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Recommend some music videos to me!
40hz:
Snarky Puppy!
If you haven't listened to this collective of 35 or so musicians, take some time out and do so.
From the band's website:
FULL BIO
Snarky Puppy is truly a different kind of musical animal.
The once Texan, now New York-based quasi-collective has gone from the best-kept secret to one of the most respected names in instrumental music. Although still “underground” in many respects, the band has earned high praise from critical stalwarts like the BBC, Village Voice, Guardian, and Boston Herald, and has performed at some of the best venues and festivals in Asia, Europe, Australia, and North America.
The band has always used live performance as its chief form of evangelism, and maintains a more intense tour schedule than almost any band in the idiom. Over the course of 2013, Snarky Puppy will give almost 200 performances and workshops on four continents, including North Sea Jazz, Monterey Jazz Festival, Jazz á Vienne, Blue Note Tokyo, and the Melbourne International Jazz Festival. Their last album, the live DVD/CD “GroundUP,” reached #14 on the Billboard Jazz Charts and #3 on the ITunes Jazz Charts in 2012, topped only by Grammy winners Robert Glasper and Esperanza Spalding.
Snarky Puppy seamlessly fuses a deep knowledge and respect for musical tradition with sonic and conceptual innovation in a way that is able to reach the most critical- or most carefree- audience. The convergence of musicians from white and black America (who also perform regularly with artists like Erykah Badu, Snoop Dogg, Kirk Franklin, Justin Timberlake, Roy Hargrove, and Marcus Miller among others), which occurred while the band was in its adolescence at the University of North Texas, has naturally established a system of balance that instantly draws listeners to the music- raw funk and sensitive dynamics, relentless pocket and lyrical melodicism, lush harmony and soulful simplicity, and most importantly, a delicate mixture of composition and improvisation.
The group is led by award-winning bassist/guitarist/composer/arranger Michael League, whose creative grass-roots approach to a tougher-than-ever industry has created a new model for independent artists. Snarky Puppy is a three-headed creature: first, and most obviously- an original music ensemble. Second- a production team and session band for individual artists. Third, and probably most importantly- Snarky Puppy is a group of musicians enthusiastically committed to music education and community outreach. Working with groups like ROAM (Roots Of American Music) in inner city Cleveland and the Music Lab at Jefferson Center in Roanoke, as well as giving clinics at hundreds of colleges, high schools, and middle schools worldwide, the band has made a strong commitment to spreading their love of music and general positivity to a young generation looking for something real to be inspired by.
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The band has several albums out. But my favorites come from their Family Dinner series of live performances. More below
About Family DinnerOn March 8th, 2013, Snarky Puppy and a host of special guests convened at the Jefferson Center in Roanoke VA. The dream, envisioned by Michael League, was to record a series of live performances in audio and video that would bring attention and benefit to the ongoing work of the center. The Jefferson Center is a non-profit arts center that is revitalizing a key neighborhood in Roanoke with the restoration of Jefferson High Schooland the renovation of the Shaftman Performance Hall. the hal;l brings world class music to the local community through the Music Lab, providing education and recording space for local children.
As Snarky Puppy set up to record yet another live recording with the audience on the stage, special guests with an interest in supporting the project arrived. Lalah Hathaway, N'Dambi, Lucy Woodward, and Chantae Cann joined Malika Tirolien, Magda Giannikou, Shayna Steele and Tony Scherr in what was to become a legendary live session that celebrates the diversity and joy of live music. With the stunningly beautiful theater as a backdrop, the result is a masterpiece of Jazz, R&B, Gospel, and Blues music captured for the world to fully experience.
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To give you an idea of just how good they are, check out these two videos from Family Dinner. The first features a 12-year old guest singer by the name of Jayna Brown. This tiny girl has to be heard to be believed. (And to think people go so crazy over Lady Ga-Ga...)
Next up is Lalah Hathaway doing what she does best. Be sure to check out the reaction of the band when Lalah starts singing tri-tone chords around the 6 minute mark. The band only realizes what she's doing about a half minute later. Awesome!
:Thmbsup:
superboyac:
holy crap, that Snarky Puppy is awesome! Those are all alpha-prime level musicians. I was blown away by the chords Lalah Hathaway was singing, wtf?! And she was controlling the pitch on the fly like that? It reminds me of the more crude versions of that that I remember from guys like Bob Seger and Kenny Rogers, with their raspy voices kind of doing 2-note chords, but nothing like what Lalah did.
Speaking of Hathaway, here's my good friend Miz Dee doing my favorite version of the Donny Hathaway (Lalah's dad) classic I Love You More than You'll Ever Know:
I recorded this almost 15 years ago, wow. This is the blues bar where I first cut my teeth.
40hz:
@SB - Very much liking Miz Dee! Great arrangement. :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:
superboyac:
@SB - Very much liking Miz Dee! Great arrangement. :Thmbsup: :Thmbsup:
-40hz (December 04, 2013, 09:20 AM)
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I miss that place so much. It was perfect. Monday nights, right next to the university on the famous Telegraph street. The blues bar is basement (Harlem style!) of the main bar. The acoustics perfectly filled the room (look how good it sounds with just a camcorder). The crowd was real and raw. And the musicians were awesome.
40hz:
This sort of jazz-pop isn't my usual thing. But I liked this recording. Classy for a change. And the pedigree lineup of players is nothing to sniff at. (It includes Pino Palladino - one of the truly great masters of electric bass. Worth a listen just for him alone AFAIC.)
Pino is one of those session bass players that most people won't recognize by name or sight. But he's played (brilliantly) with just about everyone. He's more a "musician's musician" than a star. If anybody's interested, here's an interview with him discussing that flawless performance on fretless bass that put him 'on the radar' (and made half the bass playing world wince with envy) back in the early days of his career.
Pino! Mr. Bassman! :Thmbsup:
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