On Stage: Snarky Puppy @ Paradiso

I've been trying to catch the jazz collective Snarky Puppy for quite some time now, but never managed to. Either I wasn't able to visit their show or it was already sold out. This time they are playing two nights in Paradiso and tickets went on sale a long time ago. Still I managed to miss out on tickets, because I forgot about it and didn't remember before it sold out. Ticketswap to the rescue! Finally I was going to see this exciting jazz band.

Snarky Puppy at Paradiso Amsterdam, June 6 2017

The group has established quite a name by now which explains the two sold out shows in Paradiso. Wherever they play, people are blown away by their amazing talent and creative compositions. Add to that the amount of fun they put into it and you have an explosive combination that aims to please. Leader of the pack is bassist Michael League who will make sure it all stays together. He will point to his colleagues to indicate they can start a solo, when to go back into the song's theme or end it.

But most important of all, he allows the band to play freely with dazzling solo's, inventive breaks and virtuoso playing. It is wonderful to see how League can sometimes watch his colleagues in awe or look surprised with excitement when he hears something he likes. This goes for everyone, where they all watch each other and really enjoy each other's playing. It is this electrifying chemistry what lifts this band to a stellar level, of course combined with a lot of talent.

Since these guys are amazing musicians, no question about it. Every single one of them excels on his instrument. Out of this world keyboard and synthesizer solo's, finger licking guitar licks, splashing percussion, mind blowing drumming, sparkling horns and incredible bass grooves. Zach Brock' violin will knock you off your socks and sometimes you can't tell it apart from an electric guitar. Percussionists of the Metropole Orkest join the group on a track from the collaborative album Sylva which won them a Grammy.

The crowd loves it tonight and goes nuts when the band is going wild, but will stay very quiet in the lush slower pieces. This is how a band and crowd find each other and feed on each other's energy until electricity is in the air. This band is simply one of the best and most exciting groups in the jazz world today. Judging from the many young people in here tonight, they are also making sure jazz music is appealing to a younger generation as well.



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Spinning: Snarky Puppy - Family Dinner Volume Two

Put a few musicians together and something will happen. That's probably what the jazz collective Snarky Puppy around bass player Michael League must have thought when they started their "Family Dinner" project. For the first edition a few years ago they brought some singers together in combinations that you wouldn't expect. It resulted in something very nice and they wanted to repeat the idea. But this time no only singers were invited, but also other musicians. They chose for New Orleans to compose the songs in six days, performing them live afterwards. It eventually resulted in Family Dinner Volume Two with eight very varied compositions, that are all beautiful in their own way.

And so on 'Soro' you can find Malinese singer Salif Keita together with two Brazilians, flute player Carlos Malta and pandeiro player Bernardo Aguiar. The result is a beautiful song that starts melancholically with lush vocals by Keita and then turns around in a swinging exotic mix halfway, propelled by the two Brazilians. On 'Don't You Know' multi-instrumentalist and boy wonder Jacob Collier goes crazy with sousaphone player Big Ed Lee, a mind blowing track of more than 10 minutes.

It keeps on going with dizzying and sparkling play by Snarky Puppy and the queer, but successful combinations. Laura Mvula together with organist Michelle Willis in the dreamy 'Sing To The Moon', triple Grammy winner sax player Jeff Coffin with the electronic duo Knower in a swinging combination with a nice funky sax solo by Coffin. As dessert no one less than David Crosby can close the record in the modest song 'Somebody Home', that he introduces himself with a good sense of humour.

Snarky Puppy's musicians once again prove how talented they are and that they know exactly what a song needs. With all these different artists and styles, that result in different compositions, they make sure it still stays coherent. That in itself already is quite an achievement. A lot of enthusiasm and good vibes added to the mix makes Family Dinner Volume Two a feast for your ears.



This review has been published on Festivalinfo in Dutch over here.

Listen to 'Family Dinner Volume Two' on Spotify.



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