American roots music: Clay Ross Band reaches over 8,000 people in the Northeast
Recife, in Northeast Brazil, has one of most famous and traditional Carnivals in the country. From February 13 to 22, this popular festivity opened stages to American Roots music. The US Consulate in Recife sponsored the NYC-based Clay Ross Band for four concerts during Carnival that reached over 8,000 people. The band surprised and enlightened concert audiences as they showed the correlation between our Cajun and bluegrass music and NE Brazil’s forró and toada rhythms.
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Edward Perez, Richie Barshay, Clay Ross and Rob Curto at Projeto Vitrine |
The versatile Clay Ross Band is composed of Clay Ross (lead vocal, guitar), Rob Curto (accordion), Richie Barshay (drums) and Edward Perez (bass). Clay and Richie are former US Department of State Jazz Ambassadors. The group is pure “Americana”, with their own Italian, Tex-Mex, Jewish, and Southern roots that blend together to form a truly unique sound.
The concerts at Livraria Cultura and at Projeto Vitrine were held in 150-seat auditoriums that gave the audience a chance to ask questions about the group’s presentation and learn more about American roots music. In stark contrast, the quartet gave a dynamic performance at the Garanhuns Jazz & Blues Festival before a crowd of 5,000 and another at RecBeat, a street festival in Recife, before a crowd of 3,000 people.
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Clay Ross Band at Garanhuns Jazz & Blues Festival
before a crowd of 5,000 |
In Garanhuns, Clay's group once again amazed the crowd not only with their American roots music, but with American jazz complimented by touches of Brazilian rhythms during their hour-long performance. Jazz moved to blues when PAO Kate Bentley took the stage to team up with the band for a second hour-long performance where she performed American blues standards. Together they explained to the crowd about how Americans celebrate their Carnival (Mardi Gras) and described the roots of blues. The concerts reached a variety of audiences and each performance was enthusiastically received.
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Kate Bentley and Clay Ross |
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