Thursday, February 13, Studio A, 6:00 pm: Jazz / Brazilian Folk Music Workshop with Matuto from NYC!
With an honest love for roots music, genuine Brazilian styles, and improvisational experimentation, Matuto creates a unique and inspired sound from the heart of New York City’s diverse musical culture. The group combines Brazilian folk music, American Roots music and Jazz in a seamless, virtuosic way. Matuto shares their deep knowledge of these traditions in this workshop.
Matuto are Clay Ross – guitar, vocals, Rob Curto – accordion, Richie Barshay – drums, Mike Lavalle – bass, and Mazz Swift – violin.
Clay Ross delivers colourfully satirical lyrics reminiscent of David Byrne, Tom Ze, and Caetano Veloso. A virtuosic guitarist, his unique style combines the flat picking prowess of bluegrass legend Tony Rice with the sonic depth of jazz master Bill Frisell, plucking three chord folk melodies or sophisticated Brazilian Choros with equal ease.
Richie Barshay has established himself as a prominent musical voice of his generation according to JazzTimes magazine. In 2004 he was named an American Musical Envoy by the U.S. State Department for outreach tours in Asia, South America, and Europe. On tour and on recordings, his eclectic resume so includes Herbie Hancock (the work for which he is perhaps best known), Chick Corea, Esperanza Spalding, Lee Konitz, The Klezmatics, Fred Hersch, Kenny Werner, Natalie Merchant, David Krakauer, Fred Wesley, Claudia Acuña and Pete Seeger among others.
Rob Curto is widely regarded as forró’s foremost ambassador in the States. An early devotee of North American swing music, bebop piano, funk, rock, and blues, he has combined these influences with his mastery of their Brazilian counterparts forró, chorinho, samba, maracatu, and frevo to produce stunning new results. He spent years living and playing in Brazil, completely absorbing and interpreting the country’s musical traditions.
Michael Loren Lavalle was raised by his musician parents on all genres of American Music. Now, matched with a profound knowledge of musics from Brazil, he has become an in-demand bassist and percussionist on NYC’s creative music scene. He has worked with a vast and diverse array of artists and co-produced the album “Edge of Everything” by Greta’s Bakery which was released by Decca/Universal Music Group in 2009.
Mazz Swift is a native New Yorker, who began playing the violin at age 6. She graduated from the High School of the Performing Arts, during which time she made her solo public performance debut on the stage of New York’s Alice Tully Hall, performing alongside members of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. She later attended The Juilliard School of Music, but left in the middle of her 3rd year to pursue a more organic approach to music making. Consequently, she has recorded and performed with a wide variety of artists including Whitney Houston, Perry Farrell, Kanye West, Common, and Jay-Z.