Ken Field is a saxophonist & composer. He leads the Revolutionary Snake Ensemble, an experimental & improvisational brass band, and is a longtime member of the electronic modern music ensemble Birdsongs of the Mesozoic. His solo releases document his work for layered saxophones and his soundtracks for dance and film. Field’s music is heard regularly on the children’s television program Sesame Street. He is the host of WMBR Radio’s “The New Edge”, President of the Board of Tutoring Plus of Cambridge, Member of the HONK! Festival Organizing Committee, President of the Board of JazzBoston, and former member & chair of the Cambridge Bicycle Committee.
Our non-hierarchical volunteer committee has been organizing the original HONK! Festival in Somerville (Boston) MA for the past 15 years. This year we created the online HONK!United Festival, which incorporated prerecorded & live contributions from many of the 22 Honk festivals that have appeared over those intervening years all over the world (none of whom were able to have an in-person festival), as well as from bands that are part of the growing Honk community. There was representation from all 7 continents – over 70 hours of programming, some with live hosts, including interviews, live performances, and Zoom workshops.
What first appeared to be a huge negative turned into a tremendously positive opportunity to bring together our worldwide Honk community in a way that would not have been possible with any single in-person festival. We definitely made lemonade!
We were lucky to be able to draw on the distributed Honk community to get help with the technical aspects of our event from a number of smart & experienced individuals!
As a saxophone player, I have made good use of my looping pedalboard, which allows me to be creative in isolation. Keep creating, and be flexible so you can continue to collaborate in new ways.
