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Snarky Puppy’s second night at the Variety Playhouse was stellar, as usual.  The enthusiastic crowd was treated to a special Ready Wednesday encore featuring a couple of special tricks.  First, Bill Laurance, who penned the tune, opened it up with a dark, gothy Shofukan intro leading into the tune.  Then, at about the seven minute point, Mark Lettieri crushes an extended bluesy, psychedelic guitar solo. Third and unbeknownst to much of the crowd Robert “Sput” Searight was on the drum.  The tune closes out with Bill’s beautiful outro which is also featured on his solo album “Live at Union Chapel”Continue Reading

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True to their heritage, Snarky Puppy brought a different lineup, sound and clever set list to the second night of the GroundUP Music Festival on Saturday night.  Bringing Zach Brock (violin) and Bill Laurance (keys) in together nearly guarantees that one or more of Bill’s classic tunes would be played and this time was no different with a splendid rendition of Ready Wednesday. The set was also notable for its excellent highlighting of players solos, in particular, as noted with the set list below: Set list: Flood featuring Nate percussion break GØ – Maz and Bill stretch out Beep Box –Continue Reading

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Snarky Puppy is a global phenomena – super popular overseas in Japan, Asia, Europe and Latin America – and totally on point in the U.S. with its extremely knowledgeable fan base.  FunkCity.net recently had the pleasure of attending the second GroundUP Music Festival in Miami Beach which is produced by the band and its label.  The fest brings together a eclectic mix of music that you will not hear anywhere else on the planet.  It’s a mix of Snarky Puppy sets, GroundUP label mates and bands that you may or may not have heard of but that you should knowContinue Reading

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If you have ever seen, wanna see, or wanna hear Snarky Puppy at it’s wild and craziest, funkiest, longest live track ever, then buy this live show and listen to Binky, a 30-minute show within a show.  The second half of the tune featured Shaun Martin’s Go-Go Party in a medley that makes my pulse race for the countdown to the GroundUP Music Festival when that will be one of the first night late nite sets.  The medley rides from We Want the Funk (Parliament-Funkadelic) to Party & Bullshit to Thank You Falletin Me Be Myself  to Shout! and rightContinue Reading

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Ghost-Note, the innovative percussion-driven funk band rolled into Aisle 5 ATL and drew a huge, energized crowd. The band, led by Robert “Sput” Searight and Nate Werth, each of Snarky Puppy fame, put their imprint on the funk with their original tunes drawn from their first album Fortified and their second, yet to be released album Swagism (2018).  The band featured MonoNeon on bass (formerly with Prince), M. Jelani Brooks on sax and local trombonist extraordinaire Daniel Wytanis sitting in on this track below: Ghost-Note “Swagism” at Aisle 5 Swagism, the new double disc album is sure to please as SputContinue Reading

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Bill Laurance’s Live at Union Chapel is Grammy-worthy material.  I’ve procrastinated reviewing this CD/DVD since getting my copy in February simply because it’s been in my car rotation every since and I wanted to do it justice.  It’s a live performance in London accompanied by his Snarky Puppy bandmates Michael League on bass and Robert “Sput” Searight on drums along with Felix Higginbottom on percussion.  A full string section plus French horn round out the team. Overall it is one of the richest sounding live piano/keys albums I’ve ever heard and instantly enters into my list of all-time classics.  The musicianship,Continue Reading

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This show will go down as one of the most surprising, great shows of the year! Having seen Jimmy only a few times with Widespread Panic, KDTU and Colonel Bruce Hampton, I was expected a full on jam band vibe.  I certainly know Kevin Scott and Matt Slocum from the ATL scene and have seen them play multiple styles from jazz improv to soul to exceptional funk to straight up rock and roll. But Jimmy Herring and the Invisible Whip — well, they tore the Terminal West house down.  The sound blended the best of new space age trance andContinue Reading

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Video interview with the bassist and bandleader at Newport 2015 Source: Michael League on Snarky Puppy’s Origins and Process – JazzTimesContinue Reading

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In just a few years the ‘Texan-born, New York-bred’ dozen-strong jazz/funk band Snarky Puppy has risen from obscurity to cult status. Source: Snarky Puppy, O2 Academy Brixton, review: ‘they set us dancing but made us feel clever at the same time’Continue Reading

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Looking forward to my next Snarky Puppy show April 2; here’s a nice interview on the history and direction of the band.  How did Snarky Puppy turn a decade of financial sorrow into worldwide recognition? We chat with bandleader and composer Michael League. Source: Turning failure into Grammy Awards: an interview with Michael LeagueContinue Reading