Revolutionary Snake Ensemble celebrates Mardi Gras and the Year of the Snake

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Revolutionary Snake Ensemble with Jerry Sabatini, Ken Field, Tom Hall, Dave Harris, Phil Neighbors, Blake Newman and special guest soloist Charles Neville. Tuesday, February 12, 7:30 pm. Tickets: $20. Regattabar at the Charles Hotel, One Bennett Street, Cambridge. Funk & street beat improvisational brass band the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble will bring down the house in a special Mardi Gras show held in the Regattabar. After 6 years traveling & playing on the Amtrak Crescent train to New Orleans to march with the Krewe of Muses for their annual Mardi Gras parade, the Boston-based Snakes celebrate this year's Mardi Gras, as well as the Chinese Year of the Snake, with a series of shows closer to home. For their Cambridge show, the over-the-top band, featuring Jerry Sabatini (trumpet), Ken Field (alto sax), Tom Hall (tenor sax), Dave Harris (trombone & tuba), Phil Neighbors (drums), and Blake Newman (bass), will be joined by Grammy winning saxophonist Charles Neville of Neville Brothers fame.

As part of their Northeast-based Mardi Gras tour, the Snakes will also be performing at the BAMcafé in Brooklyn on February 9, joined by special guest drummer Kenny Wollesen.

Further background on Charles Neville:
Born in 1938 in New Orleans, Grammy award-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.

Further background on the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble
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 Field is a longtime member of the acclaimed modern music ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, and an active composer and performer.

The group's most recent record, "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 recording 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 Snakes have 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.

"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, "Forked Tongue" interview/review,
All About Jazz on National Public Radio)

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