The following is a paper for my Masterworks of Music class, due tomorrow, about the concert that I saw tonight, which featured Umoja Orchestra. Read and enjoy.
–jl–
Tonight at the Orange and Brew I saw a number of bands, the feature of which was the Umoja Orchestra. The Orchestra is not a classical orchestra, but one that takes the definition of the word to a new level. Tonight, at their concert, I saw eleven people on the cramped stage of the Orange and Brew (which, by the way, was not the full band). I saw a wide range of instruments, from drums to brass instruments to an accordion to things that I had never seen or heard. Most importantly, I heard music tonight that fit the genres of jazz, Latin, and world music in such a new, and intoxicatingly beautiful, way.
How does one begin to define Umoja Orchestra? Start with their name. Umoja is the Swahili word for “unity,” and that is the band’s theme throughout all of their work. From the opening song, “Bahia Portete,” to their last, each instrumentalist fed off of the vibes and ideas of their fellow musicians and contributed to the whole rather than as separate soloists, bettering the entire group. The word “orchestra” can be defined as a collection of instruments put together for the purpose of playing a piece of music. And what a collection Umoja has! Six different people played a percussion instrument tonight. I saw brass instruments, stringed instruments, percussive instruments, instruments that were simply unclassifiable, including an accordion, and instruments that I had never seen in a jazz band before, including a triangle, a guerro, a cowbell, and a gourd-like instrument. It was amazing to see that many instruments all sharing the same stage, and hear no clutter or extra noise among the sound that the band made. The styles of the Orchestra have a vast range from that of Latin to funk to jazz, jam band, salsa, and world music. In fact, one could say that the sound of the orchestra, put together, could be the sounds of various parts of the world coming together to make one piece of music. There seemed to be a little bit of everything upon listening to them play. All of the lyrics sung this night were in Spanish, and featured multiple distinctive harmonies. Sebastian Lopez Velasquez led the group with his singing the basic melody line, while Natalia Perez was featured in a few songs, and Michael Claytor sang the high harmonies. Often times the trio would be on three distinct notes, and in one of the band’s many jam sessions of the night, Claytor and Perez would stick to a duet of the melodic line, while Velasquez would go off and improvise on a completely separate musical idea. Quite a few of the performed songs had Latin beats, which was the foundation of the music. However, the beat was not provided solely by one drummer: that, of course, is not what this band is about. The percussion section for the Orchestra includes a conga set, timbales, a cowbell, a guerro that harkened to my elementary school days, and other multiple and assorted percussive instruments, the likes of some I had never seen. All of this was in addition to the typical drum set that one would see in a typical jazz band. The percussion section, as a whole, included the basic beat for each of the songs, usually provided by the original drum set or the congas, and would also include some In addition to these basic elements, there was an entire brass section of the Orchestra which featured two trumpets and a saxophone. The trumpets and saxophone not only provided the jazz melodies in various, virtuosic solos by Jason Drover, a member of UF’s Jazz Band who played after performing in a concert earlier in the evening, and Irving Campbell on alto saxophone. Drover, especially, caught my eye as being extremely gifted with the trumpet, as he flashed his range and breath control on long and high notes throughout instrumentals in the songs. Additionally, the brass trio provided a big band flare, a Latin flare, and maybe even a flare of the ska genre, to the group, and helped to set the direction of the piece, simply depending on their individual orchestrations. Finally, the group of instruments in the Umoja Orchestra that were farthest away from me were the elements of an actual, modern jazz band: a bass guitarist and a keyboardist. The bass player was never featured as a soloist, but had multiple difficult riffs throughout many of the songs that kept the beat alive and kept the music flowing. The keyboardist, simply said, would put me to shame. Doug Fischer had a couple of well-timed solos throughout the evening that made his keyboard stand shake under the intensity and pace of his playing. The man’s hands were all over the keys, and he hit nearly every single note that he meant to play. Fischer also really got into the music that was created by the group, as he bounced back and forth while playing a funk organ line or two in the middle of a chorus. All in all, the eleven on stage produced a relaxed, free-flowing stream of music that was a true blend of everything that could possibly be imagined, and more, in a single jazz band. To see the Umoja Orchestra is not an event: it is an experience, and an exercise in getting fully immersed in all aspects of music on one stage. I strongly recommend that you see Umoja while they are still a grassroots, up-and-coming band, as I hold the belief that with performances like the one that I saw at the Orange and Brew tonight, they might not be around Gainesville much longer, and could follow in the footsteps of Tom Petty and Sister Hazel as groups from this city and this University to make it successfully to the global music scene. This night was simply amazing. I have become a fan, and will be at the Common Grounds in two weeks, when they perform into the night, bringing the music, and the party, with them.
