About Me
An online reviewer says: "Bow Down to Bowman...Long after I’ve burned out on blogging and quit, you should remember one name: Dean Bowman. Dean Bowman. Dean Bowman.He is a great vocal talent... and yet, one of America’s best-kept secrets.I have pointed to Bowman’s work with the funk-rock band Screaming Headless Torsos. But he has recorded with a worldwide array of eclectic artists – jazz players, hip-hop producers, alternative-rock songwriters. Bowman has chops to suit any task.He can scat like a bebopper. He can render a Negro spiritual like a concert performer. His signature trick – a deep-throated warble – fits wherever he wants it to fit. And he can tell a story in song.
..."
(http://undercoverblackman.blogspot.com/2008/03/playlist-bow
-down-to-dean-bowman.html)__________________________________
________________________________________________An online reviewer says: "Dean Bowman should be the most important American singer alive. Clearly, I already think he is. And 'important' being a slight distinction from 'best' (not that I would be averse to promoting this as well). I'm sure that this isn't the first time someone has listened to a performer and thought, 'if everyone just listened to this, people could, would change.' To say nothing of the powerful orators that we have cast aside, if not outright destroyed. But resilience of spirit should be celebrated and inspire action.... Go see him. If he doesn't fill you with joy and make you want to cry at the same time, then your soul must be a sad place..."
(http://www.missrepresentation.com/archives/2004/08/deaniac.
html)"soulful, charismatic, and technically brilliant...a star!" LONDON GUARDIAN
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______________________Vox Populi projects this year include solo work of traditional Black spirituals, projects with Armin Alic and LITTLE ROCK NINE, and big band project with James Weidman and UMO Jazz Orchestra in Helsinki, Finland in August 2008.
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______________________Vox Populi in 2008 records with Marie Afonso-Fremaux (formerly of Zap Mama), and will be touring with LITTLE ROCK NINE, performing with Laurent Bardainne the music of Albert Ayler in France (February), solo traditional Black spirituals at Brooklyn’s ISSUE PROJECT ROOM, touring with Don Byron, teaching in Rome at Saint Louis Music Conservatory (July), performing with Vox Populi group in Palermo (July), and co-arranging with James Weidman traditional Black spirituals for performance with UMO Jazz Orchestra in Helsinki (August).
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______________________Vox Populi has performed and recorded solo work of traditional Black spirituals, as well as projects with John Scofield Plays the music of Ray Charles (with Steve Hass, Ruben Rodriguez, John Benitez, and Gary Versace)--"what more could you want from a singer?" -JS
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______________________Vox Populi has also performed and recorded several projects with Don Byron, "Existential Dred", "Bug Music", "Red+Hot+Ellington" (with John Medeski, Billy Martin, and Chris Wood), and most recently "Do The Boomerang" The Music of Junior Walker (with David Gilmore, George Colligan, Brad Jones, and Rodney Holmes)--"Dean Bowman is an irreplaceable part of my music" -DB
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______________________Without a doubt an important contributor to the NYC avant garde, jazz, funk, and rock scenes, Mount Vernon, New York-based vocalist Dean Bowman is described alternately as a "vocal-mentalist," "tone poet," "avant-garde gospel singer," and a "jazz singer with the soul of a rocker."Recently toured with clarinetist/saxophonist Don Byron the United States, Canada, and Europe (June/July 2007).May 2007 toured with Vox Populi featuring DD Jackson, Rael Wesley Grant, and Tony Cintron, Romania Jazz Festivals 2007 opening for Chico Freeman (May 2007). Also recorded with Nexus (Rome), performed in Rome with Cinzia Spata (May 2007), and taught at the St. Louis Conservatory in Rome. Also performed a solo concert of traditional Black spirituals in Naples (May 2007).In 2006 the eclectic vocal artist recorded the music of Junior Walker with the great clarinetist Don Byron (DonByron.com), new music with avant-garde rock bands Neanderthal Alien* (neanderthalalien.com), Nexus*, Intuit, and Orange (orangenet.at), as well as new works with Wesley Grant's Drunken Immortals. He also toured the music of Ray Charles with John Scofield (JohnScofield.com).In 2005, John Scofield called him to tour with his project The Music of Ray Charles. 2005 also marked his last scheduled performance with Screaming Headless Torsos. Bowman has recorded with Lester Bowie (Brass Fantasy*, When The Spirit Returns*, The Odyssey of Funk and Popular Music*), Jane Bunnett (Ritmo + Soul), Don Byron (Do The Boomerang, Existential Dred, Bug Music), Uri Caine (Primal Light, Goldberg Variations), David Fiuczynski (Screaming Headless Torsos*, Live*, and 2005*), Jane Bunnett, Stanley Cowell, and Dewey Redman (Spirituals and Dedications*), and Elliott Sharp (Blues For Next*), among others. He was a featured voice of two characters for the Sony PlayStation game "Parrappa The Rappa," and was a featured vocalist along with Yoon Choi, Kiran Aluwalia, and Haydain Neale--get well Haydain!--for "Québécité," an opera composed by D.D. Jackson, with libretto by Canadian-born poet-laureate George Elliot Clarke._____________________________________________________
_____________________________Don Byron says "Dean Bowman is an irreplaceable part of my music."John Scofield says "Dean has it all going on - the pipes, the chops and the improvisational skills to keep every tune new. What more could you want in a singer?"
