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Stoked to be heading back to the Spirit of Suwannee Music Park (SOSMP) for the third edition of the Suwannee Rising Festival which debuted in 2019. Rising has established itself as a premier mid-sized event kicking off the season in early spring in what many have described as the most magical place in the world (adult Disneyland). Scheduled for the time of year and place where two other festivals, Wanee and Aura, were mainstays, Rising has developed its own personality as a combination of funk, jam, soul and rock, not necessarily in that order. The first version in 2019 wasContinue Reading

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Forget about Seattle grunge — the new deal is Seattle funk and soul. Three of my favorite ‘new’ bands are from the Emerald City, Delvon Lamarr Organ Trio, Polyrhythmics and The Dip! The Dip just released their third full length album Sticking With It and it’s a winner. I first got hip to them in summer of 2019 when they played live at Park Tavern in Atlanta. They have an old school soul and funk feel with very catchy lyrics, great horn licks and stellar instrumentalists all around. Top it off with Tom Eddy’s vocals which come through particularly strongContinue Reading

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I  just had a magical experience attending six recording sessions of Empire Central, Snarky Puppy’s next album likely due out in late 2022. For those unaware, Snarky Puppy is a 4-time Grammy-winning instrumental ‘band’ playing jazz, funk, world, fusion or any genre music that was formed at the University of North Texas in the 2000s. Snarky Puppy built a following recording its albums with accompanying DVDs live in front of a small studio audience starting with their Tell Your Friends album (2010). They continued this for four subsequent albums with the most recent being Family Dinner, Vol. 2 recorded inContinue Reading

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The World Is Getting Smaller is Snarky Puppy’s second album, released in 2007, and it’s the first that has some bona fide ‘hits’ that are still being played live today including Intelligent Design and Alma, which were both resurrected for the Immigrance Tour in 2019. The title track has also been played live but not in the last few years. The album really shows the early development of the signature Snarky Puppy style with unusual time signatures and changing melodic arrangements. The second studio album from Snarky Puppy, The World is Getting Smaller features two live drummers (Rob Avsharian andContinue Reading

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Like everyone, 2021 started in a dubious lockdown of live music for me.  I was hoping and looking for some sore of “all clear” signal to come out of hibernation and the Covid protocols of vaccination or negative test along with mask mandates and pod concerts developed. Starting April 2, the day I got my second shot, I ventured out again and the first show I attended was SunSquabi at the Coca-Cola Roxy in Atlanta, and I ended the year seeing them three times. That show was the first of 44 days (that I can count) that I attended liveContinue Reading

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This is it.  After seven months, 123 shows, and countless hours of traveling and performing to packed houses across the world…Snarky Puppy arrived in Nuremberg, Germany for THE TOUR FINALE!! As it turned out, the last show of the Immigrance tour – at the Lowensaal venue – was the Pups’ first time in Nuremberg.  However, it was also the last show for TJ Abbonizio, the band’s longtime tour manager.  He gets a rousing ovation amidst hilarious circumstances which you’ll read about soon.  This set is well-balanced and includes tunes from the band’s vast catalog.  Michelle Willis opened for Snarky Puppy.  Continue Reading

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This year was stranger than any other and for FunkCity.net was demarcated by the before live music was back and live music returns periods. Normally, I’d split time between listening and writing about recorded music and watching and recording live music fairly evenly – this year I did that, but it was really split by the 1st and 2nd halves of the year. I’d really like to recap my top albums of the year, but to be fair, it’s really the top from the 1st half based on how thinks shook out. By first, let’s cover what the year inContinue Reading

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For the penultimate show of the Immigrance tour, Michael League and his band of merry men delivered a great concert at the Im Wizemann venue in Stuttgart, Germany.  This show sees a rare appearance of “Alma,” an unchained “Tio Macaco,” and some guitar wizardry on “What About Me.” Surprisingly, “Chonks,” “Bigly Strictness,” and “Bad Kids from the Back” are all absent from the set list…but nonetheless the show still rocks! A bonus video will be linked at the end of this review. Track-By-Track Chrysalis – Jason “JT” Thomas kicks off the proceedings with the funky, stuttering drum intro.  Then BobbyContinue Reading

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As if Snarky Puppy’s roster wasn’t stacked enough, they found two other musicians to join them for the show at Batschkapp.  Who were they? Some relatively up-and-coming musicians by the names of Chris Potter and Eric Harland….   PSYCH! Chris and Eric are undoubtedly two of jazz’s living legends.  Chris Potter is one of the greatest saxophonists to walk the face of the earth, and Eric Harland is a dynamic drummer who’s collaborated with McCoy Tyner, Wynton Marsalis, Charles Lloyd, Joshua Redman, Dave Holland, Julian Lage, Joe Henderson, Kurt Rosenwinkel, and Zakir Hussain among others.  The entire two-hour performance is sensational,Continue Reading

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By November 22, 2019, Snarky Puppy had been touring in support of their album Immigrance for seven months.  Being the masterful bandleader that he is, Michael League reintroduced some older Snarky Puppy tracks into their live repertoire, including “Intelligent Design” which is featured in this show.  Over two thousand fans attended the concert at Salle Pleyel in Paris, and the energy in this recording is off the charts! The band is well-rehearsed, relaxed, and firing on all cylinders.  I struggled to find any flaws with this performance…and that’s really saying something.  It’s also the longest-running show in my Snarky PuppyContinue Reading