Press!

“The album is GREAT! [It] touches all the right cornerstones of jazz, but also funks my socks off.” — Kyle Press

“Led by Ken Field, an alto saxophonist and flutist, this Boston-area band puts a premium on Mardi Gras-style rhythm – the opening track of its new album, Live Snakes, is aptly titled Parade – but also pursues a sinuous, writhing counterpoint, in ways that justify the band’s name.”

“Something quite original in the world of jazz and beyond.”— Kory Cook

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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

“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.”

“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

“Das Revolutionary Snake Ensemble ist vielleicht frecher und stürmischer als jede Blaskapelle vor ihr. Sie mixen die Energie von Albert Ayler (ohne die Free Form) mit der virtuosen Rhythmusverspieltheit der progressiven Rockmusik, spielen, als seien sie eine Big Band auf Koks, lassen die Kompositionen in den ausgiebigen instrumentalen Läufen weit hinter sich und forschen mit improvisativer Lust, technischem Geschick und inspiriertem Melodieverständnis neben alltäglichen Pfaden. Wichtig ist, was hinten dabei heraus kommt, war schon Olle Kohls wissenschaftliche Analyse und das, was hier hinten bei raus kommt, salopp gesagt, ist mehr als heiße Luft. In der stürmischen Einspielung ist vielleicht einiges Methan entwichen, viel mehr aber fesselnde, dynamische Musik, die sich herkömmlichen Kategorien mit Lust und Verve entzieht. Das passt wenig in Jazz, wenig in Rock, wenig in Folklore, und ebenso wenig in Avantgarde. Schlicht gesagt trifft sich hier afroamerikanischer Voodoo-Jazz-Rock mit gospelhafter Innigkeit und Art-Ensemble-of-Chicago-inniger Lebensfreude. Nicht weniger.” – Volkmar Mantei

“Saxophonist-composer Ken Field’s enthralling New Orleans-inspired jazz-funk brass band!”

“Sly funky tuneful avant garde jazz.”

“Finding joy in the rhythms of the street, in the melodies of the everyday, and in the shouts one creates against the darkness.”

“It’s a stone cold killer diller!…Most bands can’t get the New Orleans stuff right, but the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble is one of the few who does and then takes it in fascinating directions.”

“Pretty heavy duty one-two punch starts this album from a fast-flying hydra big band led by Ken Field. Quite the stirring cocktail…the funk button is in full effect. Harkens back to some of the best Thirsty Ear beat collider digi-blue jazz. Ride the Snake!” — Thurston Hunger

“If the Meters played funk as a natural extension of New Orleans, Field and company — hailing from Boston, but surely hailing from the Crescent City in another life — do New Orleans as a natural extension of funk and jazz, bringing it back down South with its cool climate edge intact.”

“[RSE] continues to mine the vein of New Orleans – with post-bop, and touches of Avant – this band cooks; edgy, raucous, fun, and first rate!…this album will kick start any party you’re thinking about throwing this fall.”

“Brilliantly bridges the booty/brain barrier!”