SNARKY PUPPY & METROPLE ORKEST - Sylva
Impulese! CD/DVD
Michael League (electric bass, Moog keybass); Bob Lanzetti, Mark Lettieri, Chris McQueen (guitar); Bill Laurance (piano, Wurlitze, Moog); Cory Henry (organ, clavinet, Fender Rhodes, Moog); Justin Stanton (Fender Rhodes, Moog, clavinet, trumpet); Jay Jennings, Mike 'Maz' Maher (trumpet, flugelhorn); Chris Bullock (tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet); Nate Werth (percussion); Robert 'Sput' Searight (drums); Jules Buckley (conductor, arranger) & the Metropole Orkest
Recorded 19 & 20 April, 2014
Snarky Puppy have been on my radar for some time with plenty of people sharing online videos and band room chatter. The word is they are amazing, but I had not heard anything of them until now.
For those not in the know, Snarky Puppy is a collective of musicians, fluid in it’s make up. The core musicians met at the University of Texas and have since made New York their base. They have made several albums already and are frequent live performers on street corners and in large venues. Additionally they take their musical gifts seriously and undertake many music workshops across the world. Led by bass player Michael League, the musicians in the collective are stellar performers in their own right with several Grammy award winners amongst its ranks.
Sylva is a live album taken from a performance done with the Metropole Orchestra. To say I was knocked out is an understatement. The music is a detailed orchestral suite that features the many different interests and styles of this behemoth.
The opening track, 'Sintra' starts the listener on a path of amazingly groovy music that treads the fine line of being commercially accessible to listeners new to jazz and having a substance and detail many musicians will be trying to understand and unravel for years to come. Each track is a journey that demonstrates their wide love of music in all it’s myriad forms.
When presented with a recording of this calibre, it lives with you for many days and just can’t put it out of your head. There are tantalising glimpses of many different kinds of music indulged in this recording. From the ghostly string quartet opening of 'Sintra' with its lush orchestral backdrop conjuring mysterious moods and the evocative jazz sax and trumpet melody giving a nod in the ECM European tradition through to the irresistible groove of 'Flight' and its effects laden saxophone solo channelling what Jaco Pastorius may have produced had he lived longer. Then the next track 'Atchafalaya' drops a trombone-shaped bomb with a delicious New Orleans groove that is so infectious that you just can’t stop moving to this music. A transition to a Scofield-esque guitar solo with and then a beautifully minimalist ending with the guitars. All this and only 15 minutes into the album!
This recording contains multitudes and satisfies everyone from R’n’B devotee to jazz aficionado. This record will remain long in my heart as perhaps one of the best jazz albums I have ever heard.
Reviewed by Andy Derrick
Impulese! CD/DVD
Michael League (electric bass, Moog keybass); Bob Lanzetti, Mark Lettieri, Chris McQueen (guitar); Bill Laurance (piano, Wurlitze, Moog); Cory Henry (organ, clavinet, Fender Rhodes, Moog); Justin Stanton (Fender Rhodes, Moog, clavinet, trumpet); Jay Jennings, Mike 'Maz' Maher (trumpet, flugelhorn); Chris Bullock (tenor saxophone, clarinet, bass clarinet); Nate Werth (percussion); Robert 'Sput' Searight (drums); Jules Buckley (conductor, arranger) & the Metropole Orkest
Recorded 19 & 20 April, 2014
Snarky Puppy have been on my radar for some time with plenty of people sharing online videos and band room chatter. The word is they are amazing, but I had not heard anything of them until now.
For those not in the know, Snarky Puppy is a collective of musicians, fluid in it’s make up. The core musicians met at the University of Texas and have since made New York their base. They have made several albums already and are frequent live performers on street corners and in large venues. Additionally they take their musical gifts seriously and undertake many music workshops across the world. Led by bass player Michael League, the musicians in the collective are stellar performers in their own right with several Grammy award winners amongst its ranks.
Sylva is a live album taken from a performance done with the Metropole Orchestra. To say I was knocked out is an understatement. The music is a detailed orchestral suite that features the many different interests and styles of this behemoth.
The opening track, 'Sintra' starts the listener on a path of amazingly groovy music that treads the fine line of being commercially accessible to listeners new to jazz and having a substance and detail many musicians will be trying to understand and unravel for years to come. Each track is a journey that demonstrates their wide love of music in all it’s myriad forms.
When presented with a recording of this calibre, it lives with you for many days and just can’t put it out of your head. There are tantalising glimpses of many different kinds of music indulged in this recording. From the ghostly string quartet opening of 'Sintra' with its lush orchestral backdrop conjuring mysterious moods and the evocative jazz sax and trumpet melody giving a nod in the ECM European tradition through to the irresistible groove of 'Flight' and its effects laden saxophone solo channelling what Jaco Pastorius may have produced had he lived longer. Then the next track 'Atchafalaya' drops a trombone-shaped bomb with a delicious New Orleans groove that is so infectious that you just can’t stop moving to this music. A transition to a Scofield-esque guitar solo with and then a beautifully minimalist ending with the guitars. All this and only 15 minutes into the album!
This recording contains multitudes and satisfies everyone from R’n’B devotee to jazz aficionado. This record will remain long in my heart as perhaps one of the best jazz albums I have ever heard.
Reviewed by Andy Derrick
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