GO WEST! Featured Performer: tinycircus: presented by tangle

Photo courtesy of Tangle & Anne Saint Peter

We're thrilled to welcome back tinycircus, Tangle Movement Arts' eight-woman circus arts company. Tangle's full-length shows like You Don't Say (2012 Philly Fringe) blend traditional circus disciplines like trapeze, aerial silks, and acrobatics with music, drama, and spoken word. Tangle’s outreach program, “tinycircus,” offers wonderful free public showcases, an aerialist extravaganza! Tangle members have studied performance and trained circus arts at schools from around the world to the Philadelphia School of Circus Arts in Germantown, Philadelphia.

 photo courtesy of Tangle & Maura Kirk
 “Acrobatics is a radical way to feel free and strong in your own body; we want everyone to know they have that chance,” says Tangle's Lauren Smith, whose goal is to entertain and educate. Through “tinycircus,” Tangle hopes to grow a West Philadelphia acrobatic community for people of all ages, sizes, and abilities. We can't wait!!

GO WEST! Featured Performer: The Citywide Specials

In 2001 a weekly bluegrass picking session started in a bar above an Ethiopian restaurant in West Philadelphia. This quickly turned into a hodge podge of mismatched instruments and musical anarchy featuring as many as 4 frontmen. A few years later they looked around & realized their line-up, sound, and sensibilities had changed almost completely.  The band re-branded themselves The Citywide Specials. With a ratio of about 600 gigs to 9 practices, Eliza Hardy Jones, Nikolai Fox, Larry Maltz, Jim Kydonieus & Kevin James Holland have sculpted & polished their sound without being vulnerable to accusations of slickness. The "Citywides" continue to perform weekly in their eleventh year at the same venue (Fiume at 45th & Locust) as well as weddings and private parties. Presenting songs and tunes on fiddle, dobro, string bass, guitar and mandolin, the band draws from the well of traditional American country music, including a healthy dose of originals (written by Holland) which lose themselves easily amongst the old favorites.

Performing at the Fest at 1pm will be Kevin Holland, Nikolai Fox, Larry Maltz, & Jim Kydonieus. Stage names are (respectively) Spitey James, Clem Miller, Cuss Ozwald, & "The Reverend" Elmore Delmore.

GO WEST! featured performer: Perseverance Jazz Band

per·se·ver·ance [pur-suh-veer-uhns] -noun
1. steady persistence in a course of action, a purpose, a state, etc., especially in spite of difficulties, obstacles, or discouragement.
2. a hot young band bringing traditional New Orleans Jazz to the Philadelphia area.

Perseverance Jazz Band started in a West Philadelphia living room in the fall of 2010, where leader/bassist Jonathan Davenport convened some leading lights of the Philly music scene (including members of, most notably, the popular Balkan Brass Band the West Philadelphia Orchestra) to play some of his transcriptions of the Original Dixieland Jazz Band. As the months passed, members of the band dug deeper into the tradition and history of jazz, and discovered a wealth of great music that is glossed over in Jazz conservatory, and just generally doesn't get played all that much. Along the way they also discovered new friends and band mates who had long ago fallen for this irrepressibly fun music. They have also developed relationships with older players who have shared their knowledge out of a desire to keep the music alive. 

Soon enough, after many rehearsals and late night bar gigs, they stumbled across traditional jazz's natural ally: dancers! PJB is now emerging as local favorite of the Swing and Lindy Hop dance community for providing live music for dances.

PJB plays the 1st Monday of the month at Fiume Bar at 45th and Locust, the 3rd Monday of the month at the Porch at 30th St Station, and supplies music for a wide variety of private events, weddings and dances.

They will perform as an acoustic trio at 12 noon at GO WEST! Craft Fest at The Woodlands, 40th & Woodland in West Philly, September 29.

Visit them at www.perseverancemusic.com!

GO WEST! Featured Performer: Jay Sand

We are thrilled to welcome Jay Sand back to GW!CF. Jay is the founder of All Around This World, a wonderful international music program for children aged 0-8. In Jay's classes, children explore the rhythms, songs, stories and dances of many different cultures, one region per 11-week session. Jay does exhaustive research in each region's traditional songs and customs, then interprets them into fun and engaging musical activities, dances and games, often involving a multitude of percussion instruments and props like scarves and costumes.

Jay began by hosting classes in his home in West Philly, which he still does. Now All Around This World has spread all around this city, with classes in Fairmount, Fishtown, South Philly and Center City, taught by some of Jay's former apprentices. This Fall, his West Philly classes will explore Latin America, Africa or South / Central Asia while other locations will do West Asia and the Middle East. Classes are forming now and begin September 12, so check out the schedule if you are thinking of signing up.

Jay will perform at the Fest at 2pm, September 29 at the Woodlands, 40th & Woodland in West Philly. Bring any young music lovers you know for some FREE hand-clapping, singalong fun!