Snarky Puppy’s Bill Laurance performs What’s Going On on the new Rhodes MK8

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Watch him put the new piano through its paces in an impromptu jam with Incognito

We’ve given you the specs, images and eye-watering price, but if you really want to know what the new Rhodes MK8 electric piano is all about, you need to hear it being played in anger in a performance setting.

Happily, you can now do precisely that, thanks to Snarky Puppy keyboard player Bill Laurance’s impromptu cover of Marvin Gaye’s What’s Going On being uploaded to YouTube. 

Laurance was joined on stage at London’s Ronnie Scott’s by members of British jazz-funk outfit Incognito during a recent Rhodes MK8 launch event. Their seven-minute jam has echoes of Donny Hathaway’s cover of What’s Going On, though we believe that his version - taken from his classic Live album - was played on a Wurlitzer.

Laurance has definitely put his own stamp on the song now, though: check it out above. 

The Snarky Puppy man first got his hands on the MK8 last year, calling it "beautiful... a really serious instrument".  

Bill Laurance Rhodes MK8

(Image credit: Rhodes Music Group)
Ben Rogerson
Ben Rogerson
Deputy Editor

I’m the Deputy Editor of MusicRadar, having worked on the site since its launch in 2007. I previously spent eight years working on our sister magazine, Computer Music. I’ve been playing the piano, gigging in bands and failing to finish tracks at home for more than 30 years, 24 of which I’ve also spent writing about music and the ever-changing technology used to make it.