Singer Songwriter Reacts to Lingus by Snarky Puppy.

Christina and Bryan watch and react to and discuss Lingus by Snarky Puppy.

[@dbasstij512]

Larnell Lewis, the drummer, was a last minute fill-in. He learned the music on the plane to the session.

[@PomadeJam]

amazing

[@spdcrzy]

Oh BOY was it fun to watch a pair of experienced, highly educated musicians geek out about this song! 😊😊 This entire album was composed, arranged, rehearsed, engineered, recorded, and mixed in five days. It is one of THE best jazz fusion albums of all time in my opinion. When Mark Lettieri began playing his solo, all I could hear was South Indian classical music. Straight back to my childhood. And then Cory comes on... absolute bliss. As for the mix: what you heard is what the audience heard. Mixed and mastered and recorded live. You can hear it. There is a TINY bit of room sound with the applause.

[@PomadeJam]

Thanks! What an amazing band and performance.

[@semanticscribe]

it's refreshing to see someone who actually knows what they're talking about doing a reaction; well done!

[@spiderbass65]

I love that in the middle of that awesome keyboard part, Larnell does a little nod to Chick Corea’s Spain.

[@PomadeJam]

that's very cool

[@jangelo2038]

In honor of Shaun Martin's passing it would be really cool to see you guys react to one of his originals. His presence in Snarky Puppy was massive and some songs of theirs will just never be the same without him. I think Yellow Jacket is a great song of his that shows some really lovely songwriting! If not just checking out Sleeper by snarky puppy, i would love to share in some thoughtful listening with you guys and your growing community.

[@PomadeJam]

Will add that to the list, thanks so much!

[@kleingrrmpf]

Holy fuck, Shaun died??? Man, this is such a great talent taken from us... ETA: Googled it: Stroke in '23 and in constant medical supervision since. Died Aug 3rd this year... :(

[@jangelo2038]

@@kleingrrmpf I was so bummed. He was one of the reasons I switched from bass guitar to piano/keyboards. He’s so talented and filled the band with joy in all of their recordings together. It’s going to be so strange moving forward without that talk box moog ripping through snarky tracks

[@brandonlbartlett]

Cant second this more highly. The Yellow jacket and Madiba are both epic! @PomadeJam

[@brandonlbartlett]

They do all tour, but usually 10 at a time while members at individual members cycle in and out while they meet their other obligations. Some of them aren't on the road as much. Michael League and Justin Stanton are always there. Cory Henry is now strictly a solo artist (the keyboard soloist), and sadly Shaun Martin (the guy reacting next to him on the b3) recently passed away.

[@HollowGolem]

Saw them live last year, and this was the encore. So much energy, so fresh. One of the best shows I've been to.

[@yesloow]

I love this track and I really enjoyed your reaction video to it. Really great to hear people talking through this track with some real insights and knowledge. The song is actually pretty simple in terms of its structure and chord progressions are pretty simple. The riff that goes through the entire second half of the song is almost like a blank canvas for the solo to create on top of. And yes, the Sax solo was totally Michael Brecker with that massive reverb sounding like it's coming from down an alleyway.

[@PomadeJam]

thanks!

[@Trapper50cal]

The piano stabs matching Larnell's beat under Cory's solo are just amazing...so tight it seems like part of the same instrument.

[@hv1785]

Thank you for sharing your thoughts and insights. Definitely one of the most knowledgeable reactions I’ve seen to this awesome song.

[@stmserio]

You need to watch the DVD, these guys are the best, the layering is done with multiple guys on each instrument, ie, 4 keyboard players, 3 guitars, 4 horns, etc … they learned these songs in 3 days without a drummer … Larnel learned the songs the morning of starting the session …

[@PomadeJam]

Wow! That's awesome!

[@homiefromfl]

For this recording, their usual band drummer Sput couldn't fly to the Netherlands where this was recorded. The band leader called Larnell Lewis to see if he was available and down to join them. He flew out last minute, and on the flight, learned a few of the songs he was to play for the recording, and he was already familiar of a few others. For a couple of days before they were able to get a drummer on sight, the band practiced the songs with the other percussionist keeping time. There were I think 3 of 4 days of recording. They made a few recordings of each or most songs. This song has at least two other versions of Cory Henry's keyboard solo (which can be found on youtube). Also, apparently, Corey Henry would've stepped in to play drums had Larnell not been able to join them. This would've been a hell of a loss in terms of the keyboard solo! The band leader and main composer is Michael League, the bassist. As far as I've learned, the way he composed the songs was mostly teaching the band where breaks were, where changes were, the timings, etc., and pretty much left each section to create their own piece within the music, and allowing each section of the band to make of the structure what they wanted, without stepping on any other section. It's a marvelous achievement to see how cohesive all the parts of the band can be within such a "chaotic" piece like this, without having the music written for them. Also, if I remember correctly, none of the band members had any written music in front of them. The only ones who did, was the small string section that was brought on locally for a few of the other songs. They played these songs from memory. It's a phenomenal thing, this band. I highly recommend the album from where this song is from, "We Like It Here".

[@PomadeJam]

wow!

[@miltonpound763]

R.I.P. Shaun Martin. Such a legendary song.

[@df3575]

🙏🏿🥺

[@MrReedSL]

Oh cool! I love that y'all are checking out more of this album, and this band.

[@PomadeJam]

thanks!

[@tdoom1354]

Would LOVE you guys react to Snarky Puppy song Kite from the same session! More calm but really encanting like a beautiful movie score!

[@PomadeJam]

Thanks for the suggestion!

[@ei96byod]

Watch the DVD of behind the scenes of these sessions. It's available on KZbin now, and it is Bonkers, what they did. It's impressive.

[@PomadeJam]

Thanks for the tip!

[@stevenmonte7397]

YES!!!!!!!!! We finally got it!

[@imuawarriors]

Corey Henry's solo is utterly fantastic - even the other keyboardist is like, "I'm out..."...

[@Tonamel]

And that other keyboardist has 7 Grammys!

[@xondxonderson5784]

Appreciate the knowledgeable and thoughtful reaction. Well done.

[@garrygrasinski]

They learn all their songs by ear, usually in a very compressed time frame. Amazing group effort.

[@PomadeJam]

Wow!

[@stevenmonte7397]

I'm not a trained musician, but it amazes me that there's no sheet music in front of them.

[@PomadeJam]

Me too

[@jeffreystringer]

they are known for no charts. ever.

[@fobo8027]

It's mentioned in the "we like it here" documentary that they don't use sheet music. Only the strings player do. Time to step it up strings (I'm quoting one of the members obviously joking)

[@thage7729]

The band was formed at North Texas University… a mecca for jazz musicians for decades. They now are based in Brooklyn. This was composed by Michael League, the bassist. It should be noted the drummer was a ‘stand-in’; the usual drummer couldn’t attend (passport trouble) and the drummer you see learned the pretty much entire album ON THE PLANE RIDE OVER. This was one of the last performances with the soloing keyboardist, because he left to form his own band. The keyboardist shaking his head and walking away during the solo was a multi-grammy winning musician in his own right. He had an awesome solo piece on this album (see “Sleeper”), which he realized would now be eclipsed by the solo he was hearing.

[@PomadeJam]

thanks, great info!

[@andrewyoung4973]

I think you might find snarky with the metropole orchestra interesting.the curtain is a unbelievable piece of music

[@PomadeJam]

Will check that out

[@d.s.6268]

Great reaction, but shame she looked away at the most impressive part - when the camera pulls away and you realize that Corey is playing the same solo in both hands on two different keyboards and it's not a "double octave" effect being applied ! Of all the amazing parts in this video, nothing amazes me more than that.

[@PomadeJam]

Yeah, she looked away at times to do more concentrated listening. That is my favorite part of the video too, amazing player.

[@jcappucino]

I agree because when its visual part of the great music it's the performance the interaction of the musicians that's different then when your only listening.

[@davidmejia7908]

Here's a short doc on the recording of this album and the European tour of that year (kzbin.info/www/bejne/a6GYpHibrNiMhK8feature=shared). Also they typically do more than one take and choose the "best" one for the final album. Top notch musicians, there is also a doc covering the last album (Empire Central).

[@PomadeJam]

Thanks, will check that out.

[@johncampbell756]

Shaun Martin, the keyboardist who took off his headphones during Corey's solo, passed Saturday 8/3/24. There were four keyboardists and I believe it was Bill Lawrence on piano. Matching the drums during the solo. They consider themsekves a collective. This one was composed by bassist and band leader Michael League. I don't think they did more than four takes on any track. The drummer arrived two hours before the first recording session. He did start playing bass, matching the bass drum during the solo. Soloist Corey Henry switched to the Hammond during the very end. There is a documentary on the making of this slbum and the 12 night, 12 show first Eurpoean tour. Most of the sings were written at the studio in the two weeks before recording.

[@PomadeJam]

So sad we lost Shaun. Thanks so much for the comments, what a fascinating and mind blowing group.

[@johncampbell756]

@PomadeJam Afrer this I watched a little mini-documentart on the band and a behind the scenes video by the sax player who didn't solo here, and both were crazy. The Bil Lawrence one was nuts about the making of Empire Central and how the band was learning four songs a day to record live within a week. The songs were all written days before. And he left town to perform during this.

[@jh4freedom2]

FYI: Snarky Puppy Awards And Honors 2013 Grammy Award for Best R&B Performance, "Something" 2013 Best Electric/Jazz-Rock/Contemporary Group/Artist, JazzTimes Readers' Poll 2013 Best New Artist, JazzTimes Readers' Poll 2015 Best Electric/Jazz-Rock/Contemporary Group/Artist, JazzTimes Critic' Poll 2015 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, Sylva 2015 Jazz Group of the Year, DownBeat Readers' Poll 2016 Jazz Group of the Year, DownBeat Readers' Poll[ 2016 Best Electric/Jazz-Rock/Contemporary Group/Artist, JazzTimes Readers' Poll 2016 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, Culcha Vulcha 2017 Best Electric/Jazz-Rock/Contemporary Group/Artist, JazzTimes Readers' Poll 2017 Jazz Group of the Year, DownBeat Readers' Poll[ 2018 Best Electric/Jazz-Rock/Contemporary Group/Artist, JazzTimes Readers' Poll[ 2019 Jazz Group of the Year, DownBeat Readers' Poll 2021 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, Live At The Royal Albert Hall 2023 Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album, Empire Central

[@PomadeJam]

whoa!

[@lakkeng6]

Beard is looking awesome

[@PomadeJam]

thanks!

[@MusicmanII777]

No sheet music

[@user-cg3tx8zv1h]

Michael BECKER?!? Couldn't hear Stern! And where was Herbie & Chick when you were in 70's?