2013-02-12
7:30PM
n/a
"They've pretty much modernized the traditional concept, and they've
spun it into a singular sound that's very unique and very vibrant."
- Glenn Astarita, All About Jazz
Mardi Gras Party featuring Revolutionary Snake Ensemble with special guest Charles Neville
Featuring: Ken Field - alto sax/leader
Tom Hall - tenor sax
Jerry Sabatini - trumpet
Danny Heath - trombone
Dave Harris - trombone/tuba
Blake Newman - acoustic bass
Phil Neighbors - drums
plus
Special guest, Charles Neville - sax
CHARLES NEVILLE:
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Born in 1938 in New Orleans, Grammy-winning saxophonist Charles
Neville gained international acclaim as a member of the Neville
Brothers band, the "First Family of Funk". In addition, Neville has
performed with James Brown, B.B. King, Bobby Bland, Ray Charles,
Allen Toussaint, James Booker, Ernie K-Doe, Wilson Pickett, Big Joe
Turner, and many more, and has led his own band, Diversity, since
1991.
REVOLUTIONARY SNAKE ENSEMBLE:
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Formed in 1991 by saxophonist Ken Field and trumpeter Scott Getchell,
the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble is a funk & street beat
improvisational brass band performing a unique blend of original and
traditional music. Leader Ken Field is a longtime member of the
acclaimed modern music ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, and an
active composer and performer.
In addition to guest Charles Neville, the band will include Jerry
Sabatini/tpt, Ken Field/sax, Tom Hall/sax, Dave Harris/tbn& tuba,
Phil Neighbors/drm, Blake Newman/bass.
The group's most recent CD, "Forked Tongue", spent 2 months on the
CMJ North American jazz top 20 chart, and appeared on best-of-year
lists in the Village Voice & in Estonia, plus in Georgia, Wisconsin,
Kansas, Michigan, Massachusetts, Ohio, and NY. The disc features
unique treatments of music by Field, Ornette Coleman, Billy Idol, and
others.
Notable Revolutionary Snake Ensemble performances have included the
Krewe of Muses Mardi Gras Parade (New Orleans); the Kennedy Center
for the Performing Arts (DC); Tonic (NYC); the Museum of Fine Arts
(Boston); the Brooklyn Academy of Music (NY); the Puffin Cultural
Forum (New Jersey); Berklee Performance Center (Boston); and many
other venues.
The Snake Ensemble has traveled by train six times from Boston to New
Orleans, playing on board the Amtrak Crescent, to march with the
Krewe of Muses in their annual Mardi Gras parade.
The Ensemble can be heard performing Field's original music on
"Parade of Numbers", an animated counting piece regularly aired on
the television program "Sesame Street".
RSE's debut release, "Year of the Snake", includes music by Field,
Sun Ra, John Scofield, James Brown, and others, and was listed as one
of the top discs of the year on New York NPR affiliate WNYC, in the
New Orleans Gambit Weekly, and on Radio Popolare in Milan, Italy.
