West Philadelphia Orchestra

Philly's favorite brass band, West Philadelphia Orchestra, releases "Double Doink Dabke", a super infectious Reggaefied meets Balkan inspired collaboration. - dosage Magazine

No doubt climate change has been on the minds of many Philadelphians recently. It won’t be easy to forget the image of I-76 flooded up to Vine St. And, now that fall finally feels upon us, didn’t its onset seem a tad late this year? Instead of being bogged down by worry, ensemble brass band West Philadelphia Orchestra were inspired to make change.

After experimenting with a number of new directions during the pandemic, West Philadelphia Orchestra resurfaced to release their first new music in over a year: the song “Ancestors,” with accompanying lyric video. “Ancestors” is a grand warning to everyone listening that our industries and lifestyles aren’t sustainable, and that the destruction we live with was fomented by our “ancestors of disaster,” who “felt entitled to live like masters.” West Philadelphia Orchestra’s passionate, introspective lyrics are matched by lush horns that devolve into a frenzied freestyle in the bridge.

The video for “Ancestors,” which features doomsday images of floods and fires, was intentionally released just days ahead of the UN Climate Conference, which will decide how participating countries will deliver ambitious carbon emissions goals by mid-century. Back in Philadelphia, a portion of the proceeds for “Ancestors” on Bandcamp will be donated to Philly Thrive, a nonprofit fighting for environmental justice for communities of color and low-income status. - The Key @ WXPN - Paige Walter

WPO's "Amerika The Grave" and its animated video from Philly illustrator Keni Thomas, is dedicated to the Philly-based, all-charity label, Giving Groove.

dosage Magazine and I love the long-running locals of West Philadelphia Orchestra, and we don't care who knows it. So deep runs our love and commitment to founding member Gregg Mervine's WPO, his punk-rock-roots and DIY ideals, and his wonky folk/ethno-jazzy shifting-size ensemble that we're awn-and-awn-and-awn to exclusively debut their next single, "Amerika the Grave", its animated video from Philly illustrator Keni Thomas, and its dedication to the Philly-based, all-charity label, Giving Groove.

Read more at dosageMagazine - dosage Magazine - A. D. Amorosi

On a Thursday evening this spring, over 20 musicians packed into the WXPN performance studio, at least half of them carrying horns. It was the famed West Philadelphia Orchestra, but not just them; the city’s premiere Balkan brass band brought their friends and tourmates in Dzambo Agusevi Orchestra along for the ride, and what ensued was a rare and magical (and LOUD) collaboration.

WPO has been making noise from points along the Baltimore Avenue corridor for over 15 years; it plays Eastern European folk and dance music, informed by the bandmates’ various backgrounds in experimental jazz, art-rock, and punk. They’re a Philly institution, and very unique to the section of Philly they hail from. It’s not uncommon to wander into a community event in Cedar Park or Spruce Hill and find WPO leading an impromptu parade of young and old, marching and moving to their infectious and expansive sounds. Outside of West Philly, the Orchestra has made a name for throwdowns like their long-running, high-energy Get Your Brass Upstairs party.

Like WPO, Dzambo Agusevi Orchestra appreciates a good brass-related slogan: theirs is “Brasses for the Masses.” The ten-piece band from Strumica, Macedonia has built up a substantial following from regular touring around Europe over the past five years. Under the direction of their namesake, 32-year-old lead trumpter Dzambo Agusevi, they play museums, festivals, piazzas, and parties, and infuse their high-energy take on their homeland’s regional music with disco and funk rhythms and textures, making a timeless style feel very contemporary.

The tour that had Dzambo and WPO pair up was their second visit to North America, and their first on the east coast. The day after they recorded in WXPN studios, they performed under the stars and nearby a bonfire in the backyard of Germantown’s Rigby Mansion. XPN’s David Dye was in attendance, and he dubbed it “the most ecstatic party I’ve been to in decades.” You can feel some of that heat in this studio session performance, opening with a collaboration on the standard “Ibrahim,” where WPO vocalist Petia Zamfirova trades off on vocals with Dzambo’s tupan player Orfej Chakalovski while a sea of horns fanfares around them. From there, the two bands tackled an instrumental take on the Macedonian pop tune “Kes Kes” by Julia Bikova. Then we heard an untitled cut from Dzambo, which got Zamfirova and her bandmates dancing along the perimeter of the studio.

Watch video below via NPR Music’s Live Sessions, and listen to a Soundcloud archive of the entire set. West Philadelphia Orchestra rings in 2020 at Underground Arts with Taylor Kelly and Johnny Showcase; tickets and more information can be found at the XPN Concert Calendar. - The Key @ WXPN - John Vettese

Brass band dance party staples West Philadelphia Orchestra are back in the mode of releasing new music this fall, which is a treat given the band’s rigorous performing schedule — both the collective, and as individuals branching off of the collective.

Thankfully, WPO has found time to write and record new jams, and their second single drop in as many months has a Philly-as-can-be title: “Pole Grease.” With swift rhythms and a tapestry of horn melodies, the song is a multi-layered hybrid of styles. As the band writes: it’s “a little bit Balkan, a little bit Brazilian, even a little klezmer, but it’s undoubtedly Philly.”

Crank it up in the player below, and bookmark it for when the Eagles make it into the post-season. - The Key @ WXPN - John Vettese

“Pole Grease”

With a line-up of Philadelphia musicians whose influences range from Sun Ra to Bulgarian brass bands, West Philadelphia Orchestra is a unique live ensemble in today’s auto-tuned musical world. They began playing Romanian ballads, Macedonian folk-dance songs, Bulgarian wedding music, and Klezmer in late 2006, and have continued expanding their repertoire of Eastern European music. The band also plays original tunes which blend other sounds, like jazz and classical, together with traditional Balkan sounds. As much a community as a band, WPO’s performances are celebratory events. With blistering beats and walls of brass, they inspire audiences to hold hands, gyrate, howl, and otherwise slip the yoke of the homogenized culture industry.th a line-up of Philadelphia musicians whose influences range from Sun Ra to Bulgarian brass bands, West Philadelphia Orchestra is a unique live ensemble in today’s auto-tuned musical world. They began playing Romanian ballads, Macedonian folk-dance songs, Bulgarian wedding music, and Klezmer in late 2006, and have continued expanding their repertoire of Eastern European music. The band also plays original tunes which blend other sounds, like jazz and classical, together with traditional Balkan sounds. As much a community as a band, WPO’s performances are celebratory events. With blistering beats and walls of brass, they inspire audiences to hold hands, gyrate, howl, and otherwise slip the yoke of the homogenized culture industry.

“Pole Grease” is uptempo and creates that frenetic feeling that West Philadelphia Orchestra loves to conjure. It was written by Gregg Mervine in the early months of 2018, right around the time that the Eagles were making their Super Bowl run. To prepare for a victory celebration, the city armed the cops with vats of Crisco and had them grease any pole that a joyous fan might feel inclined to climb. And did some Crisco hinder anyone’s celebration? Of course not – the greased pole competition is an annual tradition in South Philly, after all. They recorded and released a studio version in 2019. - WHYY

Get ready to celebrate with a carnival of music that you can’t find anywhere else in Philly. West Philadelphia Orchestra (WPO) is transforming their weekly Balkan Dance Party at Franky Bradley’s (1320 Chancellor Street, Philadelphia) into a special Mardi Gras concert on Tuesday, February 13 2018 starting at 9PM.

With a line-up of Philadelphia musicians whose influences range from Sun Ra to Bulgarian brass bands, West Philadelphia Orchestra is a unique live ensemble in today’s auto-tuned musical world. They began playing Romanian ballads, Macedonian folk-dance songs, Bulgarian wedding music, and Klezmer in late 2006, and have continued expanding their repertoire of Eastern European music. The band also plays original tunes which blend other sounds, like jazz and classical, together with traditional Balkan sounds. As much a community as a band, WPO’s performances are celebratory events. With blistering beats and walls of brass, they inspire audiences to hold hands, gyrate, and howl.

The Mardi Gras Balkan Dance Party on February 13 2018 will feature tunes specially selected for the festivities, including songs that will make the audience feel like they are celebrating Fat Tuesday right in New Orleans. Franky Bradley’s will, of course, be serving up their signature drinks and delicious food at their upstairs and downstairs bars. - Philly Review

We've got something quite different as our Sense of Place: Philly series continues. Philadelphia has a brass band called The West Philadelphia Orchestra. They specialize in Balkan music, and as they were rehearsing a number of years ago, a singer was passing by who knew the music they were playing from growing up — and she joined the band. Petia Zamfirova will be the first to say this eclectic group is not just about backing her singing. We'll find out how this band grew here, hear about their selection in the All Songs Considered Tiny Desk Concert contest and more. - NPR music - World Cafe

Not Just a Village Band
http://www.phrequency.com/Not_Just_a_Village_Band_.html

Al Sotack
Every band is a product of their environment. And not just a principle point of geography. There’s also a larger, imaginary world, one where anemic British boys become seasoned bluesmen, where wonderbread mallrats turn hard-spitting thugs. It’s a world we love, with all its promise of transcendence and transformation, but one that would be meaningless apart from a first, less glamorous context. Every garage is in a neighborhood, where every band you ever loved bought their groceries. Maybe none are so overt about the world where they operate than the West Philadelphia Orchestra.

“I don’t know how much we are representative of West Philly,” says bandleader Gregg Mervine. “We just call ourselves that because this is where we are based. We would have been the ‘Philadelphia Orchestra’ had there not already been one. So we had to be a little more specific.”

Specificity is everything. The addition of a simple cardinal point lends enormous signification. It’s more than the cliché baggage, the University kids and yuppie communes and colorful immigrant communities, although none of that hurts. It’s simpler: a placement just off center. Take the music the WPO perform. Would a revolving cast of a dozen or so brass and string musicians draw quite the same drunken and abandoned revelry had they chosen to perform under the broader auspice of European folk music? Probably not, but the homegrown orchestra’s bigger, imaginary world also has its own compass signifier.

“When I first heard Eastern European folk music, I was totally intrigued and impressed by the darkness of the music, the seriousness,” Mervine says. “And also the humor in it, the playfulness. I didn’t try to imagine who the people were singing, or what their lives were like.”

The music in question is an amalgam, one that Mervine came to like many, from a jazz background via an interest in klezmer. It draws from Balkan Brass, a traditional, rabid style that has been brought to international attention by its influence on musicians like Serbian composer Goran Bregovic and the Macedonian-based Kočani Orkestar. Add to this the influence of the more string-oriented Romanian Roma act Taraf de Haïdouks through a hip American sensibility (Mervine cites Tom Waits and James Brown) and you have a sound that approximates the WPO.

“We started as a jam session I organized on my porch in the Fall of 2006,” Mervine says. “We had violin, viola, trumpet, banjo, bass and drums. And then, four months later, as we continued playing some West Philly events and an occasional house show, we added musicians until we had a full brass, string and percussion section.”

In early summer of 2007, the group began a residency at South Street mainstay Tritone, in the form of their monthly Balkanic Dance Party. It is a Philadelphia taste of the sort of frantic party Mervine had been a part of playing with bands in New York at Turkish and Bulgarian bars, where the bandleader cut his teeth on the material.

“The Tritone residency was really what solidified us. People come and go, but we’re about 12 players now,” Mervine says.

Not only has their cast solidified, but their ambition. Moving from more strictly traditional music, the WPO have taken to performing more and more original compositions, as well as being invited to open for self-proclaimed “gypsy punks” Gogol Bordello at the Electric Factory for their New Years Eve party. Most importantly, Mervine and cohorts’ imaginary world seems to have gotten bigger and smaller at the same time.

“The WPO represent a community of joyful, effusive and open people. I love watching people’s inhibitions break down, especially some of the people in the band. I guess it’s people feeling really free and natural. Maybe a bit wilder than usual,” says Mervine. “We’re a product of where we are, inevitably, and most of the time we’re rather proud of our city. We hope to become a real village band, making everyone step a bit light and think a bit more kindly.” - Phrequency.com

The West Philly Orchestra looks to Balkanize the city. by Shaun Brady Published: November 13, 2007 FOLK/WORLD ITH VIRTUALLY EVERY THREE-BLOCK SUBSECTION of the city sneering with hipster civic pride/superiority, residents have long borne witness to the Balkanization of Philly. But for the last year, Gregg Mervine has taken that process literally, leading the West Philadelphia Orchestra, a 15-piece ensemble gathering its membership from the city's jazz, experimental, classical and indie scenes to play Balkan-inspired music. The band of gypsies now includes members of Bobby Zankel's Warriors of the Wonderful Sound, Normal Love and other local groups. The WPO recently released a compilation CD to commemorate its first anniversary and will be celebrating the milestone at Tritone this weekend. Percussionist/bandleader Mervine discussed being a West Philly gypsy via e-mail. City Paper: How does a guy from West Philly end up playing Balkan music? Gregg Mervine: I play klezmer and gypsy music with several New York-based bands, but I detest driving, especially up the turnpike on Saturday nights, so I decided to create a Philadelphia band. I made charts of my favorite tunes last summer — tunes from Romica Puceanu, Taraf de Haidouks, Bakije Bakic, Toni Iordachi, etc. — and organized a weekly jam session on my porch. Those original guys that stuck around became the core of the band — Janos Perge (violin), Jack Ohly (bass, tapon), Jacob Mitas (viola), Kimbal Brown (trumpet), Amnon Friedlin (accordion, guitar) and Brendan Cooney (banjo-cimbalom, trombone). CP: What's the attraction of this music? GM: Balkan music can rival the Sex Pistols in energy, Mavado in groove and Mingus and Liszt in terms of spontaneity, sophistication and expressivity. The groove, the sorrow of the melodies, the soul of the singers — all of life is there. Many groups play for the party alone, or emphasize the expressivity and lose the energy, but I like to go in all these directions at once, utilizing the contrasts. Because of the diversity of our musicians and the different ways we perceive music, this happens almost by accident. We encourage every musician to find their own voice within the context. CP: What does West Philly have in common with the Balkans? GM: Hmmm ... I'd need to write an essay to work this out. Simply, the music speaks to us, explains our lives and this world somehow. Many Balkan bands name themselves after their town (Etrapole Brass Band, Kocani Orkestar), so the name is conventional. - City Paper

West Philly's European Delight

Into World/Inferno Friendship Society or Gogol Bordello? Had enough of that annoying punk rock racket? Do you really want to get down with some Eastern European folk music? If you answered yes to those three questions, the West Philadelphia Orchestra is the band for you. A 12-piece group who has even shared the stage with Gogol Bordello and Dr. Dog, the West Philadelphia Orchestra is the perfect soundtrack to a party, with substance.

Every second Thursday at the Tritone on South Street, the West Philadelphia Orchestra gets the room hot and sweaty with their Balkan Dance Party, and even in the cold February months, they can warm you up.

Led by composers Gregg Mervine and Jack Ohly, the WPO is something of a revolving door of musicians from West Philly. The band started a little over two years ago as a jam session on Mervine’s porch and has since grown into band playing in Philly, New York and even Chicago later this year.

- Phrequency.com

West Philadelphia Orchestra
WPO
Self Released
By Jose Fritz

When I am ill I sometimes hallucinate. I mean seriously ill and bed-ridden, not just the sniffles, I mean fucking feverish, with the hot and cold flashes, the sweats and body pain. This is not an unheard of symptom. My hallucinations bear a full set of stimuli for the senses: tactile, gustatory, olfactory, all unreal sights and sounds are available in psychedelic Technicolorâ„¢ compatible with Qdraphonicâ„¢ systems. The soundtrack, even when I was a very small lad, was always gypsy music.

I called it gypsy music. I was too unworldly to know about klezmer or about the Romanys, Slavic folk music, or Turkish wedding bands for that matter. I was ignorant. All I knew is that a mad 12-piece band was playing accordions, fiddles, clarinets, and a that their small brass section was ablaze playing the devils serenade.

So I understand why the West Philadelphia Orchestra gives me the fear. The music has a magical quality, and I mean that in the darkest and most arcane sense or the word. They manage to produce originals that feel both modern and authentic. Raymond Scott has nothing on their inventiveness and verve. Their version of the traditional “Geaba Mai Ma Duca Acasa� would make Romica Puceanu weep.

The West Philadelphia Orchestra includes over a dozen mad musicians from the City of Brotherly Love. This many-headed beast was born in September of 2006, when Gregg Mervine assembled seven musicians on a porch in West Philly porch to raise a ruckus. The mêlée continued and spilled over into a regular eudaemonistic series of gigs at Tritone.

Most of this self-titled album is instrumental, as the hooks don’t work around the words dance, hey, baby, honey, love, lover, girl, girlfriend, woman or yeah. The hooks emanate directly from composition and songcraft. Mervine becomes the encomiast for the ancient discipline of klezmer. The meaning of each song is as mysterious, and equally imbued, as they are with feelings of despair and mirth. The wordless songs are tales of death and decay in a big city, and also of life, exaltation, and escape to the moon.

If you don’t get this record, then I got nothing for you. It’s not a rock record. You’re going to have to leave your comfort zone. I’m not going to be able to put you there, or to break it down so that you’ll understand. Some people didn’t get it when Van Morrison sang TB Sheets in 1967, but it became stately, a classic unto itself and an archetype even to musicians that were stately and classic themselves. The record is every bit as great as I claim. All I can do is offer this counsel, listen to it again, enlightenment will come.

- Stranded in Stereo

West Philly's European Delight

Into World/Inferno Friendship Society or Gogol Bordello? Had enough of that annoying punk rock racket? Do you really want to get down with some Eastern European folk music? If you answered yes to those three questions, the West Philadelphia Orchestra is the band for you. A 12-piece group who has even shared the stage with Gogol Bordello and Dr. Dog, the West Philadelphia Orchestra is the perfect soundtrack to a party, with substance.

Every second Thursday at the Tritone on South Street, the West Philadelphia Orchestra gets the room hot and sweaty with their Balkan Dance Party, and even in the cold February months, they can warm you up.

Led by composers Gregg Mervine and Jack Ohly, the WPO is something of a revolving door of musicians from West Philly. The band started a little over two years ago as a jam session on Mervine’s porch and has since grown into band playing in Philly, New York and even Chicago later this year.

- Phrequency.com