Sylva [LP] in Bloomington, MN

Brooklyn's
Snarky Puppy
jazz-funk collective have become one of modern music's bright lights.
Sylva
, their debut for
Impulse
, is their fifth live album and eighth overall. It is unlike anything else in their catalog thus far, yet it embodies all the things they do so well: R&B, fusion, NOLA second line, soul-jazz, and more. It is a concert collaboration with Utrecht's
Metropole Orkest
; a single work comprised of two suites. The first four tracks make up the first, while the last two comprise the second.
realizes composer/bassist
Michael League
's dream for
: to work on a cinematic, orchestral scale without resorting to a watered-down "with strings" exercise. Their trademark edges -- in arrangement, improvisation, and groove quotient -- all remain intact. Fans may experience initial hesitation during the opening strains of the set's overture "Sintra." It contains repetitive, moody strings and winds before the band's horns enter on a Latin tinge and rhythms follow suit. The
Metropole
's horns join and it all starts to swirl, ending on the fat crescendo that introduces the slinky jazz-funk of "Flight." It features more familiar traits, with spidery synth and Rhodes, vamping guitars, and layers of staggered percussion and B-3 as its engine. "Atchafalaya" sounds exactly like its title: swampy, sweaty NOLA horn funk with stinging electric guitars and popping stacks of percussion as its hallmarks. "The Curtain" is over 15 minutes long. It employs intimate post-bop, symphonic rock, big-band funk, dancefloor stomp, cosmic fusion, and classical elegance.
's closer is the nearly 20-minute "The Clearing."
Debussy
-ian impressionism may introduce it, but lithe, shimmering R&B, swinging, fat-horned progressive big band (think
Clarke-Boland
), greasy, blackbone-slipping alley funk, trancey
Miles
-esque fusion, and
Wardell Quezergue
-styled NOLA horn grooves wind out of it. This sprawler ratchets down before rebuilding toward a swaggering climax with brass, guitars, bass, drums, and B-3 all on stun.
may not be the dance party face of
, but there is one within it.
League
writes not only tor the strengths in his band, but also those of the
-- they are not only able to "hang" with
, they push them -- hard. Many acts have attempted collaborative exercises like this, but few -- if any -- have pulled them off. Musical sophistication meets the gritty danger of live performance; execution matches ambition with crackling energy and soulful expression. ~ Thom Jurek