Clarence Bekker has had a string of successes and hits since the early 1990s, with seven world tours and over 200 million online views of his videos. He was born in Suriname and raised in the Netherlands. 'I come from a very poor family,' Bekker said, 'and the only way of me connecting to music when I grew up was through radio. So I had various choice or likes of music, of music genres, through radio.'
'You know, in Holland,' he continued, 'we listen to a lot of American music … James Brown, Michael Jackson, Prince, Madonna, Terence Trent D'Arby, that would be my upbringing, Marvin Gaye. Of course, Motown would be our daily go-to.' That led to the eclectic nature of his own music. 'My music range is very big, and I don't like to confine myself to just one type of music.'
Bekker says that, for his Reno concert, 'I've made a little collection of songs of the artists that I like most, which I think that the people from Reno will enjoy. And I mixed those covers with a little bit of storytelling of my life, and a little bit of my identity, and some life lessons that I've learned in the last 60 years.'
Clarence Becker and the C-Bees will be the featured artists at the Artown Closing Night Concert on Thursday, July 31 at 7.30 p.m. at the Nevada State Bank Stage at Rancho San Rafael in Reno. Admission is free. arttown.org.
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Support for 'Arts on the Airwaves' comes from The Nevada Arts Council… a state agency that provides public funding and support to artists and organizations, that benefit Nevadans in cities and rural communities statewide. More at NVArtsCouncil.org.
