  This was the band’s first time in Charleston, and they were ready to deliver a killer show at the Music Farm.  This was also Jamison Ross’s first night as the touring drummer since May…with the exception of the Tokyo Jazz Festival in early September! Having Bob Reynolds on tenor saxophone really boosts the horn section, and the percussive duo of Keita Ogawa & Jamison Ross is second to none.  As usual, Michael League does a stellar job of holding everything together. Continue Reading

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Earth to Bobby Sparks…earth to Bill Laurance…earth to Shaun Martin! Where are these dudes? Well, this is going to be a very different Snarky Puppy show.  I watched the video of the full concert (thanks again to Jake!) and was amazed by how well the eight-man ensemble handled the absence of their keyboardists.  The horns take on more responsibilities in this show, and so does Justin Stanton, who is the lone keyboardist tonight.  And if anybody needs proof of Justin’s badassery, watch him switch between five different keyboards for ninety minutes without breaking a sweat.  You’ll thank me later.  TheContinue Reading

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If you’re a fan of the Immigrance album, this is the show for you! In this setlist, seven of the nine tunes are from that album…only two are from earlier records.  Even with all of the new music, the audience is loud and the atmosphere is electric.  Interestingly, half of the band members onstage at the Tabernacle had just arrived in Atlanta, GA for the final U.S. leg of the Immigrance tour.  Jay Jennings, Chris McQueen, Zach Brock, Nate Werth, and Shaun Martin had all departed; and Bob Lanzetti, Bob Reynolds, Keita Ogawa, and Mike “Maz” Maher came on board. Continue Reading

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Back in late 2019, I discovered a few Snarky Puppy concert videos on YouTube from our very own Jake Funkmayor.  This was one of the first 2019 shows that I heard, and it is a very unique and entertaining show! As far as I know, “Big Ugly” was only performed once during the Immigrance tour…and it happened at the NODA Brewing Company in Charlotte, North Carolina! Chris Bullock’s “Bling Bling” also makes its second-ever live appearance.  Longtime trumpeter Mike “Maz” Maher was unavailable, so Jay Jennings played trumpet and flugelhorn with the Pups for about two weeks.  Three keyboardists wereContinue Reading