Classical Composer Reacts to Lingus (Snarky Puppy) | The Daily Doug (Episode 200) 

The backstory of Larnell learning most of the songs on the red eye and going from the airport to the recording studio is amazing.

<a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="660">11:00</a> The guy who can't handle it next to the keys solo is six-time Grammy award winner Shaun Martin. That's how good these guys are 😀.

I totally agree, "Lingus" is one of the most astounding pieces of modern music I have ever heard. The pinnacle of musicianship. And Cory's solo is out of this world.

The first time I heard Lingus I was utterly floored by it. Larnell and Cory stealing the show in a room full of phenomenal players-just absolute magic in that room. Sadly, I went around to my "serious" jazz and classical colleagues with the whole "You gotta hear this incredible band" spiel and to my dismay got nothing but dismissive "that's not real jazz" and "that's the band my students won't shut up about" comments. Sad.

“The joy.” You said it, they are the most JOYFUL band I’ve ever seen! Not only do they totally dominate, they’re all truly happy to be there.

Coreys solo is truly one of a kind. It will be analyzed and praised for decades to come.

Henry's solo is 'pretty good'. Really? It is one of the best solos I have ever heard and I am 71 with tons of jazz exposure. THAT break!!! Oh, yes. The percussion is also pretty good. Oh, yes. The other soloists are 'pretty good' too. They have that 'after the beat' feel Big Band thing DOWN. Filthy Funky works. Love how everyone of them realize they just did something really special! Oh, wait....let us throw in a keyboard fusion solo reprise just for fun.

Every little bit of this was extraordinary, but Larnell's accompaniment to Cory's solo was everything a supporting musician should be and more!

You know it's impressive when Doug doesn't even call out chord changes, rather just grooves and enjoys the music. Great stuff, and I know nothing of this band... heard them mentioned here and there. Not really my thing but damned impressive!

No matter how many times I've watched this, it is still spell-binding and ecstasy inducing.

next logical step must be Thank You Scientist, a jazzy, proggy, rocky ensemble

I love watching Cory’s face through that entire solo, he is in “The Zone” where the music comes from a place unknown to anyone but a musician! It’s not him playing, that just flows from the soul! When Shaun rips the headphones off in disbelief! Ha! Cory laughing, he can’t even believe what he just played! One of the best pieces of music ever recorded! And Larnell is literally from a different planet, where that stuff comes from! Incredible!! I have the vinyl, and got the DVD this week! It’s one thing to hear this, it’s another to watch it as it’s being played!!! #20thumbsup

One thing, Doug at <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="529">8:49</a>, that back groove is not just Larnell, but Mike League with muted bass notes, and Bill Lawrence on piano the whole time. The low notes on the piano in particular give a great timbre to the driving line.

This song was introduced to me by a person who belongs to the choir of the National Orchestra of Spain, and it automatically became one of my favorite songs, classical music people know what you are talking about. Congratulations for the 200th episode, we hope for another 200 at least.

Not the same kind of synth solo, but you've got to check out ''Home Invasion / Regret #9'' by Steven Wilson for another magnificient example of synth mastery! In bonus, you've got a guitar solo by none other than Guthrie Govan! You can't beat that!

This is a remarkable refutation of the idea that music theory and analysis are the enemies of emotion and enjoyment. And certainly the idea of classical composers being snobbish about other genres. Instead this is a generous and insightful look at a supremely talented ensemble.

Yeah, Larnell learned EVERY ONE of Searight's drum parts for the album ("Sput" Searight was the drummer that didn't renew his passport) in a SINGLE rehersal with the band (one take of each track, if I recall). And then the next day, came in and knocked a home run with each track first time out. Interviews with some of the band members actually have them expressing how nervous they were aboout Larnbell being on the album at the last minute. But not ONLY did he play Searight's parts practically perfectly, but a lot of the fills and drumset colors that he added at the last second (think the solo in What About Me? and also the one in Shofukan on drums) were so unexpectedly and uniquely Larnell, they got a completely different drum sound even though he was playing another drummer's parts at first glance. "We don't make mistakes. We just have happy accidents." Also, Nate Worth is a beast on percussion. He's spent his life playing percussion. You think you could hang with him? Nah, watch some of the sick shit he does in some of the other Snarky recordings. He's as talented as Larnell is at what he does. The stuff Werth plays on the Sylva album with Metroploe Orkest, is just... MIND BLOWING percussion work. One thing to note about being a percussionist with Snarky Puppy. Look at the set-up. There are more drums and instruments and things you need to keep track of and play than any OTHER single musician in the band, even the drummer, if you count each drum and cymbal individually. He's running from instrument to instrument and playing with both hands and his feet too, to get all the colors and everything in there. I saw in a live concert video that Werth and the other percussionists have intrumets at their feet that they play with pedals WHILE doing all the other shit. :D

Yes more fusion! Return to Forever, Jean-Luc Ponty or Pat Metheny Group. Maybe Weather Report? Congrats on 200! Cory's solo reminds me of George Duke with Zappa.

Ratio of "Larnell learned this on the aeroplane" to all other comments? I'm guessing 1 to 6 max.

My director in high school used to have us watch this just about every week or so in our top jazz band. Do more Snarky Puppy. PLEASE

THank you for introducing Snarky Puppy to me, Doug! Never heard of them. W o n d e r f u l! So they performed Lingus in Utrecht in 2013... ? I live on 20 mile distance from Utrecht and I didn't know... I would have gladly brought my own headphone too, if I knew. :)

The drummer Larnell Lewis learned his parts for the entire set on the plane. On the way to the gig. I think it was within 14 hours. The original drummer couldn't make it. He's phenomenal at improvisation, ear training and retention. The ability to chart and retain songs after hearing them once is mind blowing. He's done several Drumeo videos on RU-vid where he demonstrates in one take.

I didn't know this band. Thank you so much!!!

You mentioned the drumming a couple times in the first few minutes. Did you know Larnell Lewis learned the drums for this entire album/performance during the 7 hour flight from the states to the Netherlands? True prodigy. Edit: ah, you got to this at the end! Good shit Doug!

Cory’s solo is up there as one of best modern jazz solos of all time. He went full god mode.

Only one word comes to mind: JOY - Joy on display by all band members - Joy from audience - Joy from me on every listen - Joy from you reviewing it What a fucking song and performance! You nailed the reaction even if not your first listen!

Drumeo's channel has a few videos of Larnell listening to a song for the first time and playing it from memory in 1 or 2 takes, the guy is an extremely impressive musician.

Dude I am SOOO excited to see you review this! I was just watching some other Lingus reactions earlier today and couldn't shake the desire to see you break down Corey's solo. This is going to be one hell of a ride.

So cool! Thank you for introducing me to this tune.There were a couple of keyboard/drum interactions that put me in the Yes "Sound Chaser" zone; which, by the way, would be a great Friday Daily Doug. It's one of my favorite Yes songs not heavily reacted to on YT.

Larnell is certainly one of the greatest drummers to ever set foot on earth

Yours has to be one of the best reactions to this event. So informed, helping us to appreciate the complexity and the simplicity of what we are experiencing. That said, i feel sorry for the folks who go out looking for this as a recording, not realizing this was a unique moment.

I am so happy....all of you musicians were BORN, I really do. I love you guy's parents, for birthing such amazing musician specialists into this mundane world of hell. Life became tolerable from just experiencing this intricate musicianship and master class contribution. I don't understand why music does to the brain and spirit as it does. But I NEED it and can't balance out my life without it. It's another language another form of LOVING someone if thee creators want it to be. For my mental health.....please stay safe and healthy.

I first saw this video like 6+ years ago, and it just blew my mind. Since then, I become obsessed with it for a few days at least once a year. I think you're absolutely right...as time goes on, this will endure as a seminal recording in fusion music, and music in general. Congrats on 100k subs and 200+ episodes, btw. Your videos are a blast to watch.

I wish I could've shown my Grandmother this video. She was a church organist and piano teacher and loved Classical music BUT. She appreciated alll kinds of music and talent and she would have been blown away and loved every second of this, so fun to revisit such an insane piece!! The bass player composed it all and pushed it out and they memorized it so fast it's nuts.

The minute it starts you know you are about to hear greatness.

Thanks for doing this one! Cory's solo is the stuff of legend. Still gives me goose bumps, even after dozens of listens. The fact that Larnell could swoop in at the last minute and pull off such a phenomental performance is testament to not just how good he is, but the amazing level of musicianship in the entire band.

YES!!!! Thank you. Amazing. I have an amazing suggestion: Dirty Loops - Work Sh*t Out You'll see the same amount of musical joy and friendship.

I got over my 10 a day Lingus habit by discovering Outlier. It's a bit shorter so I'm on around 14 a day now. For therapy I like to watch Lingus reaction videos. Fkin love it. 🤪😜🤪😛🤪

Have you seen them live ? The joy while they play together is just impressive, incredible and so contagious ! I love the album videos, but live, it's just astonishing ! Completly pure joy :)

First let me say Doug, what a talent you have by putting this type of reaction motivated reaction music on your channel. I am 66 and went to plenty of fusion concerts in my day. Still love fusion. Snarky Puppy in its entirety as a group is nothing but pure 🔥🔥🔥🔥🔥. Listening to this piece is simply amazing. Every musician has the ability to seamlessly play as one. I am looking forward to seeing these guys live.

Do yourselves a favor and buy the physical CD. It comes with a DVD of the full show/documentary. Also sounds great on vinyl. They are also touring soon.

Saw them last sunday in Marciac Jazz Festival. They played Empire Central as well as What About Me, Shofukan and Lingus. At that moment, the crowd went absolute bongos ! 2000 people stood and chanted on these crazy riffs. Amazing experience ! Definitively one of the best if not THE best fusion band of the 21st century ! And as a wannabe drummer, I had the chance to see Larnell in the flesh. Exhilarating !

in 2017 I was backpacking throughout Europe and followed Snarky through 6 countries and 13 concerts. From 400 year old opera houses to german convention centers as well as a few Jazz Fests in eastern Europe. In Luxembourgh at Esch-Sur-Alzette; I was front row and 6 feet from them. I cried the whole encore of "Shofukan" unreal, we had witnessed perfection. It was the best month of my life and I'm STILL paying off the Visa to this day and loving it lol.

This version of this song never fails to give me goose bumps. You called it "magical". I couldn't think of a better way to describe this amazing performance. A truly special moment in recorded music. Great job choosing this song. 🐶🤟

One of The best keyboard solo ever!🇧🇷

200th episode, (almost) 100K subs, and great music. Thanks for sharing your joy with us!

The drum player DISCIPLINE is in another level for me. At <a href="#" class="seekto" data-time="495">08:15</a> I would so try to match the keys. God that dude is so locked in. WHAT A FREAKING GOD

I had never heard this piece before until a couple days ago, when I found it via your reaction video. Damn, but that was a very special day. So thank you!

This piece is an amazing adventure. Unlike pop music that you know where it's taking you, this is like a trip through a new town a new country it's so good and unexpected it blows me away.

Larnell Lewis is just beyond any fusion drummer I've ever seen

Wow, this guy was the replacement drummer?!?!?!? That was incredible. Thanks Doug!

So glad you picked up on this piece. I was lucky to see them live a couple of years ago and was totally knocked out by the musicianship...and Cory was with them which only added some extr\ magic. Stunning!!

Whatta song for your 200th! Congratulations. I think 1M Snarky Lingus views are mine! I can listen to this over and over, cause when it ends I am left needing more....

Moments of this song bring tears to my eyes. It's just a masterpiece!

What an awesome band doing and even more awesome song. Really enjoyed Snarky Puppy, thanks Doug.

Doug, I'm so glad you dig Snarky Puppy, and this tune. But, more broadly, thank you so much for doing what you do...I appreciate your take on things so much! Your reaction to Yes's Close To The Edge is still the very best...if it's even possible, it adds more to the tune...."and we return to nature"... Thanks so very much for staying with this, and with us...and keep doing what you do.

I love your videos, reactions and analyses. Your channel quickly became one of my favourites, if not The favourite. It amazes me how well you seem to be able to spot and decode musical info just like that. (Makes me a bit jealous too. :)) So, concrats on the 200th video and all the best from Finland! PS: As you're focusing on prog, how about something from Italy? They had a fantastic prog scene in the 70's. You could start with PMF, Le Orme of even Area, for example. PPS: Snarky just kills it! Everytime I re-watch the video, the exitement is like watching a hockey game, even as I know what's about to happen.

it's about time...this is absolute BUTTER!....and the young keyboard player that jumps in is the next George Duke!

Great video: thanks! I'm a new fanboi for Mark Lettieiri (one of the guitarists) but haven't listened to much of Snarky Puppy, so this was a great intro

That is on the top two list of great songs from Snarky Puppy. Thanks Doug!

Have known the song since it appeared and also saw the band live (have a picture with Michael, also). Not only they are great musicians, also they are very nice people, and hearing this song, always gives me goose bumps :) Love the videos, keep them coming....Cheers

Congrats on your 200th Episode! Great work!!!! Thanks for sharing your knowledge and inspirational comments!

brilliant, 10 secs in and i'am hooked. this band wasn't on my radar, it is now.

Thank you for playing this... I proposed this after your Danny Carey drum cam video. One of my favorite songs. Thank you Doug and congratulations on 200 episodes and 100k subs 🤘⚡🤘

Insta-liked for THISSSSS! LOVE THIS SONG!

I requested this! Thanks for doing this, and glad to hear this masterpiece is one of your favorites!

They start in a 5/4 (or 10?) and the solo section is over a 4/4 clave pattern, and stays in 4 to the end. This band and this particular performance is absolute JOY, that is so true!

Love it. Thanks Doug and congrats on 200 episodes.

Love this album.... I've taken to calling it the LARNELL LEWIS album...in that he's driving the bus....and yes CORY'S solo is exquisite...Amazing tune...

Congrats on the 200th episode milestone!

Congratulations on 200 episodes! Lingus is my favorite Snarky Puppy tune! Perhaps there could be a fusion day of the week? There's plenty of great stuff there! Maybe an avantgarde day of the week as well? Thanks for sharing this tune in your fashion. 😎

I’m so sad that I can’t ever hear this song for the first time again, but watching reaction videos like yours makes me feel an echo of that feeling again. That said, you said they were “still in 5” during Cory’s solo, but they had actually switched to 4/4 for that back half of the song, so smooth

The thing about this session is that it makes so much more sense with the video. You can't get the full feel for what is going on sonically without the video. There isn't much music that is like that.

omg watching your reaction and explanations make me feel needing some classes of music theory lol PLEASE LAUNCH AN ONLINE CLASS BREAKING DOWN THE PARTS OF PIECES LIKE THIS

Your story re Larnell is correct. Spoke to him about this. Wild!

For sessions where they work with vocalists see Family Dinner Vol 1 & Vol 2. "Something" featuring Lalah Hathaway was how they won their 1st grammy.

I love your content, keep up the great work and music

Just wanted to chime in here and say THIS will go down as an excellent 200th episode for you, Doug. I'm a 'retired' musician, live FOH engineer, recording engineer, mix engineer, audio mastering engineer, MIT double masters engineer, and self-proclaimed world-class classically trained pianist (all accumulations over the past 45 years, or so). Not trying to toot horns, just stating facts and being accurate. I believe that Snarky Puppy's 'LINGUS' is one of those outstanding fusion jazz compositions with all the right moves, that places it squarely into the the level of an epitome of this genre's best destiny of possibilities. It is a neutron bomb in a bottle! The five beat along with the precision percussion, dual guitar notes in perfect sync, finely tuned brass section, additional excellent keyboard work, and everyone right in the pocket, are signatures of how it 'gets done'. Cory Henry shows us all how to start with a few building blocks as a foundation, and slowly build a shed, then make changes that revealed a split-level house, then a two-story Colonial, into a six bedroom four bath hip roof, and finally into a mega mansion 35 room three story structure, six car garage sitting on 20 acres...All with the able bodied assistance from Larnell Lewis at his side, and other musicians comping lightly in the mix. Outstanding. Simply OUTSTANDING!

They did 3 live recordings of this song. Check them out. The keys are TOTALLY DIFFERENT in all three. Totally improvised. Wow.

You've achieved the very unusual and introduced me to something new and fabulous - this is utterly fantastic, I enjoyed it enormously and I'll definitely be exploring Snarky Puppy further.

Just found your channel this week on a rush react, now I wanted to hear snarky puppy and there you are again! Loved your channel, pretty good analysis and explanations. Thank you! keep doing your very good job

Loved your reaction and that you didn't pause it,. Thank you! I come back to watching a straight RU-vid Playlist of all the songs on this album in starting from Lingus every month.

one of the best reviews or reactions to this tune ever, I appreciate how you comment while the music is going on without stopping at every point I hate when people do that,, this way I can appreciate the flow better...well in my view...awesome job man !

Indeed Doug! I come back to this song once a month or so, and am frequently mentioning to anyone with even the slightest interest. I'm still surprised to find otherwise very aware listeners unfamiliar Snarky and this incredible tune. Enjoyed my umpteenth revisit with you. Congrats on 100,000 subs!

It would be wonderful if someday you do Tigran Hamasyan's "Drip" live with Berklee middle eastern fusion ensemble. It is as great as Lingus and to me it' should be the songs with present to aliens (if they exist) as a sample of what the best humans were able to do in 10's [at least in fusion, if it is what they are doing. To me is just magic huah]

Congrats on the 100k subscribers! I subscribed tonight!

Hell yes! I've been waiting for this.

Congrats and thank you for this reaction! Been listening to SP for years (My daughter was so lucky to watch them live 2 years ago)

So happy that we got to episode 200!!! Love your channel, Doug!

Thanks Doug, for all your videos, light spirited, friendly and wise, altoghether. Loved to hear this one in special, Lingus is such an awesome piece of music, and in gets even better with your comments and musical analysis on it. You rock!

Congratulations on #200, Doug!!!

Like with athletes over the generations, musicians keep getting more and more proficient! Sad Irony that economic realities have pushed mainstream music to become so formulaic,and homogenized. Great to see outfits like the great Snarky Puppy finding a way to flourish outside of that mainstream. A very difficult thing to do these days.

Doug - the fact that this music brought you such happiness tells me that you’ll be similarly delighted by the bands National Health, and Hatfield & The North. Hoping to see you cover them in some future videos.

This piece, your comments, to this night with few beers downed. COOL!! Thank you. Quality content and entertainment as always. Man! Lingus kicks ass!!!

Thanks for sharing this, Doug. I followed your channel for the metal reactions, but this has introduced me to something new and pretty damn cool. Jazz/fusion is generally something I don't enjoy outside of a limited few composers (Monk, Coltrane, Zappa's instrumental stuff, and now Snarky Puppy). Thanks and keep it going!

The first time I saw this video a few years back I was.....speechless. No kidding - I sat here for five minutes in awe, tears in my eyes. Thanks Doug.

I can´t express how I love this piece of BLISS in every shape and form. Doug, I really appreciate your approach to stuff, I always am amazed how ear opening your vids are! Thanx!!!

Congrats Doug! Keep on doing this amazing job. I'm a big fan from Poland.

Great vid and love your enthusiasm and music insights thrown in

Cool you did these guys, such a wonderful band.