Year of the Snake

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.