Thanks to support from the City of Philadelphia, this is now FREE to the public!
August 10, Paul Woznicki & Bobby Zankel and the Wonderful Sound Six
Modern Music for Keyboards, Synthesizers and more. Cosmic Ambience Jazz and Blues, Rooted in the Past and Future. Philadelphia History with “A Change of Destiny,” Zankel’s Music Examines the Lives of Slaves Kept by George Washington at the President’s House in Philadelphia.
The performance will take place in Market Square, located on Germantown Ave, Philadelphia, PA 19144 between Schoolhouse Lane and Church Lane. Show will begin at 2PM. Bring Your Own Picnic & Seating.
In 1980, movie director Don Dohler made a horror movie called Fiend, creating sort of a new shocking creature apart of the classic Frankenstein or the Dracula/vampire cliche; the fiend was meant to be a "genuine new fantasy creation, complete with its own legend and style", according to the director's own words. Delaware born multi-instrumentalist Paul Woznicki was in task to make this beautiful synth jazz/funk instrumental soundtrack album, which he released in the '80s under the name of "Woz". American record label WT Records found a copy of the album in a dirty basement complete with newspaper clippings and a business card. They track the still active musician down and stepped up to give this lost gem a wider release. The record overall has a wide music approach, "from schizophrenic drum machine dissonance to dreamy, soothing soundtracks", as WT Records briefly describes it.
Paul Woznicki was also involved in a number of difference dance projects, including modern-tap-ballet-butoh-flamenco and belly dance. His gypsy jazz band has been doing belly dance shows. When he was 26 years old, Paul built two robots, as 'crowd pleasers', go-go dancers Mergua and Blinky. The self-taught electronic wizard said he's always thought about building a robot, but when he saw Star Wars, he knew he had to have one.
Presenting his advancedand unclassifiable music, from jazz to obscure psychedelic tones and riffs, funk and dub-ish wrteched beats - not to be missed!
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Bobby Zankel was born December 21, 1949 in Brooklyn. He first began attracting national attention in 1971, while at the University of Wisconsin as a member of Cecil Taylor’s Unit Core Ensemble and simultaneously working with drummer George Brown’s quartet with organist Melvin Rhyne.
In the early to mid-1970s, Zankel’s underground reputation grew on the New York loft scene, where he performed with the likes of William Parker and Ray Anderson while continuing his apprenticeship with Taylor. In 1975, Zankel moved to Philadelphia to raise his family and expand his artistic vision without heed to commercialism or the trends of the times. He has performed and recorded with such diverse masters as Johnny Coles, Odean Pope, Ralph Peterson, Jamaaladeen Tacuma, Oliver Lake, and Marilyn Crispell, among others. Zankel continued working occasionally with Taylor for the remainder of the pianist’s life.
The saxophonist became a devoted son to his adopted city, working with several generations of the finest of Philadelphia jazz musicians. In 2001, Zankel founded the jazz advocacy and education nonprofit Warriors of the Wonderful Sound, Inc., and established an eponymous 18-piece big band as its centerpiece. Composers from Muhal Richard Abrams to Rudresh Mahanthappa have written for the ensemble. All of this creative work has been balanced with 32 years of teaching in the Pennsylvania prisons.
