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Snarky Puppy


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Do they always have a vocalist or are they sometimes just instrumental.?

 

I have seen them 5 times. They never had a vocalist on any of those occasions.

 

I've seen them 2 times. Second time was fully instrumental, but the first time was set with a vocalist (Lucy Woodward) and a second set instrumental...

 

Both times were amazing.

Rudy

 

 

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  • 1 month later...

Saw the 'pups for the 6th time last night at a brand new venue near Pittsburgh. I'm not one to have my phone out at a concert, but as soon as Bobby Sparks started a Hammond solo on Grown Folks I new I had to record it.

 

[video:youtube]rO7ujr5HD7Y

 

Looks like his B3 is modified with some sort of reverb unit? You can see him reaching for it at the 1:20 mark.

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I have yet to see Bobby live with SP, video's I have watched are excellent. DC Jazz Fest next month will be my chance. :thu:

Check this out. The clavinet groove he provides in the beginning of "Grown Folks" is new to the SP sound. :cool:

 

[video:youtube]

 

 

:nopity:
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  • 2 weeks later...

I'm late to this thread, but I just saw Snarky with a couple of my bandmates in Milwaukee (5/23). What a stunner show - killed it the whole way through, and as a keyboardist, getting to see a Bobby Clavinet and Organ solo, a Shaun Martin Moog solo, and a Justin Staton Rhodes/Prophet 6 solo was mind-blowing. Alina Engibaryan (GroudUp Artist, opening act) was amazing as well. After the show, we headed to where the band was supposedly gonna stop by the merch table. Not only did we get to meet most of them, get pictures, and such (they really are as nice as everyone says they are - some of the humblest musicians I've seen), but before signing a copy of our CD, Michael League asked if we could sign one for them(!!!)...

 

Of course, I didn't want to immediately assume I'm supposed to sign my album for THE Snarky Puppy (my band and I are only high school students, after all), so I said something like "We'll get there someday!" and I will never forget - Michael just goes "Yeah... Today." and puts our CD down with a pen in front of us. Such awesome people, such awesome musicians, and I really look forward to seeing them again as soon as I can.

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Really nice report! They are indeed Very humble people.

 

Nice that Alina was the opening act. She graduated at the conservatory of my city in the Netherlands. She has an amazing voice!

Rudy

 

 

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Yes...it"s true...

 

Cory Henry did join the band onstage for the encore last night in LA. :D

 

dB

 

The highlight of the show imho!! Great show besides!! What a talented bunch of kids!!

 

aL

Gear: Yamaha MODX8, Mojo 61, NS2 73, C. Bechstein baby grand.

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  • 3 months later...
  • 10 months later...
That Larnell Lewis video is amazing.......
It might be one of the most amazing feats of musicianship I've ever witnessed. What a masterclass on active listening and how to pay attention to form and structure -- but also, I don't think even the most careful breakdown or transcription would put me in a place where I would nail those intro rhythms so accurately and consistently the first time I actually play them.

Samuel B. Lupowitz

Musician. Songwriter. Food Enthusiast. Bad Pun Aficionado.

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  • 2 years later...

it's alive !!  this thread, that is :cool:

 

from Deep Ellum, Texas. Coming soon (or not) to a theatre near you. I just bought tickets for Spring 2023 in DC. Will be my 8th show, I believe, but it's been a while due to the pandemic.

 

Also, RIP to Benard Wright who passed soon after this video was made. He channels Bernie Worrell very nicely.

 

 

 

 

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Snarky Puppy continues to be an excellent display of musicianship and diversity.

 

The respect Snarky Puppy pays to legendary musicians is a touch of class too.

 

The man was a Funk prodigy back in the late 1970s through early 1980s. His music has been mined by musicians for decades. He was still tearing it up on keys up until his untimely death. RIP Mr. Bernard Wright.😎

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PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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Wife and I just snagged tickets for their Glasgow show tonight. Babysitter sorted 😎

 

According to their AMA, their lineup for tonight will have Bobby Sparks and Justin Stanton on keys. Never seen Shaun Martin live yet which is a shame, but looking forward to hearing how those two cats carry the keys parts. Gonna enjoy me some whammy clav 🤘

 

Will bring a gig report tomorrow! 

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Hammond SKX

Mainstage 3

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I just attended the record release party in LA last week.  It was at the L-Acoustics faciity out by where I live, and we got to hear it in 18.1.12 Atmos.  That was quite the experience.  A few of the horn guys attended and answered questions as well.

 

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IMG_8297.jpg

 

dB

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:snax:

 

:keys:==> David Bryce Music • Funky Young Monks <==:rawk:

 

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I just lucked into a ticket for the sold-out show at the Elbphilharmonie here in Hamburg after not having listened to them for a while. I'd seen them on their first show in Hamburg, where they just completely blew me away. And again a few years later at an open air, where they didn't come across as well (partly because the sound was crap, partly because they didn't have Larnell Lewis or Bill Laurance along, and I couldn't figure out why the violin guy was there)

 

Watching those videos up there has me excited again. 

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"The Angels of Libra are in the European vanguard of the [retro soul] movement" (Bill Buckley, Soul and Jazz and Funk)

The Drawbars | off jazz organ trio

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Saw them this summer, and I must say I was a bit underwhelmed after being a fanatic for about a dozen years.

Larnell wasn't there, Shaun wasn't there, Bobby wasn't there, and of course Cory wasn't there. 

Even with Michael and Bill and Justin (and everybody else being the unbelievable musicians that they are), the whole thing felt a bit...stale? And yes, I can't understand what that violin player was doing there.

 

The high point of the gig was an awesome trumpet solo with distortion and wah. And they played exactly ONE song that the audience knew: the encore. All the rest was new material from the then-still-unreleased album.

So after a while everybody was quite bored and restless.

This was also the very last gig of their EU summer tour, so I guess they were just thinking about going home.

Conversely, I remember a pre-covid concert with both Shaun and Bobby where the atmosphere was electric from the first note to the last, those guys had everybody in the crowd on their feet dancing and shouting.

 

Also, their latest material is a bit too much esoteric and cerebral for my tastes. Group improvisation and crazy polyrhythms are nice, but please give us some melody here and there!

I guess after so many years, my honeymoon is officially over... 😉

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Gig report from Glasgow

 

Bit of a long report this, sorry folks.

 

My wife and I snagged some last minute tickets for their show last night. When she first suggested it I wasn't sure - I had been a big fan back in 2014, but had sort of fell out of love with the Pups in recent years. I don't think I've seen them live in around 8 years. However, when my MIL said she'd be happy to babysit I thought screw it and snapped up the tickets. Meant having to drive an hour to her house, drop the kids off, drive an hour to the gig, drive back to my MIL's, wake up the kids then drive an hour back to get them settled for school in the morning, but I told myself it would be worth it. Got home at around 2am and my kids were almost late for school today. Was it worth it? Read on to find out...


We decided to sit on the balcony, and my wife commented that it's the first time in our lives we've decided to sit upstairs at a gig. Must be an age thing, lol. Was glad we did.

 

Mike League had mentioned 2 keyboard players on his reddit AMA a couple of days ago, so I went in thinking it would just be Bobby and Justin on keys. When we arrived I saw what looked like three sets of boards (pics way below):


A Hammond of some sort, with a Moog of some kind above it, and a clavinet with a whammy bar next to it in an L shape - obviously Bobby's setup.

 

A Rhodes with some sort of Prophet on it - Prophet 6 I think - with a Moog above it -  Justin's setup.

 

Then in between them, in an L shape to Justin's set up, a Nord Stage 3 88 with a Moog above it, and a mellotron model of some kind in between them. It obviously looked like they'd have a 3rd keyboard player for the night, and when Bill Lawrence walked on stage I was pleasantly surprised! Bill's rig was the Nord and Moog, though him and Justin swapped around a lot. They both played the mellotron.

 

They started with a new tune, and within 3 minutes, when Bill started ripping on his Moog, I turned to my wife and said "I'm so glad we're here".

 

Shaun Martin is probably one of my favourite players alive just now, but Bill's first solo (on the moog) was as soulful and melodic as anything Shaun has ever played. I'm sure I even recognised a few of his lines from Shaun's vocabulary (which they probably share a lot of). All of the Moog models (little phattys and a sub 37 I think) were turned up super loud in the mix and it reverberated off the walls all around us. That first solo from Bill alone was a masterclass in lead soloing; melogic, soulful, technical with no unnecessary note wanking, and it actually made me think of that other active thread here. By the end of the song I knew we were in for a good night.

 

The first hour of the set was all tunes from the new album, "Empire Central" which just released a couple of days ago, so I expected that. Mike League even acknowleged "some of you are probably here for our old stuff, but we'll get to that at the end. Playing this new stuff is fun for us, and when we're having fun, you're having fun." I'm sure we've all been at gigs where veteran bands have decided to play 90% new material, even while the crowd grows restless and wants to hear the classics - this didn't feel like that. I'd listened to the new album at and on the way home from work that day, so I had a bit of an idea of what it sounded like, but for the most part I was going in blind (or deaf?).

 

I have to say, it was a wonderful experience. I was sat there listening to these musicians play tunes I didn't recognise. There were no lyrics to sing along to, no choruses for me to look forward to - all I could do was sit and just enjoy the unfamiliar music being played to me by some of the best cats in the business. Snarky Puppy are definitely a live band, as I enjoyed the live performance 100 x more than any of the videos I've heard in recent years. Any thoughts I had about them being stale were well and truly put to bed.

 

The musicianship, the textures, the ambience, the fun, the solos; all of it together just made for a great live experience. My wife, who until only a few years ago didn't like anything resembling improvisatory music, had the time of her life, as did everyone around us.

 

As for the keyboards - I wasn't sure what to make of Bobby Sparks before seeing him last night, but I have to say; every time he touched the keyboard I saw stars. I had a massive, stupid grin on my face all the way through his first whammy clav solo. He made it sing, scream, screech and wail. I've seen videos online, but when you're experiencing it live...I couldn't stop smiling. Every time he touched his instruments the room went wild. Whether it was his clav solos, his organ comping or his moog basslines - he turned every moment into gold. He played what looked to me like a real B3 (or C3, I don't know - pics below). I couldn't see a vent in his pedal board (pictured below, maybe you can) but I also couldn't see a leslie anywhere on stage. Maybe it was off stage. Regardless of what he was using, everytime he touched that organ magic happened. To my shame, this was probably the first indoor gig I've been to where the organ player was playing the real deal (with or without a leslie), and every time his wrist moved towards that half-moon switch a tangible sweetness filled the air.


Whether he was comping, swelling notes in, or just holding a high note while someone else soloed and the tension built, him bringing in that organ (which was super high in the mix) changed the dynamic of the sound every time.

 

My only real disappointment of the night is that he didn't get an organ solo. After seeing him tease us with growls, snarls and purrs with comping and texures, I was so looking forward to seeing Bobby let loose on it, but it never happened. The clav solos were something else, but I was desperate to see some organ action. It's the only thing about the gig that left me feeling disappointed. Anyways, Bobby Sparks has a new fan. What a guy.

 

Justin and Bill were great together. They both took turns on each other's rigs, and every keyboard cut through the mix. The only thing that was drowned out was Mike League's bass.


I've been a fan of Bill Lawrence for years, in SP and in his solo stuff, and always saw him as the more "sophisticated" player of the band - if you know what I mean. Reserved, melodic, musical, thoughtful. Well last night he played with a groove, funkiness and grittiness that I've never seen in him. Maybe I just haven't been paying attention. There was one point where he and Justin were trading solos - Justin was on his sub 37, Bill was playing an Electric Grand sound on the Nord. They were trading licks, then suddenly the band cut out and Bill started pounding on the Nord like Richard Tee, keeping the rhythm and groove going while Justin sang on the Moog over him. After a minute or so the band came back in, but to me it was a super special keyboard focused moment. Again, there was no wankery about it - Justin's playing was melodic and singable, and Bill's playing was groovy and heavy. Both Justin and Bill played some killer rhodes parts - in fact, there were times the rhodes felt a bit too loud when it barked! Having spent so long complaining about keyboards being too quiet, I'm not going to complain much about that though 😁

 

 Suffice to say, I know we all have our favourite keyboard players in this band, but whichever combination you get - I don't think you're gonna be disappointed.

 

For the most parts I'd say the solos in general were very musical - they fit the song, and apart from a couple of occasions where it felt like the guys were simply going through their riff vocabulary (as hinted at by an above poster, which is understandable when you've got a 1.5 hour set with several solos per song), they were all outstanding. My wife, who's a cellist, was particularly taken in by Zack Brock, the violinist. He was excellent, and I thought the way he and Bobby in particular built their solos and then ended them by making their instruments screech and scream - it made the hairs on the back of your neck stand up!

 

The whole gig felt like a masterclass in musicians knowing what to do, and what not to do. Not one person felt out of place. I mean, there were times when the whole band were going for it, and Bobby just sat with his hands clasped on the wooden lip of the organ, not touching a thing, waiting for the right moment - and when he did eventually come in and play, the whole sound lifted. He didn't play when he didn't have to. With him, Justin and Bill on keys, there were so many textures and ambient noises sweeping through the set - whether they were mucking around with filters, changing settings, doing little glissandos, messing around with the glide, or just playing a note here and there - there were times I wasn't sure who was doing what, or where certain sounds were coming from, and with the three of them in front of the keys doing their thing it often sounded like there were way more than 10 musicians on stage. I'd say there's a lot more room for cool textures and experimenting on the new album, and it translates very well in a live enviroment.

 

The visuals were also very cool, and added a lot to the whole experience - whenever someone would solo, a little overlay of their instrument came up on the screen behind them and a zoomed in livestream of their hands playing would appear within it. I tried to get a picture below.

 

All in all it was an amazing night. I'd originally said no to my wife when she asked if I wanted to go because I thought I was bored with the Pups, but that thought was well and truly put to bed within minutes of downbeat. An awesome gig, and an awesome performance. I think I genuinely had a huge smile on my face for the whole thing.

 

Shout out to the support artist, Michelle Willis too. She's a singer/keyboard player. She played a Nord Stage 3, and stuck to a distorted wurly sound all night. While she didn't play any solos, the tightness of her rhythm playing while singing some complex melodies at the same time was definitely impressive. Her voice is great. As someone who sings regularly while playing, I thought she did a great job.

 

It might sound like I'm gushing at bit, and I am! I'm definitely not a fanboi, but we had such a great night, and I'll definitely try to make it less than 8 years before I see them again. Was worth almost making my kids late for school for 😁 Photo dump below - my camera sucks, and I didn't take any videos worth sharing, as I like to be in the moment at gigs 🤓

 

Screen overlay that came up during solos

12500899_solooverlay.thumb.jpeg.a6a80d112f7f2ba12cd88fea5e22706a.jpeg

 

The keys rig, featuring Bobby's clav pedalboard

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Cats at work

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Bobby's rig

1675485557_bobbysrig.thumb.jpeg.2e6a580e452479fde57523417bbd720b.jpeg

 

Bobby's pedalboard

1313829602_Bobbyspedalboard.thumb.jpeg.e27da022fac67cd25bb68cc3c5597840.jpeg

 

Justin's Rig

72091767_Justinsrig.thumb.jpeg.c2eeca4a781103937ea9c0dc7f273f8e.jpeg

Justin and Bill's rig.jpeg

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Hammond SKX

Mainstage 3

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16 hours ago, nadroj said:

The whole gig felt like a masterclass in musicians knowing what to do, and what not to do.

This statement proves that high level musicianship still exists. 

 

IOW, younger folks are still learning how to play instruments contrary to some beliefs.

 

Glad you and your wife decided to go to the show. 

 

Leaving with that cheese eating grin on your face after hearing ear candy was well worth the sacrifices made to be there.😎

PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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Yep, Bobby is a monster. Stole the show when I saw him with the RH Factor in 2012. Fantastic rigs, love the pedalboards too. There were two, right? I see one on top of the Hammond with a few Strymons and a Minifooger (I’d assume for the Moog?) and then another underneath the clan with a Whammy and a JHS Morning Glory.

 

Glad to hear they still bring it. Still haven’t seen them live myself. I trust you were singing along in the video I saw Bill post last night. Looked like a blast! :) 

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  • 6 months later...

Coming from guitar and I see youse keyboard guys with pedal boards I'm surprised I never see switch toppers being used especially those who have pedal you switch on with your hands.    It makes hitting the switch so much easier and being they come in color easy to come up color schemes that are meaningful.      The first ones I knew of and used are from Barefoot Buttons and they now make quite a variety. Link below....       Other companies make switch toppers now in other types of material so lots of choices. 

 

https://barefootbuttons.com/

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17 hours ago, Doerfler said:

Show number 9 (for me) is tonight. Can't wait   :keys2:  :cheers:  :keys2:

Great show last night.  Thanks again brotha Dave for the hang. :cheers:😎

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PD

 

"The greatest thing you'll ever learn, is just to love and be loved in return."--E. Ahbez "Nature Boy"

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