Tonight I attended the London screening of Snarky Puppy's Family Dinner Volume Two live album at Prince Charles Theatre.
Sitting in the audience were Snarky Puppy bandleader and bassist Michael Leagues as well as Snarky Puppy keyboardist Bill Laurence, a native of England.
This project included collaborations from many parts of the world including Mali, Peru, Brazil, Sweden, UK and USA. This project also involved many guest singers and instrumentalists collaborating together on different songs spanning from all different world styles and genres:
Vocalists:
Susana Baca (Peru)
David Crosby (USA)
Laura Mvula (UK)
Salif Keïta (Mali)
Becca Stevens (USA)
Jacob Collier (UK)
Knower (USA)
Chris Turner (USA)
Instrumentalists:
Jeff Coffin (USA)
Charlie Hunter (USA)
Väsen (Sweden)
Carlos Malta (Brazil)
Bernardo Aguiar (Brazil)
The album was recorded in New Orleans, LA in February 2015. From seeing the line-up and the preview trailer for the album, I knew it was going to be fucking huge. And it was just that and more...I don't want to give to much away, seeing as the album was not been released yet and I would not want to spoil it for those who have not experienced it; so, I will give a few of my favorite highlights.Note: Each song was written by their respective featured vocalist.
"Molino Molero" featuring Susana Baca & Charlie Hunter
This performance was a fabulous blend of Afro-Peruvian music and neo-soul fusion. To put it simply, and literally, Susana Baca meets Snarky Puppy. We see Baca giving a spectacular performance as she dances to the rhythms of South America while Charlie Hunter plays some very tasteful guitar lines in the spaces of time of the music. This was a truly unique and special collaboration.
"Soro (Afriki)" featuring Salif Keïta, Carlos Malta, & Bernardo Aguiar
In the film, it was mentioned that Salif Keita was set to travel to New Orleans to sing with the band, but unfortunately fell ill and could not make the trip. What the band eventually decided to do was to record the song they were going to perform with Salif, which they did, and the bandleader Michael League traveled with his videographer all the way to Mali, mind you one of the poorest countries in the world as well as the most musically enriched, to record Salif Keita and his three background vocalists. They sang on the track and were filmed for the DVD. On one hand, you can tell that the instrumentation and the vocals were recorded at completely different times and completely different locations. At the same time, it's a very surreal experience, and an interesting perspective of the coming together of different music cultures: USA, Mali, and Brazil. All these elements complimented each other perfectly and Salif's vocals ooze with the spirit of Africa.
"Don't You Know" featuring Jacob Collier & Big Ed Lee
In the past few years, 21 year old jazz prodigy Jacob Collier has garnered a reputation as an incredible virtuoso jazz pianist, vocalist, arranger and producer. He has created many youtube videos of himself performing original arrangements of popular pop, R&B, and jazz songs. Nearly a year ago he was discovered by legendary bandleader and producer Quincy Jones and signed Jacob Collier to his record label to create an album that would take about 2 years to record. Jacob has been developing a one man band live show that would highlight both his skills as a pianist and vocalist. In the meantime, we can be thankful that at least we have this incredible collaboration with Snarky Puppy. One of Jacob Collier's musical trademarks is the use of a microphone hooked up to a keyboard so that he could also play the harmonies of the vocal while he sings. With his baritone voice, he communicates a very unique jazzy vocal sound, for better lack of words; a sound that lets you know it is Jacob Collier you are listening to. And this song is incredible. Many great peaks and valleys, up-beat percussion hits, and an incredibly musical piano solo from Collier. And you can see the expressions on the faces of fellow Snarky Puppy keyboardists Cory Henry, Shaun Martin, Bill Laurence and Justin Stanton as they just watch in awe of Jacob's incredible talent and skill.
"Somebody Home" featuring David Crosby
Now this was a collaboration I did not see coming. First of all, David Crosby comes from a very different musical background than Snarky Puppy in the sense of music style and period of success. He came from the generation of hippies, passing the peace pipe, sex, drugs, and rock and roll, not that there's anything wrong with that. I was not skeptical if this would work or not. I was simply curious how it would. But after seeing the preview trailer, I understood, and I knew it would be great. Crosby has such an immense love and deep understanding of music and what it means to people in the grand scheme of things. He is consistently amazed about how music can life people's spirits even in the grimmest circumstances, and how music fits into the big picture of what humans like to call 'life'. He also has an immense love and appreciation for Snarky Puppy and all they have done not just for him, for all the guest musicians and vocalists on the roster, and the band's dedication to the cause of creating music for the love of creating music. "Somebody Home" is a brand new song Crosby wrote, and it is truly one of the most beautiful and articulate compositions he's ever written or sang. It's simple, profound, harmonically interesting, and heartfelt. And Snarky Puppy did the greatest job giving space and serving the song tastefully both sonically and musically.
If you want to experience music in its most beautiful and purest form without any boundaries or interference from purists or elitists, this is the record that represents everything that is beautiful and magical about music. Music is a language everybody in the world can speak. Every human being understands that music makes us feel good; whether happy, angry or sad, music is a unique force that allows us to communicate our emotions to each other in a pure and non-judgmental fashion. Every single musician that played on this record shared love with each other through the music. It simply does not get any better than that.
This album will officially be released on Friday February 12, 2016, two days before Valentine's Day. I urge you to go out and buy the album or pre-order it from the band's website snarkypuppy.com. This is truly some of the best music you will ever experience, and this music deserves to be shared with music lovers everywhere.
Epilogue:
After the screening, Michael League and Bill Laurence gave a Q&A with the audience, and the two things I was most excited to hear was that 1. Michael Leagues was producing David Crosby's new solo album, set to be released in October, and it would be released on Snarky Puppy's fully independent record label GroundUp Music, and 2. Michael League was also producing Salif Keïta upcoming record; so, we have these projects to look forward to in 2016 as well as Snarky Puppy's new studio album being released in July.
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