Updated: February 10, 2021
Born: January 26
Ken Field is a saxophonist, flautist, percussionist, and composer. Since 1988 he has been a member of the internationally acclaimed electrified modern music ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, with whom he has recorded eight CDs.
Field leads the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, a experimental and improvisational brass band, and performs with the community-based Second Line Social Aid & Pleasure Society Brass Band. Since 2015 he has annually led a pick-up band of unafiliated musicians at the HONK!Oz Festival in Wollongong, NSW, Australia. His solo releases document his work for layered saxophones and his soundtracks for dance and film. Field was named a 2017 Finalist in Music Composition by the Massachusetts Cultural Council.
Field has performed in the US, Canada, Mexico, France, Germany, Spain, Hungary, Portugal, Sweden, Ireland, Italy, Poland, Australia, New Zealand, & Japan, and has been awarded residency fellowship grants at the MacDowell Colony (New Hampshire), the Ucross Foundation (Wyoming), the Fundacion Valparaiso (Spain), the MacNamara Foundation (Maine), and the Atlantic Center for the Arts (Florida). His musical projects have been featured in The New York Times, Saxophone Journal, The Boston Globe, The Los Angeles Times, The Washington Post, Tower Pulse, Billboard, Cadence, The Wire, The Orlando Sentinel, The New Yorker, and many other publications. Field has performed at the Roswell (NM) Jazz Festival, for President Bill Clinton, with Trombone Shorty, Charles Neville, Grammy-winning percussionist Glen Velez, former J. Geils frontman Peter Wolf, the Jazz Composers Alliance Orchestra, The Violent Femmes, and the Georgia Symphony Orchestra.
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All About Jazz Articles
Interview
Album Review
- Under the Skin by Samuel Chell
- Tokyo in F by Glenn Astarita
- Tokyo In F by AAJ Staff
- Pictures Of Motion by AAJ Staff
- Pictures of Motion by Mark Corroto
Articles Across the Web
May 21, 2018
Ken Field's Revolutionary Snake Ensemble Releases "I Want That Sound!"
May 09, 2011
Ken Field's Revolutionary Snake Ensemble Returns to NYC
April 18, 2011
Downtown Boston's Jazz Swarms for Jazz Week from JazzBoston
January 26, 2011
Jazz Musician of the Day: Ken Field
January 26, 2010
Jazz Musician of the Day: Ken Field
March 06, 2009
Revolutionary Snake Ensemble's Ken Field Interviewed at AAJ
January 26, 2009
A stone cold killer diller Offbeat Magazine, New Orleans, LA
Sly funky tuneful avant garde jazz New York Music Daily
Touches all the right cornerstones of jazz, but also funks my socks off! Kyle Press, WKDU, Philadelphia, PA
Primary Instrument
Saxophone, alto
Location
Boston
Willing to teach
Advanced only
Credentials/Background
Experienced and patient teacher with national & international performance credentials; private half-hour lessons in West Concord; Monday afternoon/evening; all levels; contact for references & details.
Clinic/Workshop Information
1. "Improvisation for Non-Improvisors" 2. "Soundtrack Design for Animation" 3. "Brass Bands from Bourbon Street to Sesame Street" 4. "Technology as a Tool" Presentation, residency, and workshop experience includes Wellesley College (MA), Alfred University (NY), Western New Mexico University, Sheridan College (WY), the Artists' Association of Nantucket (MA), Applewild School (MA), Camden-Rockport High School/YouthArts (ME), New Mexico Military Institute, the Carolina Film Festival (NC), Emory University (GA), the University of North Carolina, Hilo & Waiakea High Schools (HI), Dartmouth College (NH), the Massachusetts College of Art (MA), Lebanon Valley College (PA), the Boston Museum of Science (MA), the Creative Music Orchestra (New Haven, CT), the Fitchburg (MA) Art Museum, and, with Delfeayo Marsalis, the Nunez Correctional Learning Center (Port Sulpher, LA). The Saxophone Journal featured a Masterclass CD by Field based on the layered saxophone improvisations from his first solo CD Subterranea.
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