Snarky Puppy is not a conventional band, rather they are a loose collective of extremely high-quality musicians, typically focussed on a style of music perhaps best thought of as jazz fusion.
In excess of 40 musicians have performed with the multi-Grammy Award-winning collective since forming 20 years ago in Texas.Although Snarky Puppy rejects the idea of being referred to as jazz fusion, if there was a period of music we could use to get some insight to their own work, it would be the late '60s, early '70s; perhaps looking to some of Miles Davis' exceptional work from the era, or that of Herbie Hancock from the same period.
Any budding guitarist will have tried to play the riffs off Jeff Beck's amazing albums from the era ('Blow By Blow' and 'Wired'), and some of the music on these records seems have also been influential. Finally, Weather Report from slightly later in the '70s also has similarities.
The musicians revolve in and out of Snarky Puppy, depending on other musical commitments, such that they maintain a roster of musicians to support a heavy global touring schedule.
The current tour commemorates the ten-year anniversary of the album 'We Like It Here', the original being recorded live in Holland across four nights in front of a studio audience.
The musicians have been educated at some of the highest music schools (notably, Berklee College of Music), and each of their biographies highlights a passion for music education.
Of all of the Snarky Puppy YouTube footage, the most impactful is probably their performance on the NPR Tiny Desk, where band founder and bassist Michael League divides the audience into two, clapping in different time signatures to the same song, perfectly describing how the audience is thereby incorporating polyrhythm into the music.
Many bands associated with the use of polyrhythm fall under the progressive music category, another style sometimes used to describe Snarky Puppy's work.
Music education is one thing, the other – as always – is how it is incorporated into performances, and a further review of the biographies shows Snarky Puppy members have played with Prince, Aretha Franklin, David Bowie, the Boston and Chicago Symphony Orchestras; the list goes on, and shows the huge demand to work with these musicians.
The album being celebrated, 'We Like It Here', contains eight pieces of long, meandering music (often incorporating multiple time signature shifts), none of which contains vocals, and is perfect to display the musical talents of the group.
Time signatures for their music is a huge rabbit warren on the internet, with little to no agreement as to what time signature is used in some particular pieces, although the polyrhythm idea dominates, and there are various stanzas where the listener can hear two instruments playing in different time.
For their live shows, founder League sees his role as a traffic cop, allowing each of the musicians freedom to improvise, but within the boundaries and construct set by the original musical work.
The band has performed previously at Bluesfest and various other times in Australia, and the Australian leg of this current tour is reportedly particularly popular with the coffee-lovers within the group.
Unsurprisingly, polyrhythm dominated the evening. Before anyone even hit the stage, the audience listened to classical music, rather than anything modern. Mozart and Brahms (one of his beautiful Hungarian dances) rang out, and these are two particular composers seen as key users of polyrhythm in classical music.
Brekky Boy - image © Bill Prendergast
Brekky Boy from the New South Wales' South Coast came on at 8pm sharp. The very first thing I had read about him, noted 'lyrical melodies, hard-hitting polyrhythms,' and his set was a great warm up to the main event.
Taylor Davis, aka Brekky Boy, is a former WWE wrestler and has played to acclaim at major international jazz festivals. The trio played an instrumental set, liberally supported by some great humour.
The humour included constantly introducing his excellent drummer, Liam Hogan, as John Cena, and also making wild statements to the crowd, that he then compressed and sustained on his synthesiser. Hogan was a standout of this great set with his very intricate drum work.
Snarky Puppy followed at 9pm, providing a very high-energy show. Although the concert was in celebration of 'We Like It Here', interestingly the album didn't feature highly in the set list, although it did provide the last two pieces for the evening, probably the best received pieces.
Snarky Puppy - image © Bill Prendergast
The opener was the very upbeat 'Keep It On Your Mind', followed up by three more off 2022's release 'Empire Central'. 'Broken Arrow' was the pick of these newer numbers, featuring a blistering trumpet solo by Jay Jennings, who has played with the group since 2004, whilst also moonlighting with some incredibly well-known artists.
Four songs in and the brass section was gelling perfectly, providing a great visual impact onstage, but more importantly fantastic musical colour, each member playing more than one brass instrument during the evening.
'Semente' from 2016's 'Culcha Vulcha' was a surprise in a good way, kicking off with a super-funky bass and keyboard introduction. The brass section and Bob Lanzetti on guitar wound the piece up in unison (and of course, it was extremely complex), with League playing some wild bass over the top, and this was the crowd favourite for the evening.
Snarky Puppy - image © Bill Prendergast
As the show progressed, the music seemed to become more complex, and it was possible to hear the time signatures changing mid-piece. Argentine drummer, Marcelo Woloski was given a big solo in contrast to his earlier role.
Earlier, drummer Nikki Glaspie had been the more traditional drummer, with Woloski playing various percussion instruments, concluding tabla-like drums. This time Woloski played the key role, using drumsticks (the first time I had noticed this), but his sound was completely different to Glaspie's – again, great contrast in the music!
Keyboardist Bobby Sparks II joined with a great solo, which sounded completely like a distorted guitar, using the pitch-bending technique so widely used in the '70s, and again the use of polyrhythm stood out as Glaspie played a consistent piece, with guitarist Lanzetti seeming to play a very unusual chord progression in a different time. This brought the show to its climax.
Snarky Puppy - image © Bill Prendergast
My favourite piece of theirs, from 'We Like It Here' is 'Shofukan', and the first few notes of guitar, joined by the brass section and additional mournful trumpet (played by keyboardist, Justin Stanton), showed the crowd also had picked this as one of their favourites. Jay Jennings was given the solo, and this did extend from the original, but it's a fantastic piece, perfectly played, and the whole crowd was chanting the melody into the close.
The band was back for a one-piece encore, another brilliant one off the celebrated album, 'What About Me?'. To best understand the musical strengths of the band, this six-minute-plus piece is probably the standout.
The original track was recorded live in front of a studio audience, and the ability of the musicians to follow the drummer and play a note-perfect rendition of what they had intended is superb, and incredible at the same time.
Snarky Puppy - image © Bill Prendergast
It is almost possible to understand a band recording this music piece in studio, but in one take it's unbelievable, and thankfully preserved on You Tube. Tonight's version was great, and had most members leaving the stage, or sitting on amps watching the two key musicians for the piece, drummer Glaspie and keyboardist Stanton.
After tonight's performance at Brisbane's excellent The Fortitude Music Hall, the tour moves to Sydney's State Library, Palais Theatre in Melbourne, then Adelaide and Perth before heading to New Zealand, Asia, then Italy.
There'll be chances to see them again on our shores, but I strongly recommend seeing the show, and absorbing the extremely high quality musical capabilities of the group and their thoroughly engaging music.
More photos from the concert.
