Tracks

• Under the Skin (2:21)
• Streaming (3:12)
• Dressing Part 1 (1:57)
• Five Saxophones in Search of Meaning (4:09)
• Downpour (1:13)
• Om on the Range (4:51)
• Dressing Part 2 (2:38)
• Slits in the Curtain (4:46)

 

Commissioned by the acclaimed New York dance duo of Art Bridgman and Myrna Packer, composer and saxophonist Ken Field (Birdsongs of the Mesozoic, Revolutionary Snake Ensemble) has created new work for layered alto saxophones, bass, and drums to accompany Under the Skin, Bridgman/Packer's interaction of live performance and video, called the most thrilling dance work in recent memory by the Boston Globe.

Field's music has been labeled Twentieth Century head music with a swinging beat (Outsight) and Mysterious, chilling, and richly textured...overwhelmingly captivating. (Saxophone Journal). Under the Skin was intended to be performed by Field live with prerecorded saxophone, bass, and drum tracks. Here, one such performance is captured on CD. From the Boston Globe: Ken Field's dynamite jazz/funk score pops with an infectious groove as he plays live with a prerecorded tape in a way that echoes the dancers' fusion of the real and virtual.

This is dance music. Rhythmic, playful, driving, flip, occasionally funky, audaciously sassy, filled with life and humor. - from the liner notes by Cincinnati dance critic David Lyman.

Available from Innova Recordings.

 

Tracks

• Parade (5:29)
• Year of the Snake (2:22)
• Soul Makossa (5:37)
• Soul Power (5:04)
• A Call For All Demons (6:56)
• Central Square (5:51)
• Some Nerve (4:29)
• El Choclo (5:18)
• Iko Iko/Aicho (5:43)
• I Got It (4:25)

 

Year of the Snake (Innova Recordings 599) is the debut recording by the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble.

Available from Innova Recordings.

 

Tracks

• First Set (37:14)
  
• Second Set (36:42)

 

Tokyo in F (Sublingual Records SLR004) is a live recording of the August 1998 fully-improvised concert in Tokyo by saxophonist/flautist Ken FIELD, violinist KATSUI Yuji, guitarist KIDO Natsuki, and pianist SHIMIZU Kazuto. It consists of two 37-minute spontaneous musical creations by the ensemble, who had not previously met or performed together, and who communicated only through their music.

All About Jazz reviewer Nils Jacobson says it "oozes with spontaneity and a constant sense of discovery" and calls it "unusually satisfying" [Full Review]. And a second All About Jazz review, this one by Modern Jazz Editor Glenn Astarita, calls Tokyo in F "Highly recommended" and gives it ***** out of (*****) [Full Review].

Available from CDeMUSIC (888-749-9998), CDNOW, Amazon.com.

Additional information at http://www.sublingual.com.

 

Tracks

• Pictures of Motion (3:04)
• Canned Chicken (4:14)
• Corteo (4:01)
  
  
• Plitvice (2:21)
• Tensleep (7:53)
• Pass Along (2:02)
  
• Some Things Reconsidered (0:46)
• Parade (2:38)
• Book of Balance (2:24)
• Road to Recluse (2:49)
  
• Confluence Suite (6:53)
• Time Remembered (1:14)
• Bells of Balance (2:27)

 

Pictures of Motion (sFz Recordings 002) is the second solo release from Birdsongs of the Mesozoic saxophonist Ken Field. Composed in Wyoming and recorded in Seattle & Boston, this unique music for layered alto saxophones builds on the concepts Field introduced on Subterranea, his critically-acclaimed debut 1996 CD on O.O.Discs.

Pictures of Motion, on sFz Recordings, includes new compositions for alto saxophone trio and quartet (including two of Field's compositions for Sesame Street) with guest musicians including Seattle saxophonists Amy Denio and Jessica Lurie, percussionist Will Dowd, drummers Ethan Meyer & Eric Paull, and bassists Mike Rivard & John Styklunas.

The CD reached the number one spot on the WZBC jazz charts, was voted among the best releases of the year 2000 in the international Green Dolphin Poll, and reached #13 in the Winter 2001/02 top 20 on the Minumum Vital radio show on Radio Kreizh Breizh (in the Brittany section of France). There were release concerts in Providence, at the Knitting Factory in NYC, at Flywheel in western MA, and a sold-out evening in Cambridge.

The Boston Phoenix called it "excellent" [Full Review].

Read the liner notes by John Schaefer.

Available from sFz Recordings (508-947-7387), CDeMUSIC (888-749-9998), CDNOW, Amazon.com.

Tracks

• A Space in a Place (3:57)
  
• Om on the Range (4:51)
• Takuskanskan (2:50)
• Five Saxophones in Search of Meaning (2:05)
• Sanity (0:44)
  
• Perpetual Motion (5:20)
• Thoughts Unspoken (3:01)
• Berrendo (3:11)
• Sympathetic Magic (7:40)
• The Missing Soul (2:15)
• When I Fall In Love (1:38)

 

Subterranea (O.O.Discs #OO25) is the acclaimed first solo release from Birdsongs of the Mesozoic saxophonist Ken Field. Recorded in an unusual underground space in Roswell, New Mexico, the CD contains Field's unique experiments with layered saxophone, flute, and percussion music.

Music writer Mark Corroto says that, "with references to Sun Ra, chant, trance, and saxophone quartets, Field has created something extraordinary."

Available from amazon.com, CDNow,O.O.Discs (203-367-7917), Wayside, or via a toll-free call to CDeMUSIC at 1-888-749-9998.