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DECEMBER 1, 2007: From music critic
David Adler's blog:
"Another recent musical highlight: the Bowerbird "Landmarks" series, which puts improvisers into parlor-like settings in some of Philadelphia's cozy historic buildings in the Old City district. About a month or so ago I heard Keith Rowe play live electronics at the Physick House, and this past Wednesday I heard an excellent lineup at the Powel House: first Killick, a heavily tattooed gentleman from Athens, Georgia, led a quartet and played an invented instrument called the h'arpeggione (a kind of fretted cello with sympathetic strings); then experimental banjoist Woody Sullender paired up with violinist Katt Hernandez for a thoroughly absorbing set. I'm happy to say these are the kind of evenings you can't get in New York." You can read the full post
here.
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november 21, 2007: Bowerbird's post-Thanksgiving concert gets a
Philadelphia Weekly here.
•
october 31, 2007: Bowerbird Executive Director
Dustin Hurt wins a
CiTy Paper Choice Award.
•
October. 11, 2007: Bowerbird founder
Dustin Hurt's composition
Severe Confection featured in
Philadelphia City Paper article about
Normal Love and
Satanized. Read the full story
here.
•
september 27, 2007: Two bowerbird events,
Jessica Pavone and
Birgit Ulher, get ilsted in SoundAdvice mentions in the Philadelphia City Paper. See it online
here.
•
SEPTEMBER 20, 2007: Bowerbird sponsered
Ars Nova Workshop event,
From Between Trio, gets a pick
here.
•
september 7, 2007: A quick preview appeared in the
Philadelphia Daily News. "Bowerbird: Experimental music presenters host a trio of acts: young Philly free-jazz quartet
Shot x Shot; Chicago-based saxophonist
Keefe Jackson's Fast Citizens, with inventive cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm; and local improvising treasure
Jack Wright in duet with Pittsburgh-based electronic musician
Michael Johnsen." See it online
here.
•
august 10, 2007: Quick pick for the
Michael Evans show at UCAL. "
Michael Evans Quartet: New York-based percussionist's set-up is a sprawling junk-heap of drum kit, found objects, theremin and electronics - basically, anything he can bang on and a few things besides. He'll lead a quartet of Philly improvisers - violinist Katt Hernandez, trombonist Dan Blacksberg and bassist Evan Lipson." See it online
here.
•
august 8, 2007:
Evan Lipson's big time dance party,
Deviled Leggs, gets a big pick
here and
here.
•
JULY 27, 2007: A
Daily News preview pick for "
Meicht Group/Double Clutch: Bowerbird presents a more jazz-centric pair than is usual for this experimentally minded group. The Meicht Group is led by Philly-raised brothers Seth (saxophone) and Aaron (trumpet) Meicht, with drummer Brendan Dougherty. Plus new quartet Double Clutch, with cornetist Todd Margasak, trombonist Daniel Blacksberg and percussionists Toshi Makihara and Mike Szekely." See it online
here.
•
July, 17, 2007: Music critic
David Adler wrote a review of the July 13th concert featuring
Shot x Shot,
Reuben Radding, and
Gene Coleman / Evan Lipson. The full article can be found
here.
•
june 27, 2007:
Benito Cereno and it's CD-R release gets a pick in the City Paper
here.
•
June 22, 2007:
Bowerbird gets a mention in
Shaun Brady's article about the
West Oak Lane Jazz and Arts Festival for the
Philadelphia Daily News. Read it online
here.
•
JUNE 21, 2007: Shaun Brady made a
City Paper pick for the Bowerbird-presented CD release show for
Technicolor Hell, a CD/zine compiling the leading lights of the Philly harsh electronic scene. View it
here.
•
june 7, 2007: A
City Paper feature this week on intrepid Philly saxophonist
Jack Wright and his importing of French improvisers from a heretofore largely unknown scene, at the Physick House. Read the full story
here.
•
May 31, 2007:
David Adler sneaks in a
bowerbird mention in his article previewing the
Electro-Music '07 festival for the
Philadelphia Inquirer. Read it online
here. David also posted the following on his
blog:
"Bowerbird — I've become kind of hooked on this avant-garde concert series since I moved to Philly. They present a lively, unpredictable mix of free jazz, live electronics, contemporary classical music and who knows what else. A typical Bowerbird evening includes four relatively brief sets, in appealing, out-of-the-way venues scattered across the city. Recent highlights include the duos EKG and HZL, the Signal Quintet from Switzerland, saxophonist Jack Wright's trio with the compelling bassist Evan Lipson, solo electronics by Vertonen and Jason Talbot ... on and on. I'm particularly excited about the June 23 performance of Morton Feldman's "Patterns in a Chromatic Field."
•
May 30, 2007: This weeks
City Paper has a SoundAdvice pick for
Uncle Woody Sullender/Kevin Davis. This event is also the
100th Bowerbird Concert.
"Plenty of banjo pickers have taken on avuncular nicknames, but most are grizzled Kentucky backwoodsers, not young Brooklyn improvisers. Hipster irony? Perhaps, but Uncle Woody Sullender and Chicago cellist Kevin Davis can conjure as much portentous drama as any of those old-timey train-wreck songs. On The Tempest Is Over (Dead CEO), the pair's scrapes and plucks blend at times to the point where it's hard to distinguish who's who, but then Sullender tears off on a tripping-over-itself run that only the banjo can achieve." —Shaun Brady
The same issue also has a pick for the Dutch lutist
Jozef van Wissem here as well as a mention in
this article.
•
May 16, 2007: Two nights of concerts with Swiss
Signal Quintet, including one night with
Amnesiac Music and Dance Ensemble and a second evening with local musicians, gets a preview write up
in the Philadelphia edition of the Metro. You can download it here.
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May 2, 2007:
BIRDS OF A FEATHER:
Bowerbird, it's founder, and the 8-day
Something Else More Festival are the topic of a feature article in the
Philadelphia City Paper.
"Consider that you could easily watch your social life disappear trying to keep up with Bowerbird's relentlessly busy schedule of experimental music events, the idea of heaping an eight-day festival on top of everything else may reek slightly of overkill. The naming of it has a lot to do with what it's about for us," Hurt explains, laughing about the sheer excess of the endeavor. "There's a tongue-in-cheek component, but there's also a sincere element," he says, pointing out that the term "something else" can be used as " an idiomatic reference to something being exceptional."
Read the full article
here.
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april 12, 2007: City Paper's Shaun Brady wrote a pick for the
Keith Rowe / Voltage Spooks concert at the Slought Foundation.
"If any enterprising guitar manufacturers ever want to get truly innovative with their honorary models, they'll unveil one with no tuning pegs and a sackful of files, clips and other household objects to shove under the strings, and they'll call it the Keith Rowe. The co-founder of pioneer experimentalists AMM is, after all, the Les Paul of tabletop guitar, virtually inventing a whole new lexicon for a familiar instrument. This trio show with electronic musicians Rick Reed and Michale Haleta will be preceded by a talk with Jon Abbey of Erstwhile Records and Rowe biographer Brian Olewnick." It can also be found online
here.
• March 23, 2007: A City Paper pick for
•
march 12, 2007 :
Bowerbird and
Space1026 team up for
Versus at the ICA. Check out the
Metro preview
here.
•
march 6, 2007: Bowerbird turns One and we're throwing a party to celebrate. Check out the preview
here.
•
MARCH 1, 2007: Philadelphia independent magazine
Origivation's March issue has a cover feature about Bowerbird. A PDF can be downloaded
here.
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february 20, 2007: Finally the Tabadol Project happens. The story is
here.
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january 30, 2007:
One and One, bowerbird's event putting dancers together with experimental musicians, get's a pick
here.
•
january 10, 2007: In preparation for his appearance at the
Powel House,
Dave Smolen is featured in the City Paper. You can read it
here.
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JANUary 5, 2007: "A big cover story in the Metro on the Bowerbird @ Landmarks program, which brings experimental music to Philly-area historic homes; it landed Toshi Makihara on the cover and packed the Physick House". It can be found
here.
•
december 6, 2006: Two bowerbird events,
Rotty What and marimbist
Nathaniel Bartlett, get SoundAdvice picks in
this issue of the
City Paper.
•
december 1, 2006:
Bowerbird@LANDMARKS premiers. An amazing new curatorial partnership between bowerbird and the Philadelphia Society for the Preservation for Landmarks brings experimental music to historic homes. A preview of the first concert can be found
here.
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November 8, 2006:
Bowerbird is
mentioned in a sad article about the last days of the
Cinema.
•
november 1, 2006: Bowerbird wins
City Paper Choice Award as
Best Facilitator of Unnatural Noise.
•
october 11, 2006: Bowerbird gets a
mention in a City Paper feature about Jack Wright's Spring Garden House. And Bowerbird ED makes a
culture shock pick
here.
•
september 21, 2006:
Nicole Bindler, director of
Amnesiac Music and Dance, gives a shout out to
bowerbird here.
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september 14, 2006: Lebanesse saxaphonist
Christine Sehnaoui and her two concerts get City Paper picks
here.
•
july 28, 2006: An
Interview (page 22) with
Jesse Kudler and
Tim Albro of local lowercase experimentalists
HZL, who play a Bowerbird show tonight with Bonnie Jones and Andy Hayleck from Baltimore. Appeared in the
Metro.
•
july 20, 2006: Despite being post-poned due to bombing, an article about the
Tabadol Project managed to find its way into the paper. You can read the sadly out of date article
here.
•
july 13, 2006:
night of solos gets a SoundAdvice pick
here.
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july 6, 2006:
"With the exponential growth in the volume of shows booked since its February debut, Bowerbird is suddenly making it NY-difficult for experimental music audiences to see everything that's happening." Read the rest of the preview
here.
