Bill Smith and Ellen Gross are a guitar and voice duo who evoke Ella Fitzgerald and Joe Pass with their tasteful renditions of jazz standards and Brazilian music, as well as a little Les Paul and Mary Ford and even Tuck and Patty to boot. Theirs is a repertoire which is likely to span Duke Ellington and Billy Strayhorn to Milton Nasciamento and The Beatles within a set.
Ellen Gross is a Savannah native who received her B.M. in voice from Georgia Southern College. Having lived and worked in the DC Metropolitan Area for 27 years, Ellen performed at the Kennedy Center, the Smithsonian Institution and the Corcoran Gallery of Art as well as having sung in 4 out of the last 5 Inaugurals. She recorded a CD, “Here’s That Sunny Day,” with pianist Tom Garvin, and ran Cate’s Jazz Club and the Nest Lounge, two successful music venues in the DC area.
Bill Smith taught public school music in Valdosta, Georgia for 23 years and is a Classical guitarist as well as a founding member of Rhythm Oil, one of the busiest special occasion classic rock bands in south Georgia in the last decade. Bill is an active private teacher as well as a busy studio and freelance musician who has recorded over a dozen CDs.
The duo appear regularly at The Inn at Ellis Square and Jazz'd Tappas Bar and with their larger band "The Curious Onlookers", play at The Beach Club at Sea Island and for private parties and weddings.
