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Montreal International Jazz Festival Northern Exposure Our trip to the Montreal International Jazz Fest When our Fountainbleu cd "Sleight of Hand" was released in March of 2002, Rafael Fuentes took out an ad in Blues Revue Magazine. Later that day I got a call from Dan Behrman, one of the talent buyers of the Montreal International Jazz Festival, and an old friend. He offered us a chance to perform at the festival. I was thrilled to accept his generous offer to perform in front of 10,000 wildly enthusiastic fans from all over the planet. In order to make a trip to Canada economically feasible, we would still need some other gigs. Our bassist Mark Dann was able to get us a gig in Woodstock, NY where he now resides, at a club called the Colony Cafe. And on short notice, our booking agent Adam Levine, got us three Vermont gigs: the Night Spot in Killington, the Red Square in Burlington, and the Vermont Summer Sounds Festival in St. Alban's. Now with a total of five gigs to entice players I was able to get a great group together to make the tour. We'd have Mark Dann on bass, Jon Loyd on piano, and Mike Rhodes from Asheville, North Carolina on drums as well as myself on vocals, guitar and sometimes harmonica. The trip started off with a bang. Garth Hudson, the keyboard player with The Band, sat in with us on accordion at the Colony Cafe in Woodstock. It was a thrill to meet him, and to jam with one of the all time greats. We swapped a few accordion jokes, aside from music, Garth's main stock in trade. The gigs in Vermont were a lot of fun. People were friendly and the various personel of the three venues were professional and courteous. The Nite Spot in Killington, the Red Square in Burlington, and Vermont Summer Sounds which is an outdoor concert in St. Alban's. The real story however, was the Montreal International Jazz Festival and it was totally fabulous beyond what we'd been told. Having just performed at the Chicago Blues Festival in June, I expected it to be no big deal. Boy was I wrong. It was huge. For eleven days on eleven outdoor stages, as well as in clubs around town, a total of approximately 1.8 million people enjoyed the best in jazz and blues. For our first set alone there was a crowd of about 10,000 wildly enthusiastic fans present to hear us perform on a huge outdoor stage sponsored by Labatt Bleue in the heart of one of the world's greatest cities. Included in the whole package was A1 sound, lights and stage crew plus a gigantic video hookup. Later at 12:30:00 AM we performed again at the Spectrum de Montréal which is a huge club that can hold at least 15+00 people. Again, a fantastic sound system, lights the whole nine yards, plus a stage that was about five feet off the ground. It was a blast. Some of the performers who performed at the festival include Wynton Marsalis, John Mayall, Larry Coryell, Jim Hall, John Schofield, Jeff Healey, Buddy Guy, Toots Thieleman, The Blind Boys of Alabama, J.J. Cale, Norah Jones, Dianna Reeves, Nathan & The Zydeco Cha Chas, The Holmes Brothers, Herbie Hancock, Michael Brecker, Jack DeJohnette, Manhattan Transfer, Dave Holland, Pat Martino & Joey De Francesco, Kool and The Gang, Marianne Faithfull, Archie Shepp + Roswell Rudd, Medeski Martin & Wood, Dave Brubeck, and the list goes on and on. It was an honor to perform there, thanks Dan Behrman and all the people involved in this major event. The festival wrote this about the new Fountainbleu cd: The Robert Ross Band "I am a white boy lost in the blues." This singer/guitarist is a white boy who's played with John Lee Hooker and Lightnin' Hopkins and whose "Sleight of Hand" cd has a raw intensity which has drawn the attention of the critics. Robert Ross can boogie, he can lay down the blues and he can rock out. Lost? He sounds like he knows the way home. ________________________________________________ MORE NEWS: "Sleight of Hand" Is On The Radio Montreal International Jazz Festival The Chicago Blues Festival 2002 Our Fountainbleu CD "Sleight Of Hand"