On
Year of the Snake,
the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble met a tough challenge: to create
jazz with roots in the jovial
New Orleans brass band tradition, but with more than enough modern twists to make it sound fresh and original, and certainly not at all revivalist. It's not just that
the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble mix original material and eclectic cover choices, including
"Iko Iko," Manu Dibango's
"Soul Makossa," James Brown's
"Soul Power," and
Sun Ra's
"A Call for All Demons." It's also how they mix in a lot of contemporary
soul and
funk influences, particularly in some of
Aaron Bellamy's popping electric basslines, almost as if they're as influenced by
the Meters as Crescent City
jazz. There are also some almost
klezmer and
tango-like lines on some of the less avowedly New Orleans-grounded work, and a healthy sense of irreverent joie de vivre in the polyphonic grooves, though
"Parade" is along the lines of what you might see a struttin' band play in an actual New Orleans parade. ~ Richie Unterberger
