Gregg Mervine

I play all varieties of beats for all varieties of bands: jazz, reggae, klezmer, balkan, punk, big band, ska, bossa nova, samba, hip hop, country, experimental, anti-folk, and indie. I play with some bands full time, and freelance with many others. Lately, I've been doing more studio work. I compose and arrange music as well; in winter 2008, I recieved a grant from the American Composers Forum to record some tunes with my group, WPO. I play some guitar and even bluegrass bass when my friends' bands are desparate for a bass player (really desparate). ----------------- ------------------------- ------------- ------------- I lead the West Philadelphia Orchestra, a 12 piece balkan band (see www.westphiladelphiaorchestra.com). WPO just recorded a debut record, which features several of my originals and arrangements - it's available online here: www.cdbaby.com/westphiladelphia. I play pandeiro, melodica, and other instruments with Old Goats/Cabras Velhas, a Brazilian band; we recorded '22 Songs from Brazil' last year. I think this is sold out now, but we're working on some new recordings, and maybe a re-release of that first effort. I play with the Klez Dispensers, a great klezmer band. We recorded New Jersey Freylekhs in 2005 - http://cdbaby.com/cd/klez; it won a Just Plain Folks award in 2006. We're just finishing up a new record which features Susan Watts singing lush and adventurous arrangements of old Yiddish songs, and it has a strange hora that I wrote on it, and I'm really happy with how it turned out; this should be released by end of summer. ---------------- ------------------- ---------------- --------------- ----------- I've also recently toured around Europe and the states and recorded with King Django, toured the UK with legendary Slits' singer, Ari Up, played the debut run of Frank London's musical 'A Night in the Old Marketplace' at the Prince Music Theater, have been working with Jack Ohly on his challenging original material (www.myspace.com/jackohly), played jazz all around, and am now organizing two music series in West Philly, which will begin in July and reside at the Locust St. Green Line Cafe. I've taught high school drumline, but now just work with a few private students. I never set out to make a career in music, I just wanted to have fun and to challenge my creativity, but it somehow happened that i am getting by on music. In truth, travelling, writing, and loafing are more my calling, but I'll risk music a little while longer, until I feel I've gotten out what ever I had to bring forth, and then move on to the next stage.