Marching Band! Women Drumming in New York City!

What do you get when a marching band meets Samba band? (re-post from 2017)

FogoAzul NYC has had a busy spring of 2017!  First we made a music video!  We entered the NPR Tiny Desk Contest!  As a marching band drumline, it was a little difficult to find a piece that was appropriate for the contest, but we nailed it!

You can see the video here!  Thank you to Alain Alfaro, friend of the band who graciously made this incredible video of us!

Our song was written by Stacy Kovacs, our Artistic Director and included elements of rhythms heard in Brazilian Carnival in Salvador da Bahia, Brazil!  While we didn’t win the Tiny Desk Contest, we were able to come together with only 2 rehearsals and pull off this great piece! Check out the fantastic editing!  Our tiny desk was taken literally, with a special guest star professor teaching Drums 101!

Check out the photos below for more action shots of the video shoot!

Chinese Lunar New Year in NYC! What a festive and colorful day!  Marching band heaven!  This year, the year of the rooster was our first appearance in the parade!  While we love a parade, wow was this a marathon!  We had to literally run the parade route because it was moving so fast!   However, we had a lot of fun and made a lot of new friends!

Let the Carnival festivities begin!  Our Maestro and Grooversity Master, Marcus Santos brought his show group down from Boston to play the Brazilian Carnival celebrations at SOB’s club in Manhattan!  What a night!  His group rocked out on their own set and started the party with a bang.  Then FogoAzul NYC joined Grooversity in drumming with singing of well known Brazilian Songs by Marcus himself!  Add some Samba Dancers and you’ve got a steamy party!

The third set Marcus invited Stacy Kovacs up on stage to play with his group.  What an honor!!  The Grooversity family has been nothing but welcoming and offers such a wide range of sharing and learning amongst all of the drumming groups in the family.  We hope to see Marcus and Grooversity here more often!

(secret: we’re planning a BIG drum meet up in NYC!!  shhhh…..)

March is Women’s History Month. Fogo Azul NYC Participated in TWO Amazing Events

The first was at Manhattan College Shout! Event and the second was at the Childrens Museum of Manhattan!  The museum welcomed us into their home to let us teach the kids and the parents a little about samba reggae and Brazilian music.  Our Artistic Director, Stacy Kovacs lead the group and lead the kids in a conga line, a limbo line, and general audience crowd pleasing.  The band then engaged with all the kids and let them pound to their hearts content on our drums!  What a way to let off some energy!  Hope those kids slept well that night!!