PRESS

    Forked Tongue (Cuneiform, 2008):

  • "Ken Field & The Revolutionary Snake Ensemble: The Musical Road Less Taken", All About Jazz interview by Tod Smith (March 2009)

  • eMusic Brass Band Dozen by Jim Sullivan

  • Il Popolo del Blues (Italy) review by Ernesto de Pascale (October 2008)

  • Soundslike Jazz review (Belgium)

  • Community Newspapers feature by Ed Symkus (February 2009)

  • All About Jazz Italia review by Maurizio Comandini (September 2008)

  • All About Jazz review by Mark Corroto (July 2008)

  • The Noise review by Joe Coughlin (September 2008)

  • Night Life Pick of the Week: "OUT OF LEFT FIELD: The Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, a writhing, horn-heavy group led by the Boston-based saxophonist and composer Ken Field, dresses in feathered masks and sequined robes and covers a broad range of funk- and New Orleans-inspired music. A seasoned collection of horn and percussion players, the group puts a funky spin on everything from Billy Idol to Ornette Coleman." --- The New Yorker, May 19, 2008

  • Boston Globe Winter 2009 Arts Guide - Top 10 Reasons To Get Out: "The next couple of months bring a host of big jazz names here - McCoy Tyner, Cassandra Wilson, Kenny Barron, the Bad Plus - but a few of what are bound to be the most exciting shows involve one of Boston's own bands, the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble. Saxophonist Ken Field's group - which performs in Mardi Gras-style costumes and masks - plays a mishmash of jazz, funk, and New Orleans second-line street music. Everything is fair game; their latest album, Forked Tongue, runs the gamut from the traditional Just a Closer Walk to Billy Idol's White Wedding." --- Steve Greenlee, The Boston Globe, February 1st, 2009

  • "RSE's album starts with the slinkiest and sassiest version of the gospel chestnut 'Just a Closer Walk' ever heard" --- Dirty Linen

  • "If the wailing vigil of Down By the Riverside doesn't rake your spine, chances are you don't have one...It's quite possibly the most convincing treatment of New Orleans by a non-native since Hugh Masakela's Goin' Back to New Orleans...If [Field]'s not re-arranging some holy chestnut, he's dreaming up freaky, wind-jamming floor monsters like The Large S." --- Brendon Griffin, PopMatters

  • "A quirky, idiosyncratic band capable of both partying and intellectual discourse...A formidable slew of potent originals...The Revolutionary Snake Ensemble has taken danceable music to both earthy and progressive levels." --- Michael Nastos, All Music Guide

  • "RSE is a gloriously humorous and creative group that makes great music" --- Jay Collins, Signal to Noise

  • "About the most fun I've had musically all year." --- Jon Davis, Expose

  • "Imaginative arrangements...make up the lion's share of the album but it is the four original tunes by leader/altoist Ken Field that really shine! A really appealing listen." --- ZNR

  • "Unlike most modernisations of supposedly 'traditional' concepts, this one has an informing logic that carries it through, and by the time you get to Minor Vee and Under the Skin, both written by saxophonist/leader Ken Field, you're a voodoo convert."--- Brian Morton, The Wire (UK)

  • "Three cheers and five stars - Thoroughly happening!" --- Glenn Astarita, eJazzNews

  • "The music is what counts, and Forked Tongue demonstrates why the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble matters." --- Steve Greenlee, JazzTimes

  • "The album is GREAT! [It] touches all the right cornerstones of jazz, but also funks my socks off." --- Kyle Press, WKDU Philadelphia

  • "I can't stop playing this crazy CD over and over again. Doctor, is there an antidote? I am having visions of Mardi Gras parties out of control. They call it a brass band, but there must be some voodoo in this music."--- Ted Gioia, www.jazz.com

  • "I dig it quite a bit and think [they've] hit on something quite original in the world of jazz and beyond."--- Kory Cook, KUT Radio, Austin, TX

  • "Their most focused, adventurous, and rollicking effort yet. Ken Field's Snakes march their jazzy New Orleans-style second line in slinking, swaggering new directions" --- Boston Globe

  • "Ecco un disco coraggioso e divertente, che non mancher‡ di suscitare interesse in un pubblico a trecentosessanta gradi con la sua energia stradaiola, che si nutre di memoria e innovazione allo stesso tempo."--- Enrico Ramunni, Rockerilla (Italy)

  • "Un disco divertido sin ser banal, con humor sin perder autoridad conceptual, que suene familiar y accessible sin que sea reiterativo o intrascendente y que reśna en un mismo piano retazos sonorous de Sun Ra, Parliament Funkadelic, Sex Mob, James Brown y Lounge Lizards impregnado del bullicioso esp’ritu de las marching bands de New Orleans...El Revolutionary Snake Ensemble es un sopio de aire fresco que, sin mensajes subliminales ni segundas lecturas, entretiene con inteligencia, ingenio y simpat’a."--- Sergio Piccirilli, El Intruso (Argentina)

  • "An original musical presence" --- Zdenek Slaby, UNI Magazine, Czech Republic
  • "A super CD" --- Linda Yohn, Music Director, WEMU, Ypsilanti (Ann Arbor/Detroit)

  • "Damnit, Gumby! That is a wicked freakin' group! Awesome tunes." --- Dave Tilley, WXDU Durham, NC

  • "What a fantastic groove!" --- Mitchell Feldman, Jazz Without Borders, Georgia Public Broadcasting

  • "I love it" --- Andrea Leonard, KZSU Stanford, CA

    Year of the Snake (Innova, 2003):

  • Performer Magazine live review by Kate DeBonville (November 2004)

  • Boston Phoenix live review by Jon Garelick (September 2004)

  • Boston Phoenix feature by Ted Drozdowski (January 2004)

  • Performer Magazine feature by Regional Editor Jeff Breeze (February 2004)

  • Jewish Advocate article by Susie Davidson (February 2004)

  • "They've pretty much modernized the traditional concept, and they've spun it into a singular sound that's very unique and very vibrant. They accelerated the norm. They went past the tried and true. They managed to do it all with a very distinct musical persona." --- Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz, interviewed on Morning Edition

  • "Boston's own rabble of horn players and drummers bring a positively Sun Ra shine to second-line music" --- Jed Gottlieb, The Boston Herald

  • "It's a GREAT CD" --- Mitchell Feldman, Georgia Public Broadcasting

  • "A funky, brass heavy, street beat N'Awlins band led by the musical polymath Ken Field, whose debut CD was acclaimed as one of the best of the year by Brooklynite John Schaefer, the encyclopedic music director of WNYC, and by the New Orleans Gambit Weekly Newspaper, amongst others." --- Neil Feldman, Not Only Brooklyn

  • "Far from being dusty history, today's brass bands are marching hip hop, R&B, and other modern methods through brash New Orleans traditions. Enter Boston's Revolutionary Snake Ensemble -- an instant second-line parade of grit, honk and morphing rhythms. RSE's shifting, top-shelf roster adds a diehard allegiance to funky beats and jazzy Latin and African stylings to the New Orleans street-corner spirit. It's urban tribal music -- undeniably sensual, often improvised, and always synchronized in celebration. And on RSE's long-anticipated debut, it's delivered in precision bursts of audacious, sliding horns, and locomotive beats." --- Tristram Lozaw

  • "A fabulous Mardi Gras-themed album of horn-heavy, funky, and energetic party music." --- John Schaefer, WNYC Radio New Sounds

  • "Captures the abandon of a street parade while expanding its stylistic scope ... it's got the essential ingredients spiced with fresh flavors." --- Dan Ouellette, jazz columnist for Billboard, contributing editor to Stereophile, longtime Downbeat contributor, writing in the Brown Alumni Magazine

  • "Man, this snake can move!" --- Matthew Robinson, MusicDish.com

  • "Urban tribal music that blends an audacious New Orleans brass band spirit with the sensual fever of African and Latin rhythms." --- The Boston Herald

  • "Simply put, this is one of the most successful combinations of booty-shaking & brain-stimulating music to be released this year, and it deserves your attention post-haste." --- Brett McCallon, Splendid

  • "Great Music!" --- James Cervantes, KWVA, Eugene, Oregon

  • "It's incredible!" --- Meghan Currier, Music Director, WERS Jazz Oasis, Boston, MA

  • "Year of the Snake is killer!" --- Clay Gaunce, WRFL, Lexington, Kentucky

  • "Musical innovator Ken Field...[drags] the brass band into the 21st century." --- Seth Rogovoy, Berkshire Eagle

  • "Imagine a New Orleans brass band coupled to JB horns and firing off just enough improvisation to keep things unpredictable. Things have certainly heated up in Boston! " --- Nils Jacobson, All About Jazz

  • "The CD is amazing" --- Dan Bodah, WFMU Radio

  • "It's all here - music for the head, the heart, and the feet" --- Scott Billington, Two-time Grammy-winning New Orleans music producer

  • "Great work - making quite a buzz around here!" --- David Eisenman, Jazz & Blues Director, WTJU, Charlottesville, VA

  • "Top 10 pick for 2003" --- Glenn Astarita, New Orleans Gambit Weekly

  • "One serious party album - an instrumental record infectious enough to keep the bodily juices bubbling, and interesting enough to keep the noggin engaged, as well." --- Charles Winokoor, Taunton Daily Gazette

  • "One of the best unsigned bands in the country." --- Joyce Kulhawik WBZ-TV Channel 4

  • "The best party in town!" --- Beth Germano WBZ-TV Channel 4

  • "Terrific recording!" --- David Beckett, Jazz Music Director, WWPV, Vermont
  • Best of the Year List: WNYC (New York), Gambit Weekly (New Orleans), Radio Popolare (Milan)

  • FOUR STARS!--- Maurizio Comandini, All About Jazz Italia

  • Radio airplay includes CFBX (Canada), CFLX (Quebec), CHYZ (Quebec), CIUT (Toronto), KEUL (Alaska), KGNU (Boulder, CO), KRZA (CO/NM), KSJC (Silverton, CO), KSVR (WA), KUNM (Albuquerque), KUSP (Santa Cruz), KUVO (Denver), KWVA (Eugene, OR), Radio Kosmos (Greece), Radio Popolare (Italy), Vermont Public Radio, WBLU/WBLV Blue Lake Public Radio (MI), WEMU (MI), WERS (Boston), WFMU (NY/NJ), WFNX (Boston), WGBH (Boston), WHFR (Detroit), WHUS (CT), WMBR (Cambridge), WMMT (Whitesburg, KY), WMNF (Tampa), WMPG (Portland, ME), WMUA (Amherst, MA), WNAA (Greensboro, NC), WNTI (NJ), WNYC (NY), WPKN (Bridgeport, CT), WRFL (Lexington, KY), WRNX (Holyoke, MA), WSHA (Raleigh, NC), WSUM (Madison, WI), WTJU (Charlottesville, VA), WTUL (New Orleans), WVOF (Fairfield, CT), WWUH (Hartford, CT), WWPV (VT), WXOU (MI), WXYC (Chapel Hill, NC), XM Satellite Radio

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