Jazz Articles about Rob Garcia

About Rob Garcia

Catching Up With

Works—The Brooklyn Trio Finding Freedom in Space

by Lawrence Peryer
January 20, 2025

"I want to play music with these guys right now!" pianist Daniel Kelly exclaims midway through discussing Scouring for the Elements (Connection Works Records, 2024), the album from Brooklyn trio Works. Works is Kelly, flutist Michel Gentile, and drummer Rob Garcia and Scouring for the Elements is only their second recording in seventeen years. In that time, they have been plenty busy, Works is a vibrant working outfit, with over 250 concerts through their nonprofit Connection Works, collaborations ...

Album Review

Tony Romano: Three Chord Monte

Read "Three Chord Monte" reviewed by Nicholas F. Mondello

by Nicholas F. Mondello
June 29, 2024

Three Chord Monte from New York-based guitarist Tony Romano offers thirteen selections with an expansive range of grooves, textures, and intensities. Throughout the session, he and his fine players demonstrate their obvious allegiance to melody, lyricism, and appropriate rhythmic foundation, yielding a fine overall recording. The starter, “Cadillac Green" has a deep-pocketed funk bed and is a biting melodic statement. There is an Intense tenor saxophone solo from Paul Carlon which is a fine take-off. “Rhumba-esque" has ...

Album Review

Rob Garcia: Drum Solos For Dancers Only

Read "Drum Solos For Dancers Only" reviewed by David A. Orthmann

by David A. Orthmann
December 18, 2018

There's more than enough artistry, craftsmanship and ingenuity in Rob Garcia's Drum Solos For Dancers Only to please the sedentary jazz aficionado. Although the thirteen tracks are intended to spur bodies in motion, his drumming merits scrutiny on purely musical terms. For the most part Garcia executes swinging rhythms much like the ones that drove the popular big bands of the 1930s and 40s and wraps them in themes that include symmetrical, easily recognizable song forms. Some of his compositions ...

Album Review

Rob Garcia: Finding Love in an Oligarchy on a Dying Planet

Read "Finding Love in an Oligarchy on a Dying Planet" reviewed by Luigi Sforza

by Luigi Sforza
December 2, 2016

Finding In A Oligarchy on a Dying Planet è un disco davvero interessante; medita sul destino del mondo, sulle relazioni sociali, sulle storture e le ipocrisie contemporanee, ma anche sulla possibilità di realizzare il sogno di vivere su un pianeta migliore. Chiunque lo associasse ai lavori degli anni '50 di Abbey Lincoln e Max Roach, o lo inserisse nel solco tracciato dal pensiero rivoluzionario e utopico di Charles Mingus, non sbaglierebbe. Come quei lavori, anche questo eccezionale progetto del ...

Bailey's Bundles

The Big Beat: Edwin G. Hamilton, Scott Neumann, Donald Edwards, Arthur Vint, Rob Garcia, Jeremy Warren

by C. Michael Bailey
June 12, 2016

This is a spotlight on drums...a pretty big spotlight. Edwin G. Hamilton The Whole World Must Change Self Produced2016 It's hard enough to find a drummer, much less one who sings. There is Les DeMerle, and he is fine, but, the drummer/singer is a pretty hard chair to fill, if that is what one is looking for. Enter Edwin G. Hamilton, student of Herlin Riley and contemporary of a generation of young artist ...

Album Review

Rob Garcia: Finding Love in an Oligarchy on a Dying Planet

Read "Finding Love in an Oligarchy on a Dying Planet" reviewed by Franz A. Matzner

by Franz A. Matzner
March 23, 2016

A complex amalgam, drummer-composer Rob Garcia's Finding Love in an Oligarchy on a Dying Planetis as densely constructed and provoking as its title. Despite the socially conscious themes that its track titles, lyrics, and multi-layered musical journeys explore, Garcia has made clear this is not a protest album. At least not in the typical sense. It is not advocacy. It does not call for denial, dissent, or even dismissal of the social ills the album's thirteen pieces directly ...

Album Review

Joanna Wallfisch: Wild Swan

Read "Wild Swan" reviewed by Bruce Lindsay

by Bruce Lindsay
May 22, 2012

After immersing herself in the New York jazz scene, English singer/songwriter Joanna Wallfisch decided to return to the city in December 2011 to record her debut album, Wild Swan. A great decision—Wallfisch's soaring and expressive voice combines with superb playing from Big Apple musicians to create a fascinating and original set of songs. The young vocalist cites Joni Mitchell and Norma Winstone as inspirations. Winstone is the most obvious vocal inspiration of the two, but Mitchell's quirky approach ...