Empire Central
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''Empire Central'' is the fifteenth album and seventh live album by American band
Snarky Puppy Snarky Puppy is an American jazz fusion band led by bassist Michael League. Founded in 2004, Snarky Puppy combines a variety of jazz idioms, rock, world music, and funk and has won five Grammy Awards. Although the band has worked with vocalis ...
. Released on September 30, 2022, on GroundUP Music, it won
Best Contemporary Instrumental Album The Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album (previously: Best Pop Instrumental Album) is an award presented at the Grammy Awards, a ceremony that was established in 1958 and originally called the Gramophone Awards, to recording arti ...
at the
65th Grammy Awards The 65th Annual Grammy Awards ceremony was held at the Crypto.com Arena in Los Angeles on February 5, 2023. It recognized the best recordings, compositions, and artists of the eligibility year – October 1, 2021 to September 30, 2022 – as de ...
.


Background and recording

''Empire Central'' was recorded live in front of a studio audience over the course of eight days at Deep Ellum Art Company, a converted venue space in
Dallas Dallas () is a city in the U.S. state of Texas and the most populous city in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex, the List of Texas metropolitan areas, most populous metropolitan area in Texas and the Metropolitan statistical area, fourth-most ...
,
Texas Texas ( , ; or ) is the most populous U.S. state, state in the South Central United States, South Central region of the United States. It borders Louisiana to the east, Arkansas to the northeast, Oklahoma to the north, New Mexico to the we ...
. The album is an homage to Dallas's rich history of black music. Despite Snarky Puppy originating at
University of North Texas The University of North Texas (UNT) is a public university, public research university located in the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex. Its main campus is in Denton, Texas, Denton, with a satellite campus in Frisco, Texas, Frisco. It serves as the ...
in Denton, 30 miles away from Dallas, bandleader
Michael League Michael League (born April 24, 1984) is an Americans, American composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is the bandleader of instrumental band Snarky Puppy and the international music ensemble Bokanté. He also founded the band Forq wi ...
cited Dallas's
gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
and R&B scene as what solidified the band's distinct sound. League named Dallas-based musicians
Erykah Badu Erica Abi Wright (born February 26, 1971), known professionally as Erykah Badu, is an American singer and songwriter. Influenced by rhythm and blues, R&B, Soul music, soul, and hip hop, Badu rose to prominence in the late 1990s when her debut al ...
, RC Williams,
Roy Hargrove Roy Anthony Hargrove (October 16, 1969 – November 2, 2018) was an American jazz musician and composer whose principal instruments were the trumpet and flugelhorn. He achieved critical acclaim after winning two Grammy Awards for differing styles ...
(who partially inspired the track name "Cliroy"),
Kirk Franklin Kirk Dewayne Franklin (born January 26, 1970) is an American Gospel music, gospel musician. One of the List of best-selling gospel music artists, best-selling gospel music artists, his accolades include 20 Grammy Awards. ''Variety (magazine), Var ...
, and Jason Moran as influences for the album. Tracks on the album that allude to Dallas and Texas include "RL's", referring to South Dallas nightclub R.L.'s Blues Palace #2, "Mean Green", named after the
North Texas North Texas is a term used primarily by residents of the Dallas–Fort Worth metroplex to refer to a geographic area of Texas, generally considered to include the area south of Oklahoma, east of Abilene, Texas, Abilene, west of Paris, Texas, Par ...
mascot, "Belmont", named for the street in Dallas where League lived, "Fuel City", named for a Texas gas station chain, and "Trinity", named for Texas's Trinity River. The album features the last recorded performance of funk keyboardist
Bernard Wright Bernard Wright (November 16, 1963 – May 19, 2022) was an American funk and jazz keyboardist and singer who began his career as a session musician and later released four solo albums. Biography Wright was born in Jamaica, Queens, New York. I ...
, who died in a car accident less than two months after the recording sessions. Appearing on the track "Take It!", Wright was described by League as Snarky Puppy's musical "godfather", having mentored many of the band's members and joining the band himself from 2007 to 2010. ''Empire Central'' also marks Snarky Puppy's last album with keyboardist
Shaun Martin Shaun Martin (August 23, 1978 – August 3, 2024) was an American composer, arranger, record producer, and multi-instrumental musician. Martin was a member of the jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy, as well as music director for Gospel music star Kirk ...
before his death in August 2024. Before the album's release in 2022, Snarky Puppy previewed several tracks while on tour with
Steely Dan Steely Dan is an American rock band formed in Annandale-on-Hudson, New York, in 1971 by Walter Becker (guitars, bass, backing vocals) and Donald Fagen (keyboards, lead vocals). Originally having a traditional band lineup, Becker and Fagen cho ...
. League credits Steely Dan as one of Snarky Puppy's largest influences, describing touring with them as "a dream".


Composition

''Empire Central'' draws influence from a variety of genres, including
jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana, in the late 19th and early 20th centuries. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, European harmony, African rhythmic rituals, spirituals, h ...
,
funk Funk is a music genre that originated in African-American communities in the mid-1960s when musicians created a rhythmic, danceable new form of music through a mixture of various music genres that were popular among African-Americans in the ...
,
blues Blues is a music genre and musical form that originated among African Americans in the Deep South of the United States around the 1860s. Blues has incorporated spiritual (music), spirituals, work songs, field hollers, Ring shout, shouts, cha ...
, R&B,
gospel Gospel originally meant the Christianity, Christian message ("the gospel"), but in the second century Anno domino, AD the term (, from which the English word originated as a calque) came to be used also for the books in which the message w ...
, and
hard rock Hard rock or heavy rock is a heavier subgenre of rock music typified by aggressive vocals and Distortion (music), distorted electric guitars. Hard rock began in the mid-1960s with the Garage rock, garage, Psychedelic rock, psychedelic and blues ...
. Contrary to the band's previous albums, on which League provided most of the writing, ''Empire Central'' features original compositions by 12 different band members.


Critical reception

''Empire Central'' was met with largely positive reviews. At
Metacritic Metacritic is an American website that aggregates reviews of films, television shows, music albums, video games, and formerly books. For each product, the scores from each review are averaged (a weighted average). Metacritic was created ...
, the album received an aggregate score of 75 based on 6 reviews, indicating "generally favorable reviews".
AllMusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...
's Matt Collar called ''Empire Central'' "one of Snarky Puppy's most enjoyable and accessible albums to date," writing that it showcases "the group's longstanding knack for crafting groove-based instrumental tracks rife with hooky melodies, sophisticated arrangements, and exploratory improvisations." He assigned the album an AllMusic Album Pick. In a positive review for ''
Jazzwise ''Jazzwise'' is a British monthly magazine focused on jazz, launched in 1997. The magazine covers a range of jazz sub-genres and provides news coverage, a national gig guide, a jazz-on-film page, feature articles, and a review section that evalua ...
'', reviewer Hugh Morris called the album "a funkier, heavier, and noticeably slower-paced collection," and "a welcome return of the atmospheric, half-live recording so perfectly pitched on ''
We Like It Here ''We Like It Here'' is an album by American jazz fusion group Snarky Puppy that was released on February 25, 2014. Description Recorded and filmed live with a studio audience over four nights in the Netherlands, ''We Like It Here'' captures t ...
'' and the '' Family Dinner'' volumes". Tina Edwards of ''
The Telegraph ''The Telegraph'', ''Daily Telegraph'', ''Sunday Telegraph'' and other variant names are often names for newspapers. Newspapers with these titles include: Australia * The Telegraph (Adelaide), ''The Telegraph'' (Adelaide), a newspaper in Adelaid ...
'' praised the album's diverse global influences and old-fashioned sensibilities, calling it "as unclassifiable as it is virtuosic", while also noting it "feels like a collection of singles rather than a chronological record." In a mixed review for ''
JazzTimes ''JazzTimes'' was an American print magazine devoted to jazz. Published 10 times a year, it was founded in Washington, D.C., in 1970 by Ira Sabin as the newsletter ''Radio Free Jazz'' to complement his record store. Coverage After a decade ...
'', writer Morgan Enos called the music of ''Empire Central'' "rock-solid", while at the same time lacking "a certain '' je ne sais quoi''" compared to Snarky Puppy's other albums.


Track listing

Writer credits adapted from ''Glide Magazine'' and GroundUP Music.


Personnel

Adapted from Snarky Puppy on
YouTube YouTube is an American social media and online video sharing platform owned by Google. YouTube was founded on February 14, 2005, by Steve Chen, Chad Hurley, and Jawed Karim who were three former employees of PayPal. Headquartered in ...
. *
Michael League Michael League (born April 24, 1984) is an Americans, American composer, producer, and multi-instrumentalist. He is the bandleader of instrumental band Snarky Puppy and the international music ensemble Bokanté. He also founded the band Forq wi ...
– electric bass (2 – 10, 12 – 16),
Minimoog Model D The Minimoog is an analog synthesizer first manufactured by Moog Music between 1970 and 1981. Designed as a more affordable, portable version of the modular Moog synthesizer, it was the first synthesizer sold in retail stores. It was first popula ...
bass (1, 11) * Bob Lanzetti – electric guitar *
Mark Lettieri Mark Lettieri (born c. 1984) is an American guitarist, composer and producer. He is a member of the jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy, funk band The Fearless Flyers, and also performs with his quartet, the Mark Lettieri Group. His background spans ...
– electric guitar, baritone guitar (1) * Chris McQueen – electric guitar * Justin Stanton –
Wurlitzer The Rudolph Wurlitzer Company, usually referred to as simply Wurlitzer, is an American company started in Cincinnati in 1853 by German immigrant (Franz) Rudolph Wurlitzer. The company initially imported stringed, woodwind and brass instruments ...
/ Prophet 10/Minimoog Model D (1, 2, 4, 8 – 10, 12, 14 – 16), trumpet (1, 7, 8, 16), Fender Rhodes Mark 8 (3, 11, 13), Yamaha CP70 (5, 6, 11, 13) * Bobby Sparks –
Hammond B3 organ The Hammond organ is an electric organ invented by Laurens Hammond and John M. Hanert, first manufactured in 1935. Multiple models have been produced, most of which use sliding #Drawbars, drawbars to vary sounds. Until 1975, sound was created ...
,
ARP String Ensemble The Solina String Ensemble, also marketed as the ARP String Ensemble, is a fully polyphonic multi-orchestral string synthesizer with a 49-key keyboard, produced by Eminent BV (known for their ''Solina'' brand). It was distributed in the United ...
, Minimoog Model D,
Hohner D6 Clavinet The Clavinet is an electric clavichord invented by Ernst Zacharias and manufactured by the Hohner company of Trossingen, West Germany, from 1964 to 1982. The instrument produces sounds with rubber pads, each matching one of the keys and respo ...
(all tracks) *
Shaun Martin Shaun Martin (August 23, 1978 – August 3, 2024) was an American composer, arranger, record producer, and multi-instrumental musician. Martin was a member of the jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy, as well as music director for Gospel music star Kirk ...
talkbox A talk box (also spelled talkbox and talk-box) is an effects unit that allows musicians to modify the sound of a musical instrument by shaping the frequency content of the sound and to apply speech sounds (in the same way as singing) onto the so ...
,
vocoder A vocoder (, a portmanteau of ''vo''ice and en''coder'') is a category of speech coding that analyzes and synthesizes the human voice signal for audio data compression, multiplexing, voice encryption or voice transformation. The vocoder wa ...
, Moog Little Phatty,
Korg Kronos The Kronos is a music workstation manufactured by Korg that combines nine different synthesizer sound engines with a sequencer, digital recorder, effects, a color touchscreen display and a keyboard. Korg's latest flagship synthesizer series at ...
,
Mellotron The Mellotron is an electro-mechanical musical instrument developed in Birmingham, England, in 1963. It is played by pressing its keys, each of which causes a length of magnetic tape to contact a Capstan (tape recorder), capstan, which pulls i ...
(2 – 5, 7, 9 – 16), Fender Rhodes Mark 8 (1, 6), Hammond B3 organ (8), final appearance on a Snarky Puppy recording before his death in August 2024 *
Bill Laurance Bill Laurance (born 2 April 1981) is an English composer, producer, and multi-instrumental musician. Laurance is a member of jazz fusion and funk band Snarky Puppy, as well as founder and CEO of London-based record label Flint Music. Biogr ...
– Fender Rhodes Mark 8/Yamaha CP70/Minimoog Model D (2 – 5, 7 – 10, 12, 14 – 16), Mellotron (6), Prophet 10 (11), Hohner D6 Clavinet (1, 13), Expressive Osmose (15) *
Zach Brock Zach Brock (born August 2, 1974) is an American jazz violinist and composer. He has been a member of Snarky Puppy since 2007 and has worked with Stanley Clarke, Phil Markowitz, and Dave Liebman, as well as leading his own groups. Early life Bro ...
– violin * Mike "Maz" Maher – trumpet, flugelhorn * Jay Jennings – trumpet, flugelhorn * Chris Bullock – tenor saxophone, bass clarinet (4, 10), flute, piccolo (3), soprano saxophone * Bob Reynolds – tenor saxophone, soprano saxophone * Nate Werth – percussion * Keita Ogawa – percussion * Marcelo Woloski – percussion * Jason "JT" Thomas – drum set *
Larnell Lewis Larnell Lewis (born March 22, 1984) is a Canadian drummer, composer, producer, and educator. He is best known for playing drums with the Denton, TX-based jazz fusion band Snarky Puppy. Biography Born in Toronto, Ontario, Lewis started playing d ...
– drum set, finger cymbals (4) * Jamison Ross – drum set


References

{{Snarky Puppy 2022 albums Snarky Puppy albums Grammy Award for Best Contemporary Instrumental Album