Austin Samba, the largest samba percussion and dance group in the United States, will present The Big Easy on Friday and Saturday, February 17 – 18, 2017 at 7 pm at the Stateside Theatre at the Paramount, located at 719 Congress Ave in Austin.

With 50 performers and special guests, the traditional Rio-style Samba school will cook up an electrifying evening of classic tunes from New Orleans (The Big Easy) simmered in Brazilian percussion and spiced with beautiful choreography. The show will combine the soul of New Orleans, the birthplace of Jazz? and home to the United States’ biggest Mardi Gras celebration, with the pageantry of Rio, the origin of Samba and home to Brazil’s biggest Carnaval celebration. Austin Samba will pay respect to the greats of New Orleans through a wild mash-up of Louis Armstrong, Fats Domino, The Neville Brothers, Dr. John, Jerry Lee Lewis and Clifton Chenier layered with Brazilian rhythms and dance.

The Big Easy kicks off at 7 pm with a performance by the Dr. Zog Band, a swampadelic Austin-based Zydeco band. Other special guests include Sarah Altoe and Fory Graham from The Sambagators, who will take the stage for the samba de enredo, an original samba about New Orleans by Rio-based composer Edson “Baby” de Oliveira. The Macaxeira Horns from Macaxeira Funk, a powerful samba-funk orchestra, will join the horn line and Abou Sylla, a master percussionist and performer of West African music, will be featured in a tribute to Congo Square.

“Laissez les bons temps rouler!” exclaims Robert Patterson, the founder and director of Austin Samba, who describes this show as “?A rich musical gumbo of New Orleans mixed with the sizzling rhythms and dance of Brazil.”

Last year, Austin Samba put on a sold-out performance of Texas! A Horse Opera, their inaugural musical theater production on the Stateside Theatre stage. For the past 16 years, the group has performed at public and private events throughout the state, and for the past 12 years, has performed in one of Austin’s longest-running and most spectacular annual traditions — Carnaval Brasileiro, held each February at Palmer Events Center. They give an exciting and authentic taste of Rio, modeled on that city’s legendary “escolas de samba” that often comprise 300 drummers and thousands of dancers in Rio’s annual Carnaval parades.