Today, three-time Grammy-winning, jazz-funk collective Snarky Puppy has announced their forthcoming studio album Immigrance, due out on March 15th via the band’s GroundUP Music label. Prior to today’s announcement, Snarky Puppy revealed that they will deliver the world premiere of Immigrance, with the first-ever live performances of the music from the album at the band’s GroundUP Music Festival in February.
The band’s twelfth studio release follows 2016’s Grammy-winning Culcha Vulcha, highlighted by a distinctly different, dark and heavier tone. The press release notes that the album is also all about movement. “The idea here is that everything is fluid, that everything is always moving and that we’re all in a constant state of immigration,” explains bassist, composer, and bandleader Michael League, who founded Snarky Puppy in 2003. He continues, exclaiming, “Obviously the album’s title is not without political undertones.”
League continues to explain that the band’s mission is not to be condescending or admonish anyone, but rather provide an uplifting tapestry and medium for people of different walks of life to come together. “Like Culcha Vulcha,” League says, “this record is largely informed by our travels, and we’re always trying to pass specific ideas through our filter and into our idiom without being disrespectful to the tradition at hand.” Snarky Puppy’s constant rotating cast of touring and studio musicians propels an ever-evolving height of creativity, as we see with the band’s sudden contrast between their forthcoming studio effort and 2016’s Culcha Vulcha.
Ahead of Immigrance’s upcoming release, Snarky Puppy has shared the album’s first single “Xavi”. “Xavi” opens up with a latin-infused, salsa-esque approach, before a layer of brass instruments join the mix, transcending into a psychedelic, jazz-saturated groove. Following a percussive breakdown midway through the tune, a silky-smooth flute solo emerges, before the ensemble reconnects and lands in an infectious piano-led finale.
Listen to Snarky Puppy’s new single “Xavi” below:
Snarky Puppy – “Xavi”
[Video:groundUPmusicNYC]
Following Snarky Puppy’s GroundUP Music Festival in February, the band will head to Los Angeles for a show for a special show at Walt Disney Hall Concert Hall with the Los Angeles Philharmonic on February 23rd. In April, Snarky Puppy will start their World tour, kicking off with stops in Japan, China, Australia, and New Zealand. Snarky Puppy will return to the U.S. with a coast-to-coast tour beginning on May 10th in Providence, RI, and will wrap-up on June 15th at Brooklyn, NY’s Brooklyn Steel in Brooklyn, NY.
View a full list of Snarky Puppy’s upcoming tour dates below. For ticketing and more information, head to the band’s website.