^{Revolutionary Snake Ensemble
Photo: Jean Hangarter}

Review by G.W. Mercure

Revolutionary Snake Ensemble (RSE) is one of those bands that you learn about by word-of-mouth, or by a chance encounter with one of their live performances, like Tuba Skinny, Slavic Soul Party, or the daddy of this phenomenon, Th’ Legendary Shack Shakers. And moving the live performance experience to studio recordings has never been a problem for RSE, as proven by their long-awaited (nine years!) fifth release, Serpentine. 

Of course, one way to transfer the energy and happenstance of a live performance is to release a live album. But Serpentine isn’t by the strictest definition a live album: It’s a suite of material performed live for the purpose of being recorded, more like Tom Waits’ Nighthawks at the Diner than Kiss: Alive. The results are splendid. Serpentine feels spontaneous, improvisational, rigged with the band’s energy and prosody, and is a solid blast of brass in a mercury-wild package. 

RSE is experienced and idea-driven enough to know that when music leaves New Orleans, it will never come back quite the same, but still street enough to get annoyed if you say the word “fusion” a few too many times. The funk on Serpentine is funk; the folk is folk; the soul is soul; the blues are a siren-esque Middle Eastern call to prayer. 

“Buck,” the album’s second track, sounds like Mingus and Brubeck got stoned together and then jammed until something was interesting enough to sober them up. “The Water Is Wide” is a perfect jazz interpretation of that folk standard, and reveals the folk structure to be more than capable of taking on jazz without resorting to the saccharine pop schemes that weigh down Louis Armstrong’s most popular recordings. “Strange Cults” is the best kind of blues, the kind that’s leaving town and going somewhere very, very far away. “Never Grow Old” is as close to straight New Orleans street music as they get, by turns patriotic, elegiac, and hot. If ever there is a need to replace “Didn’t He Ramble” in the repertoires of New Orleans jazz acts, my nominee would be this song. A lot of this music wouldn’t be out of place in a set with the best of Duke Ellington’s late career, especially Far East Suite.

For most of the twentieth century, the record album was the definition of a new creative statement, at least in the West, like the novel was in the nineteenth century. The streaming age is changing that. More playlists, fewer cohesive sets of recordings. Music for running, driving, packing, screwing, homework, busywork…If Serpentine fits in any background, I’d love to know what the foreground is. This is music for listening, moving your ass. It’s music for being alive. 

Revolutionary Snake Ensemble’s new album Serpentine is available on multiple platforms from Cuneiform Records. They will perform at a CD release party at Wellfleet Preservation Hall, 335 Main St. on Friday, November 7,7 – 9 p.m. For tickets ($35) and information call 508.349.1800 or visit wellfleetpreservationhall.org.