World music innovator Matuto takes the stage at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, Sept. 23 at the Community Concert Hall at Fort Lewis College. The dance floor will be open.
Matuto offers a rocking combination of Brazilian forró and American bluegrass, creating an infectious and engaging rhythm. As the Chicago Tribune noted, "The joyous, ebullient music of Matuto merges the folkloric music of Brazil with the sounds of all-American bluegrass...this band, founded by South Carolina native Clay Ross, has a seductively cross-cultural appeal."
In 2009, when guitarist Ross and accordionist Rob Curto stepped out on stage in front of 10,000 party-ready Brazilians in the northeastern city of Recife, they admittedly were not quite sure what to expect. It was their inaugural show as Matuto. Ross had received a Fulbright grant to perform in Brazil, and had invited the Portuguese-speaking, forró expert Curto to join the project. They had played together in various configurations around Brooklyn's cross-cultural music scene, but had never worked together so closely.
During the apex of the local Brazilian "Carnaval" festivities, the "little project" of Matuto (Brazilian slang for "country boy") excited the crowd with its jazz-influenced originals and bluegrass barnburners. Since then, Matuto has toured the world recreating that moment.
On stage, Matuto's instruments (accordion, guitar, bass, drums, cavaquinho, zabumba and triangle) whirl around the core of Matuto's sound: the syncopations of Brazilian music and the folk traditions of the American South.
The band's appeal won Matuto a spot as one of only 35 groups (out of more than 750 applicants from around the world) at the 2011 WOMEX World Music Conference in Copenhagen, Denmark. Additional honors include the 2012 appointment as American Musical Ambassadors for the U.S. State Department that took Matuto to stages throughout West Africa, Northeast Brazil and Eastern Europe.
Tapping New York City's diverse jazz, roots and world music scenes, Matuto has recorded four highly regarded albums, including the most recent, The Devil and The Diamond, which continues the band's fascination of cultures colliding and the ongoing exchange of ideas. The band members recognize that cultural intersection is not without tension, but those very tensions can inspire creative expression and good times.
"The tension of cultural intersection is an exciting place to exist. It's what makes our musical choices feel relevant and exciting," said Ross.
View videos of Matuto in concert at https://www.youtube.com/user/MatutoMusic/feed.
Tickets for Matuto are $24 and $19 and are available online at www.durangoconcerts.com, or call 247-7657, or visit the Ticket Office inside the Durango Welcome Center at Eighth Street and Main Avenue in downtown Durango. Ticket office hours are Monday - Friday, 10 a.m. to 6 p.m., and Saturdays, 10 a.m. to 4 p.m.
