Shadows of Tomorrow – Socrates Garcia Latin Jazz Orchestra

This powerful, 20+ piece original Latin Jazz recording is a meeting place–a space where the soul of Dominican and Afro-Caribbean music dances with the expansive language of contemporary jazz. These compositions are personal landscapes, shaped by memory, tradition, politics, and the beauty of collaboration. Catch it!

GENRE: JAZZ/LATIN JAZZ/LARGE JAZZ ENSEMBLE
COMPOSER: SOCRATES GARCIA

This project is a reflection of many things: the music that raised Garcia, the stories unfolding around his history, and the beauty of voices–both ancestral and contemporary–coming together in harmony and friction…

REVIEW:

As part of the introduction to Shadows Of Tomorrow, composer, arranger and conductor Socrates Garcia
expresses a hope that his music provides a searchlight through the darkness and despair that has troubled the Dominican Republic, his homeland.  The music here unfolds like his hopeful compass, one that reveals the road behind and the looming one on the horizon.  Two things stand out in this furious mixture of Afro-Caribbean palos, méringue and familiar jazz riffs: the relentless percussive tempo established by Pablito Pena, Felix “Abuelo” Garcia and Daniel Berroa, as well as the heated pulse on the drum set delivered by Ivanna Cuesta; and the searing, ever-present trumpet wizardry of Brad Goode. When it isn’t sizzling with
fury from the reed section, the music is keenly modulated by Dana Landry’s introspective piano interludes, as succinct as they are nicely tempered.  Shadows Of Tomorrow is a delightful festival of sound, and if you listen carefully between the ends of Goode’s solos and the full orchestral panoply, you might be able to sense the words Garcia so elegantly composed in the liner notes.

-Herb Boyd for DOWNBEAT

REVIEW:

Socrates Garcia, composer/arranger/conductor; RHYTHM SECTION: Dana Landry & Manuel Tejada, piano; Erik Applegate, bass; Alfredo Balcacer, guitar; Wanna Cuesta, trap drums. PERCUSSION: Pablito ‘drums’ Peña, Felix ‘Abuelo’ Garcia, Daniel Berroa, & Miguel Montas (timbales). WOODWINDS: Wil Swindler, alto & soprano saxophones; Andrew Janak, alto saxophone; Don Aliquo & David Bernot, tenor saxophone; Eduardo Moncada, baritone saxophone/clarinet; Drew Zaremba, flutes; Javier Vinasco Guzman, clarinets. TRUMPETS/FLUGELHORNS: Brad Goode, Miles Roth, Shawn Williams, Jeff Jarvis & Clay Jenkins; TROMBONES: Jonathan Bumpus, Zach Rich, Tom Call, & Gary Mayne on bass trombone. GUEST TROMBONE SOLOIST: Paul McKee.

This album is a musical meeting place. Socrates Garcia offers it to the public as a space where the soul of Dominican culture and Afro-Caribbean music meet. It’s a mixture of cultures, creativity and some contemporary jazz, arranged for a Latin orchestra. Garcia has composed and arranged every song.  These compositions reflect his personal landscape, including tradition, current-day politics and life memories.

They open with “AG’s Resting Face …Scary!” that is a medium-tempo, percussive driven arrangement.  The song is dedicated lovingly to Garcia’s daughter and her playful, sharp-edged stare that can look at you in such a way that it interrupts your peace. The solo of Wil Swindler on alto saxophone is outstanding. When Clay Jenkins enters on trumpet, he plays tenderly at first, before the percussion kicks in and then his trumpet dances along with energy.

On a tune called “Sultry Villa Mella Twilights” Socrates Garcia celebrates the spirit and joy found in the Dominican.  This is more jazz than contemporary, soaked in percussion rhythms that breathe ritual and culture. This is a twilight prayer for the ancestral voices that echo in the trees and the drums that play a big part in this arrangement.  They speak to me.

An original composition called “Brad’s Dreamy Samana Night” was written when Garcia found himself under the stars in the Dominican Republic town of Samaná. For some reason it reminds me of horseback riding down the beach.  Garcia was inspired by the trumpet of Brad Goode, who pulled out his horn and filled the quiet night with a flurry of notes.

A song titled “Illusions, Delusions … A Glimmer of Hope” begins in a very bluesy way. This is actually a suite.  The first part of the suite is called: “Mov 1: The Wizard’s Wicked Charm” and features the rich sound of Eduardo Moncado’s baritone saxophone.  The moods change in this arrangement, like the tempos.

On “Mov 11. Liars and Fools” the trombone solo of Paul McKee is dynamic and beautiful.

Throughout this album, the percussionists and drummer, Wanna Cuesta, keep the tempos and rhythms locked tightly.  Garcia arranges the horns with tight harmonics and punchy, memorable brass lines. Every tune is well-written, danceable, and stuffed with Latin culture.

-Muscial Memoirs

REVIEW:

Playing the triple role of composer, arranger and conductor, Socrates Garcia is completely Platonic in his worldview of capturing the essence of Latin Jazz on this richly orchestrated album. The big band is as overflowing as the School of Athens, with seven reeds, five trumpets, six trombones, a five man rhythm team and a four membered percussion team for good measure. The rhythm is rocking like an avalanche throughout, in your face under Clay Jenkins’ horn on the exciting “AG’s Resting Face…Scary!!!” and galloping up the backs of soloists Don Aliquo/as and Jonothan Bumpus/tb on “Sultry Villa Mella Twilights”while the sections spar back and forth over Ivanna Cuesta’s tumultuous drums and around Brad Good’s trumpet during “Brad’s Dreamy Samana Night”

The feature here is a three part “Illusions, Delusions…A Glimmer Of Hope” that has Eduardo Mocada’s baritone sax coming in like an opera star for the sauntering first movement, as the suite closes out with pianist Dana Landry going from mellow tones to a dramatic build up on the finale of “The Mold Breaker (Bringer Of Joy)” and altoist Wil Swindler filling the room with his Aristotelian focus on the individual lines of the melody.

Socrates needs to make no “Apology” for this release, as this release is filled with wondrously musical dialogues.

-Jazz Weekly

REVIEW:

Do not let the word “Latin” in front of the Socrates Garcia Jazz Orchestra’s name sway you. Shadows of Tomorrow is bright and spirited contemporary jazz albeit with a southerly twist. The salute to Latin America is for the most part rhythmic; everything else leans resolutely toward el norte, and the orchestra (which is actually based in Colorado, where Garcia teaches at the University of Northern Colorado) lends its considerable weight and savvy to every one of the leader’s half-dozen fiery compositions and arrangements.

Those works include a three-part suite, “Illusions, Delusions…A Glimmer of Hope,” which consumes nearly half of the album’s hour-plus playing time. Preceding the suite are a brace of barn-burners (“AG’s Resting Face…Scary!!!,” written for Garcia’s lively teen-age daughter, and the adventurous “Sultry Villa Mella Twilights”) along with “Brad’s Dreamy Samana Night,” a colorful showpiece for the orchestra’s stellar lead trumpeter, Brad Goode. The suite’s movements are “The Wizard’s Wicked Charm,” “Liars and Fools” and “The Mold Breaker (Bringer of Joy”).

Although Garcia names no names, those who can read between the musical lines should have little doubt about who Movement 1’s “Wizard” is: “A conjurer in a red tie whispers half-truths and weaves illusions. With sleight of tongue and a stage of screens, he builds a world in his image, a theater of ego, a cult of mirrors.” Sound familiar? Hint: this isn’t about Oz. As to “Liars and Fools,” Garcia writes that “every false prophet needs a chorus,” which is what Garcia provides: “a dance of hollow drums, blind applause, smoke and mirrors, and truth silenced beneath a smiling mask.” All to an irresistible Latin beat.

Even so, there is hope, as embodied in Movement 3’s “Bringer of Joy,” a “new figure” who steps forward “and speaks not to deceive, but to awaken.” The rhythm here, Garcia writes, “is hope reborn, not naïve but earned.” Messages aside, it is the music that must carry the day, and neither Garcia nor the orchestra is less than superb in that area. The ensemble sprints from the starting gate on “AG” and keeps its collective foot on the accelerator through the last shout chorus of “The Mold-Breaker.” Soloists? There are plenty of standouts from which to choose. Besides Goode (who is far better than his name suggests), they include alto saxophonist Wil Swindler, tenor Don Aliquo, baritone Eduardo Moncada, trumpeters Clay Jenkins and Jeff Jarvis, trombonists Jonathan Bumpus and Paul McKee, guitarist Alfredo Balcacer and pianist Dana Landry.

As rhythm plays an outsize role on every number, Garcia has placed those duties in the capable hands of Balcacer, pianists Landry and Manuel Tejada (on “The Wizard’s Wicked Charm”), bassist Erik Applegate and drummer Ivanna Cuesta Gonzalez, reinforced by percussionists Pablito Peña, Felix Garcia, Daniel Berroa and timbalist Miguel Montas (on “The Wizard”). Whatever the label, jazz recognizes few musical boundaries, geographic or otherwise, and Shadows of Tomorrow provides a textbook example of that truism. Latin jazz? Call it what you will, but when music swings like this, whatever name it bears is entirely irrelevant and immaterial.

-Jack Bowers for All About Jazz

REVIEW:

Dominican pianist, guitarist Socrates Garcia appears here as arranger, composer and conductor of a 20+ piece Latin Jazz Orchestra. Masterful percussion underscores the vibe that makesShadows of Tomorrow-sizzle. It reflects Garcia’s musical journey through South America and the Caribbean with a core soul rooted in the Dominican Republic. The horns are crisp and present on numerous lead melodies. We liked the energy on “Sultry Villa Mella Twilights” contrasted with the poise on “Brad’s Dreamy Samana Night”. The 3-part “Illusions, Delusions…A Glimmer of Hope” suite unveils a musical illustration of today’s realities