Rob’s Album Of The Week: Snarky Puppy’s Immigrance

Jazz fusion act Snarky Puppy has done the impossible. They’ve taken the timeless art form of jazz, a style of music that was done away with by the general populace ages ago, and reinvigorated it. This has resulted in them playing to thousands of people and bringing jazz the closest to the mainstream than it has been in decades. They’ve also been incredibly prolific since they started in 2004, with their 13th album Immigrance coming out on the band’s label GroundUP on March 15. The album is a bit more concentrated than their previous releases and there’s more incorporation of elements being intertwined.

There’s still an abundance of progression and classical vibes, but there’s some rock and funk as well. It’s hard to believe that every song on the album is less than 10 minutes long. Anyone who is a Snarky Puppy fan knows to expect at least one 17 minute epic jam but surprisingly nothing like that is here. Instead there’s streamlining that condenses it all into a brilliant groove. There’s still a fantastic amount of substance from start to finish and that’s what ultimately matters.

What makes jazz still relevant in this day and age is how flexible it is as a genre. Any other type of music can meld into it in some way and still be interesting. That’s the notion of what Immigrance gives off due to so much going on in each song. Keeping…