Ken Field’s Revolutionary Snake Ensemble
Year of the Snake
Innova 599
1. Parade Easy
Reader Music BMI
alto saxophone: Ken Field
trumpet:: Jon Fraser
trombone: Bob Pilkington
flügelhorn:Scott Getchell
drums: Eric Paull, Ethan
Meyer
acoustic bass: Derek
VanBeever
2. Year of the
Snake
alto saxophone:
Ken Field
trombone chorale: Lennie Peterson
trombone: Bob Pilkington
drums: Eric Paull, Ethan Meyer
acoustic bass: Derek VanBeever
3. Soul
Makossa
Kooper Music BMI
alto saxophone: Ken Field
trumpet:: Jon Fraser
trombone: Lennie Peterson
drums: Ethan Meyer
snare drum: Mickey Bones
electric bass: Aaron Bellamy
4. Soul
Power
Crited Music BMI
alto saxophone: Ken Field
trumpet::Jon Fraser
trombone:Brian Thomas
tenor saxophone: Mark Caughill
drums: Ethan Meyer
electric bass: Aaron Bellamy
5. A Call For
All Demons
Enterplanetary Concepts BMI
alto saxophone: Ken Field
trumpet::Jon Fraser
trombone:BobPilkington
baritone
saxophone: Charlie Kohlhase
tenor
saxophone: Mark Caughill
drums:Eric Paull, Ethan Meyer
percussion:Larry Dersch
conga: Karen Aqua
acoustic bass: Derek VanBeever
6. Central Square
Conical Music
BMI
alto saxophone:
Ken Field
trumpet:: Jon Fraser
tenor saxophone: Mark Caughill
drums:Eric Paull, Ethan Meyer
acoustic bass: Derek VanBeever
7. Some Nerve
Scoway Music
BMI
alto saxophone: Ken Field
trumpet:: Jon Fraser, Scott Getchell
trombone: Bob Pilkington
drums: Eric Paull, Ethan Meyer
snare drum: Larry Dersch
tambourine: Karen Aqua
acoustic bass: erek VanBeever
8. El
Choclo (Public Domain)
alto saxophone: Ken Field
trombone: Bob Pilkington,
Lennie Peterson
drums: Ethan Meyer
percussion:
Larry Dersch, Mickey Bones,
Ken Field
acoustic bass:Derek VanBeever
9. Iko
Iko/Aicho
Public
Domain/Conical Music BMI
alto saxophone: Ken Field
trumpet:: Jon Fraser, Scott Getchell
trombone: Bob Pilkington
drums: Eric Paull, Ethan Meyer
percussion: Larry Dersch, Mickey Bones,
Karen Aqua, Ken
Field
acoustic bass: Derek VanBeever
10. I Got It (Field)
Conical Music BMI
alto saxophone: Ken Field
trumpet::Jon Fraser
trombone: Bob Pilkington
tenor saxophone::Mark Caughill
drums: Eric Paull, Ethan Meyer
percussion: Ken Field
acoustic bass: Derek VanBeever
Bring together a couple of marching drummers, add a tuba or
a sousaphone to hold down the bass, and play a groove behind an assortment of
trumpets, trombones and saxophones. You’ll have found one of the happiest
sounds on Earth. From the raucous street sound of a Mexican comparsa, to the
wild dance rhythms of a Serbian wedding band, to the resonant double-reeded
horns of a Catalonian cobla, the sound of a brass band causes the heart to
stir.
Perhaps
nowhere else in the world has the brass band taken hold in local culture as it
has in New Orleans, where a brass band can signal an event as momentous as a
funeral or Carnival day itself. Well over a century ago, African-American
musicians adopted the instruments of military bands and began swinging the
music, with early jazz musicians such as trumpet players Buddy Bolden and Louis
Armstrong getting at least some of their training in the street. In 2003, the
brass bands are still parading. On any Sunday afternoon throughout the fall and
winter, you’ll find a “second line” parade somewhere in the
city. Members of “Social and Pleasure” clubs such as the Black Men
of Labor or the Money Wasters pay for the privilege of dancing down the street
in front of the band, always dressed to impress. Everyone else dances along
behind the band. It’s not a passive activity.
New Orleans
brass band music isn’t always what you’d call a sophisticated
sound—it’s meant to make you shake your butt, and its chanted
refrains give a sense of shared experience that further bonds the dancers to
the musicians. Yet, there have been a few groups, notably the Dirty Dozen Brass
Band, who have taken the music to more ambitious musical heights, using the
second line format as a foundation for a modern jazz ensemble.
It’s within this context that alto saxophonist Ken Field and
trumpeter Scott Getchell co-founded Boston’s Revolutionary Snake
Ensemble, picking up the ever evolving New Orleans brass band sound and moving
it to a new neighborhood. The Snake Ensemble has added influences from non-New
Orleans, horn-based funk bands like the JBs, Tower of Power, or Lester
Bowie’s Brass Fantasy, and from Latin jazz and salsa, but what it all
boils down to is a great party band that delivers music of substance.
Year of
the Snake opens with the New Orleans-style “Parade,” which Field
wrote for Sesame Street. All the elements are here: a classic New Orleans
parade groove with a syncopated melody line that’s just right for
second-lining, and well-conceived solos that balance a healthy dose of grit
with smart modern jazz chops. It’s a showcase for Field’s alto, Bob
Pilkington’s trombone, and Getchell’s soaring flügelhorn.
Several other tunes, including “Central Square,” with its chugging
train beat and polyphonic solo section, and the classic “Iko Iko,”
follow in the same mold. These tunes would not be out of place in the street in
New Orleans.
But all is not
predictable here, as the Snake Ensemble takes the sound of the street around a
few new corners. The title track is a tone poem, featuring an overdubbed
trombone chorale crafted by Lennie Peterson, over an appropriately slinky
groove. New interpretations of two 1970s hits, Manu Dibango’s “Soul
Makossa” and James Brown’s “Soul Power,” use Aaron
Bellamy’s bubbling electric bass and the drums of Ethan Meyer and Mickey
Bones as a platform for tight ensemble horn work. Sun Ra’s “A Call
For All Demons” is built over what Duke Ellington might have
characterized as a “jungle” groove. Again, the horn ensemble
shines, followed by strong baritone sax and trumpet interplay from Charlie
Kohlhase and Jon Fraser, then solos from Field and Pilkington over wonderful
polyphonic ensemble work.
“El
Choclo” is a classic rhumba, with an elastic groove that makes a fine
platform for Field, Pilkington, and
Peterson. The percussion ensemble of Larry Dersch, Bones, and Field
shines. The final track, Field's “I Got It,” begins with a drum
groove that is soon startled by a melodic syncopation on alto sax before
heading for the parade, this time with Derek VanBeever’s acoustic bass.
You can hear all the influences at play here: a traditional jazz-style ensemble
section, a strong double-drum break from Eric Paull and Ethan Meyer, and a
tight horn ensemble that plays with harmony in delightful ways.
The
Revolutionary Snake Ensemble has accomplished something uncommon with its debut
release. With due deference to the New Orleans tradition, Ken Field and his
compatriots have created a funky brass band sound that’s quite at home in
Boston. With its keen writing, superb soloists and always-funky grooves, The
Revolutionary Snake Ensemble will have you dancing and listening time and time
again to its outstanding musicianship. It’s all here—music for the
head, the heart and the feet.
—Scott Billington (Scott Billington has produced
numerous recordings of Louisiana-based music, which have won two Grammy Awards
and nine Grammy nominations. For his efforts, Governor Edwin W. Edwards named
him a Louisiana Colonel.)
Special thanks to:
Sesame Workshop, Andy Pinkham, Chris Strouth, Tristram
Lozaw, Scott Billington, Tony Gillis, Claire Folger, John Scofield, and all the
musicians.
Ken Field website design: Andrew Doss
www.dosswerks.com
Producer : Ken Field
Excutive Producer:
Chris Strouth
Recorded and mixed: August-October 2002 & June-July 2003
by Andy Pinkham at Mortal Music, Charlestown, MA
CD Mastering:
Tony Gillis, Hit Factory,
Graphic Design by Umod007
Costume photographs by Claire Folger www.clairephoto.com
"I Got It" & "Central Square" were composed during a one-month residency grant at the Fundacion Valparaiso, Mojacar, Andalucia, Spain
Ken Field is a Vandoren Performing Artist, and uses Vandoren reeds and mouthpieces for performance and recording. www.vandoren.com