Phat Man Dee

Best Jazz/Blues Band or Performer
2nd place :Phat Man Dee - Steel City Media, Pittsburgh City Paper

Best Jazz/Blues Band or Performer
2nd place :Phat Man Dee - Steel City Media, Pittsburgh City Paper

ChristmaChannaKwanzaa is Pittsburgh legend Phat Man Dee's answer to December sectarian strife: Each year, she has a show centered around the catch-all holiday. This time around, she's releasing an EP, Merry ChristmaChannaKwanzaa Vol. 1.1, so that you can keep the holiday spirit all season long. The CD opens with "Picksburgh Xmas," which posits the Steelers as a unifying holiday theme. ("Rudolph's a yinzer, or maybe yinz ain't been told / When the Steelers are in the playoffs, his nose blows black and gold," she warbles in a Pittsburgh accent.) It's followed up by five more tracks with help from friends like Miguel Sague III, Geña and Tony DePaolis -- spanning numerous languages, styles and denominational boundaries - Steel City Media, Pittsburgh City Paper

You may have seen her light up the room at cabaret clubs, in museum lobbies and on opera stages, but have you ever seen local jazz superstar Phat Man Dee perform inside a planetarium? Scratch that: have you ever seen anyone perform in a planetarium? We haven't, and we think this concept is one of the most distinct we've seen yet.
- Pop City

Jazz diva Phat Man Dee has released her festive “multicultural holiday album”, Phat Man Dee & Friends “Merry ChristmaChannahKwanzaa Vol 1.1. It features both “original and traditional holiday tunes in Mandee’s native Picksburghese, as well as French, Spanish, German, Hebrew, Latin and English”. Phat Man Dee will be performing with Guaracha Latin Dance Band at the Intergalactic Holiday Spectacular, the CD’s science and music-filled release party, at the Buhl Digital Planetarium in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania’s Carnegie Science Center on December 15, 2011 starting at 8 PM . - Laughing Squid

This woman is as zaftig as she is zany. It's the perfect marriage of a beautiful voice and a twisted mind, kind of like Karen Black in a more cabaret setting. But it isn't all high-brow low-jinx; Phat Man Dee has a set of powerful pipes behind her exquisite phrasing. Fans of stuff like The Lobster Quadrille are going to cream their jeans over this one. - Rochester City Paper

Chinese rap artist? No, Phat Man Dee is just your average bald-headed, pig-tailed jazz singer and circus freak

Friday, February 15, 2002

By Ed Masley, Post-Gazette Pop Music Critic

Once you get beyond the freak-show trappings, the first thing you're likely to notice about her act is that the girl can really sing -- and not just hit the notes but put the story of the song across. With personality. And charm. And emotion. And substance. And humor.

And sometimes a fist in the mouth.

It's (Life Just Goes On) a beautiful album, guaranteed to baffle those who'd like to write her off as an abomination.
"I want to make people happy," she says. "And I want to help other people realize that it's beautiful to be yourself. You can still be beautiful and sexy and be a big, fat bald mama with two pigtails and tattoos and piercings and brandings."

And doing the national anthem with a mouthful of your fist?

Of course.

"It's called engaging in the sacred art of fat-chick fist mastication. That's a form of prayer for me, actually," she says. "It's a meditative state for me where my fist is actually filling my face and I'm praying for the future of our country. I'm not happy with the way things are. I want them to be more strange."

http://post-gazette.com/ae/20020215phat1.asp - Pittsburgh Post Gazette

Colorful and outrageous, South Side diva Phat Man Dee has released her debut CD, Life Goes On (self-release), a modern take on torch song jazz. Recorded at Mr. Small's Fun House, the CD features her band, Margalit and the Liquitones (John Purse, Korel Tunador, Nathan and Alex Peck), and a number of guest musicians performing a fine mix of standards and new songs in an intimate, warm setting. But with all this instrumental fire power, it's Phat Man Dee's voice that is the star. Expressive and passionate, Phat Man Dee's sensual voice pulls you in and takes you away to where the words no longer matter and you float along on pure emotion. Took my breath away. [Philip Harris] - Pittsburgh WQED Multimedia

Once you get beyond the awe of Phat Man Dee, you quickly realize she has a positive personality and can really sing. Really.

All you need to do is check out "Jones Beach" and "T.G.I.D.K.U," two songs from "Torch of Blue," her latest recording.

It combines elements of jazz with Middle Eastern hooked rhythms, electronic music and mandolin guitar, poetry and improvisation. Eclectic to say the least, but Man Dee keeps it interesting and funny. She sings of Gandhi being alive and living in a hotel and raps about lies and propaganda.

"Ah, for crying out loud, Peaches," she screams on the song "Polly Resin Icon."

The album features mostly original material, with the exception of "Ay Linda Amiga" and "Dona Nobis Pacem," two songs that were written in the 15th century.

"I really wanted this CD to focus on musicians from Pittsburgh playing music from Pittsburgh," said Man Dee, who was in New York attending the Coney Island Mermaid parade. "There are musicians in my immediate community that I really respect. Tony Depaolis assembled some of the best musicians in Pittsburgh, and his touch on the recording turned it into blue gold."

South Sider Man Dee said she, her husband, Tommy Amoeba, and friends marched in the Coney Island parade as bottom-feeders. She said Amoeba was dressed as a giant squid while she donned a vampire-spider queen costume.

"It was fun," she said. "We walked and sang calypso tunes."

"Torch of the Blue," which consists of 16 songs, was supposed to be the title of Man Dee's 2001 recording, but she said the band wasn't feeling the music when they entered the studio.

"We recorded the day after 9/11, and we were all in a terrible head space," she said. "We could barely function. We wouldn't have gone into the studio but I had already paid for it."

Six-years later, the band is feeling the music, and "Torch of Blue" is a wonderful document for a musician who is not so quietly carving out her own musical territory.

Recorded at George Heid studio in Aspinwall, the album features Colter Harper, Chris Parker, Kenny Peagler, Mike Murray, Jacob Yoffee, Paul Leech and Simon Jaeger. Man Dee said she has worked before with many of the musicians selected to perform on the recording.

And that's obvious, because the chemistry is great throughout, particularly on "Gandhi Lives!," which is a combination of jazz and bluegrass.

"I try to make a point of performing original material," she said. "As much as I love the standards, and I don't know as many standards as I should, but people seem to enjoy my music."

Man Dee said she performed "Gandhi Lives!" at a roller rink in Harmarville last week and more than a 1,000 people were there enjoying the music. "They were clapping and having a good time," she said.

Another fan favorite is "Two Tone Tattoo,"' a song Man Dee performed a decade ago with Big Daddy Bull Seal.

"He and I had a performed in a troupe a decade ago where we would do weird performance poetry with lots of drumming, and I played cello. That was one of our popular tunes but it was never recorded."

Anyone who has followed the career of Man Dee knows she's a little different.

But she's also a charismatic artist with a clear sense of musical purpose.

By Nate Guidry, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette

(Nate Guidry can be reached at nguidry@post-gazette.com or 412-263-3865. ) - Pittsburgh Post Gazette June 28, 2007

“The beauty of jazz is that you can put your own mark on it,” Phat Man Dee says. With her noticeable eccentricities, this certainly isn’t a problem for her. She continues, “Jazz isn’t a what. No one can tell you what jazz was or is. It’s not what you’re doing it’s how you’re doing it.”
- The Pitt News

Monday, May 19, 2003

By Marylynn Uricchio, Post-Gazette SEEN Editor

Bohemian Paris was the setting, transplanted in time and space to the stage of the Benedum Center, for Saturday's Maecenas XIX Gala de Bienfaisance.

The French theme of this annual affair celebrated Pittsburgh Opera's production of "La Boheme,"....C'est magnifique! In the midst of it all hung chanteuse Phat Man Dee, who made a dramatic entrance on a swing while artist Kevin Wenner created his own little Left Bank by painting a giant canvas.. - Pittsburgh Post Gazette Seen Column

“The beauty of jazz is that you can put your own mark on it,” Phat Man Dee says. With her noticeable eccentricities, this certainly isn’t a problem for her. She continues, “Jazz isn’t a what. No one can tell you what jazz was or is. It’s not what you’re doing it’s how you’re doing it.”
- The Pitt News

Local performer most likely to become the Wayne Newton of Pittsburgh’s casino:
Phat Man Dee
2nd: Donnie Iris
3rd: Frankie Capri

Hottest local personality (female):
Julie Bologna, weather girl, WPXI
2nd: Phat Man Dee - Steel City Media

Local performer most likely to become the Wayne Newton of Pittsburgh’s casino:
Phat Man Dee
2nd: Donnie Iris
3rd: Frankie Capri

Hottest local personality (female):
Julie Bologna, weather girl, WPXI
2nd: Phat Man Dee - Steel City Media

By Jason Cato
PITTSBURGH TRIBUNE-REVIEW
Friday, February 19, 2010

Buzz up!

There's something about tragedy that strikes a chord with Pittsburgh musicians.

From hurricanes and tsunamis to terrorists and earthquakes, artists often come together for benefit concerts to raise money for those in need.

When Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans and the Gulf Coast in 2005, they rocked Mellon Arena and Hartwood Acres. When three city police officers were slain last year, they took the stage at Station Square.

Now local musicians are focused on helping Haiti recover from a Jan. 12 earthquake that crumbled its capital, killed more than 200,000 people and left millions more destitute and damaged — physically and emotionally.

"I always try to help out the underdog," said Jay Donaldson of the Muddy Kreek Blues Band, who organized a benefit last month at Carnegie Music Hall of Homestead.

Other benefits have been held Downtown at the August Wilson Center — it raised $1,200 — and at the Shadow Lounge in East Liberty, which brought in $5,600. Last weekend, the Hollywood Theater in Dormont collected $1,174 through a variety show. The owner then matched the amount, raising the total to $2,348.

This weekend, the Map Room in Regent Square will have "Haiti Rising," which will include more than 30 musicians in an effort to raise money for St. Damian Hospital and Orphanage in Port-au-Prince. Weather postponed a Valentine's Day concert featuring The Clarks, Bill Deasy and others at Soldiers & Sailors Memorial Hall & Museum in Oakland until Feb. 28. Proceeds from that benefit will go to the American Red Cross.

Events are planned next month at Palisades in McKeesport and at FATE Ultra Lounge in the Strip District.

And the efforts aren't restricted to Pittsburgh, even though the money comes through here.

Fourteen bands in Lyons, Colo., performed a tribute to The Beatles in January that raised $1,100 for the BRESMA Orphange in Haiti after hearing the story of two Ben Avon sisters who helped run the center and brought more than 50 orphans to Pittsburgh.

A Feb. 27 benefit concert in Harrisburg is set to raise money for The Friends of Hôpital Albert Schweitzer Haiti, a North Side-based nonprofit.

"Musicians have big hearts, and it is hard to do a benefit without music," said Ray Werner of the Irish band Hooley.

Werner is one of the organizers of the Map Room benefit, which will feature Haitian food and music as well as stories from people connected to Haiti, including locals who lost loved ones and friends.

"We're going to be passing the hats and baskets," Werner said. "This is on everybody's minds."

Jazz singer Mandy Kivowitz-Delfaver, also known as Phat Man Dee, helped organize January's event at Shadow Lounge. Proceeds went to Yele Haiti, a foundation backed by internationally renowned Haitian musician Wyclef Jean.

"Musicians are a notoriously poor lot. It's not like any of us can write a check for $5,000," Kivowitz-Delfaver said. "But we can donate our time and talents."

The Clarks have played numerous benefit concerts over the years, from Katrina and 9/11 to shows for cancer victims and animal shelters, said guitarist Rob Hertweck.

"Any time something like this happens, there is a call," Hertweck said. "How are you going to respond? How is the world going to respond? I've seen on a number of occasions where this region steps up and answers the call.

"Sometimes, I think we need to step out of this cultural Novocaine and do something. Things aren't good in Haiti, and they won't be for a long time."

- Trib Total Media

y Christen DiClaudio / For The Pitt News
published: Thu, 21 Jan, 2010

Between the decorated burnt orange and Dijon yellow walls of the Shadow Lounge, a quickly growing crowd of about 50 people openly received jazz diva and host Phat Man Dee’s words of encouragement and an a capella song of peace.

“When I think of Haiti, I think of a beautiful country with beautiful religion and beautiful art,” PhatMan Dee said. “We must support them through this tragedy.

The event, a Haiti benefit concert, was called Sending Back the Spirit — and spirits were high among toe-tapping attendees of all ages.

“I feel sad for the kids in Haiti,” 11-year-old Caitlin Eirene said as she waited by the stage for the first band, Yours Truly, to play.

She said she was excited to drop her raffle tickets, sold for $1 each, into a variety of bags representing prizes ranging from free tarot readings to restaurant gift certificates.

Mary Gibson stood in the back of the lounge, by the bar. She is the co-worker of Phat Mann Dee’s sister and was waiting to film singer Christiane D.

“As soon as we heard about the event, almost everybody wanted to volunteer,” Gibson said of those in her Coldwell Banker office.

Everyone working at the event was a volunteer.

Irish folk singer Terry Griffith, soul singer Joy Ike, Rusted Root front man Michael Glabicki and trumpet phenomenon Sean Jones also performed in the concert.

“The tragedy of [the earthquake] was just so, like, ‘holy f**k, really?’ Haiti is poor but has so much culture and beauty,” Man Dee said. “The support tonight is great.” - The Pitt News

By Molly Freedenberg. Photos by Michael Rauner.

Time is running out on the beloved (and only a bit controversial) Burning Opera: How to Survive the Apocalypse, the Mark Nichols/Erik Davis vehicle that attempts to both explain and capture the ethos of SF’s favorite (and favorite to ridicule) festival: Burning Man. The wildly popular show that opened October 5 at Teatro Zinzanni ends its three-week run (extended an extra week due to demand) tomorrow (Wed, Oct 21) night, with a limited number of tickets still available for tonight and tomorrow’s shows.

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Librettist Erik Davis opens the Burning Opera by transforming from middle-aged geek to heckling dessert bunny "Bulldada," whose commentary throughout the show is not only funny, but accurately captures one element of playa culture: irreverence for everything, including Burning Man itself.

Despite some technical difficulties (sound is hit-or-miss, and some lyrics are hard to decipher) and occasionally coming off as unpolished, the show has been delighting audiences with its remarkable range, combination of history and present-day culture, inside jokes, and a surprising mix of earnestness and irony.

Of course, most of those delighted are burners – people who get the jokes. If Burning Man were a summer camp (and in many ways it is), this opera would be what the counselors do for each other at the end of the year talent show – if the counselors were trained in musical theater. Which is exactly what makes it fantastic and hilarious, but potentially off-putting to non-burners, jaded old-schoolers, and anyone who doesn’t genuinely enjoy musicals and satire. I’d also argue that the longer one has gone to Burning Man and the more one knows about it, the more you’ll get from the show. (In particular, even my veteran burner friends had questions about historical references, most of which I could answer because I’d read Brian Doherty’s fantastic book This is Burning Man.)

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Not only were “Andy Stack’s” Geekbird and Phat Man Dee’s “Janet” some of my favorite characters, but their jazzy electronica collaboration during the second act was one of the highlights of the show.

But my complaints about the show are far outweighed by my praise for it. It’s hard enough to describe an event as personal, massive, contradictory, multi-faceted, and ever-changing as Burning Man (believe me, I’ve tried), much less distill it down into a cohesive musical. But the geniuses behind this show have done the damn near impossible with their soon-to-be roadshow.

What’s remarkable about this opera is how much ground it manages to cover, and cover well. The story centers around two sets of newbie burners: one a newly single woman whose friends convinced her that Burning Man would “heal her” and change her life; the other a hetero couple who believe they’re going on a camping trip and are challenged by what they find.

Through these main characters, the musical explores a dizzying array of themes, experiences, and aspects of Burning Man, including (but certainly not limited to): drugs, art cars, Thunder Dome, punks vs. e-tards, monogamy vs. polyamory, costumes, spirituality, nudity, sexual boundaries, marching bands, The Cult of Larry Harvey, trouble among the BORG bigwigs, legal issues, cops, and, most importantly, ambivalence about each of these things.

In fact, it’s the ambivalence that makes this show work. For example, in one song, the female newbie – freshly costumed and topless – sings an admonishment at a man for taking her picture without asking, angry that he’s sexualizing her. At the end, however, she glances at the picture and remarks, “But I do look hot.” The existence of contrasts and paradoxes (e.g. selling coffee at a non-commercial event) is one of the hardest things to explain to non-burners, but is one of the most consistent aspects of the Burning Man experience. That the musical takes on this tricky-but-essential attitude is what makes this show more than a love letter to, or advertisement for, That Thing In the Desert.

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“Brook” (played by Jenneviere, whose diminuitive frame belies her impressive set of pipes), finds transformation and acceptance when she’s finally costumed in fur, sequins, wings, and boots. Though some may find fault with this Grease-reminiscent “Sandra Dee must conform” conclusion, it’s hard to argue that it’s not an accurate representation of the Burning Man experience – (and many will argue that Brook, as well as many burners, really are finding their true selves and styles through costumery).

The feel of the musical itself is all over the map, sometimes jazzy, sometimes reminiscent of rock operas like Hair, sometimes invoking Rocky Horror Picture Show (with our very own playa-bound Brad and Janet), and, at its best, nodding to tropes of classical musicals (such as the a capella quartet of singing lawyers). And, like most musicals, it gets a bi - San Francisco Bay Guardian

How to Survive the Apocalypse, a Burning Man-inspired rock opera opens Monday, October 5th and runs through October 20th at Teatro ZinZanni in San Francisco.

There will be performances for three weekends only (the last weekend was just added due to high demand). Ticket details are on the Teatro ZinZanni website.

Delivering the outrageous and transformative culture of Burning Man to wider audiences, “How to Survive the Apocalypse” is a freak fable that combines rock opera, vaudeville, and a Dionysian revival show as it follows three people, each with their own baggage of fears and expectations, through their first experience of the erotic, psychological, and apocalyptic minefield of this temporary city in the desert. A kind of “Hair” for the new millennium, the show explores the conflicts and paradoxes of the Burning Man event, while inviting the audience to tap into the festival’s spirit of collaborative culture-making at a time of immense world changes.

The official Burning Man blog has a writeup about the show with lots of great photos. The fantastic cast photos shown here are by photographer Michael Rauner and there are many more on his site.

Back in January, I wrote about the debut run of this show at Stage Werx Theater in San Francisco. It was a very short, very sold out run in a 49-seat theater, with the workshop feel of a collaborative piece that was evolving in real time.

People involved in those initial shows, in both the cast and audience, had diverse levels of Burning Man experience: from some of the earliest participants to current BM staff; from those who have just discovered the event to many who stopped attending long ago. The take on Burning Man and its history is as varied as that mix of viewpoints would suggest.

Candy ravers mingle with art freaks, manic minigolf, bull-horned rabbits, and the abstract caricatures Moustachio and The Stetson. Happily the event and its history is not romanticized, but neither are the profound aspects of experiencing Burning Man (especially for the first time) under stated or estimated.

Clearly a fun, freaky art experiment, at its best the show has a “vibe” to it that resonates with all in attendance; an infrequent but not quite rare occurrence like the best moments at parties, events, or temporary desert municipalities. It is something from which you can almost literally catch a buzz, and maybe a flashback or two.

The text was written by Erik Davis (star of the penultimate instance of Laughing Squid’s Tentacle Sessions series). Erik is a journalist and culture critic, and a long-time Burning Man attendee who covered Burning Man for Wired more than a decade ago. His most recent book is The Visionary State about “California’s spiritual landscape” is a good example of his style: thinking deeply about the weird and freaky.

The music is composed by Mark Nichols, originally from the Seattle area, who first attended Burning Man more recently, which is where the idea for this rock opera began to evolve from a chance meeting at the porta-pottys one night.

After its short successful run in January, the show went off the grid, preparing for a bigger, more polished return. The ultimate plan includes a tour at some point after this second San Francisco run.

The ensuing months have included lots of work on the show, the inevitable fund-raising of an independent production, and expansion of the cast and crew and the overall scale of the opera.

The new set was designed by Shannon O’Hare, one of the mad anachronistic geniuses behind “Neverwas Haul”, the steam-powered mobile Victorian house which has travelled to Burning Man the last few years.

The cast now includes Phat Mandee (another Tentacle Session star) who has come all the way from Pittsburgh, PA for extended rehearsals prior to the opening. See her blog post about the show and her history with Burning Man (plus rehearsal pix).

The list of incredible collaborators goes on. You can see them all here. They include Burning Man founder Michael Mikel and long-time BM staffers Harley DuBois and Andie Grace. - Laughingsquid