COMPOSITIONS REVIEWS

COMPOSITION REVIEWS
&
WHIRLED MUSIC

VENEZUELA
"When I met Christopher García at the LATIN AMERICAN CHAMBER MUSIC FESTIVAL
in San Francisco, as he rehearsed and played one of his pieces for ancestral Mexican percussion instruments and wind quintet, I rediscovered something
I had somehow lost track of throughout the years:
a musician rooted in the rituals of magical performance.
Beyond the external aspects of power, virtuosity or any other relative term
of comparison, there was something unique coming across, akin to a religious
experience, through his beats and rhythms.
I think Christopher is definitely on the path of connecting
the objects he strikes or shakes with the deeper currents of the soul.
That's what I felt when he played;
he's not only resuscitating old instruments,
he's on a different search."
COMPOSER PAUL DESENNE

USA
“the music this gentleman creates is organic, while at the same time being virtuosic,
and compelling on many different levels....Garcia's compositions combine musical
sonorities and timbres of the ancients with the present to create new resonances,
timbres, and sonorities previously unimagined…”
PERFORMING ARTS LIVE

GERMANY
"While he has devoted much of his life to learning indigenous music Garcia also revels in playing the new and unexpected…..Garcia's musical vocabulary not only spans centuries and cultures it's also spontaneous."
DEUTSCHE WELLE
GERMANYS INTERNATIONAL BROADCASTER

NPR - USA
"Christopher Garcia has been a great friend of KPFK’s Global Village because
he plays the most extraordinary music on the most extraordinary instruments
with the most extraordinary musicians, and the music …. is exquisite…..
it's not even music, it's an EXPERIENCE, sometimes you don't even hear it,
you just feel it. This is magical stuff"
JOHN SCHNEIDER, NPR, KPFK's GLOBAL VILLAGE

USA
“Garcia’s music resonates organically, and never seems contrived or slapped together
as he draws from the rich color of sounds at his disposal, and where and how he chooses to place the silences within and around his compositions and performances.
The music has a rhythmic complexity that propels and co exists with memorable melodies that tie the pieces together - combining and extending traditions, his is a unique voice in the tradition of composer/performer/improviser with instruments not generally associated with the instruments of the “western classical world"."
LATINOLA.com

USA
“Christopher Garcia knows where the deep water runs …. crouched
over a floor arrayed with nonstandard instruments: water drums,
hand drums, a couple of gongs, a tawitol, a couple of slate slabs that
looked as if the Ten Commandments might've been etched on them….
at one point Garcia removed the gourd resonator from a water drum,
scooped water into it and poured it back into the base -- water into water……
The tacit acknowledgment of eternal cycles marked one more reason why we
sat so quietly, hearing and feeling things words can't express.”
METAL JAZZ.com

USA
"Percussionist Chris Garcia nearly stole the show, beating on the cajon with a bare ankle, slapping cymbals with his hands, sending chipped bits of his mallets flying into the air, and even using his body as a percussion instrument."
SAN FRANCISCO CLASSICAL VOICE

USA
"Garcia Godinez duo features the pedal harp performed by Tasha Smith Godinez and Christopher Garcia playing a variety of indigenous breath, string and percussion instruments from Mexico. Garcias's original compositions featuring these unusual instruments were performed brilliantly….. This combining of Western pedal harp with indigenous Mexican instruments is a new and creative approach in the World Music scene."
CENTER FOR THE ARTS
WESTERBECK RECITAL HALL
PASADENA CITY COLLEGE

USA
"Then there’s Christopher Garcia…. I heard and saw the spirit of his connection to the earth, to the soil from which we all come, and to the cosmos of which we are all a part. He reminded me through the sound of instrument and voice, of who and what I am and
that I need to be reminded of that aspect of self again and again."
KUCI

USA
"unusual instrumentation does not necessarily mean compelling music, and while some musicains "throw instruments together" for the sake of trying to be different, the music this gentleman creates is organic, while at the same time being virtuosic, and compelling on many different levels...."
LATINOLA.com

MEXICO
"Christopher Garcia is a critically acclaimed composer, and virtuosic improviser
on instruments not usually associated with just one musician including drumset, marimba, and instruments of north and south India and breath, string and percussion instruments of Mesoamerica, in every music combination possible - avant, classical, folkloric, indigenous, jazz, rock, and world, with a virtual who’s who of musicians with performances in 28 countries on 5 continents."
ATENCION SAN MIGUEL ALLENDE, MX

INDIA
"We hear a variety of percussion…..they sing and throb to the pulse of a single
person, Christopher Garcia. He produces an extraordinary array of sound and rhythms, effortlessly weaving in and out of familiar Indian patterns to those of the Americas…..”
SRUTI MAGAZINE
INDIAS PREMIER MAGAZINE FOR THE PERFORMING ARTS

MEXICO
"The interaction between the members of the Garcia Godinez Duo,
comprised by harpist Tasha Smith-Godinez and renaissance man
and multi-percussionist Chris Garcia, is full of flare, poise and bravura;
it defies the listener at every moment as the duo provides dynamic and bold concoctions,
instead of the expected polite and amicable conversations.
As an ensemble, this duo offers infinite possibilities as its members
are exuberant and facile even in the most treacherous of passages.
I cannot wait to compose music for them"
JOSE GURRIA
GURISONIC ORCHESTRA
Composer, drummer, arranger, educator

USA
"Christopher Garcia, a native of East Los Angeles, attended the California Institute
of the Arts in 1979 and continues to compose, improvise, concertize, lecture, and share
his personal experiences with indigenous music, instruments, culture, and culture bearers, and history of Mesoamerica at universities and concert halls worldwide along with the physiological effects of music, rhythm, and drumming which continue to be validated daily through neuroscience, confirming the information left to us by the ancients....."
OTIS ARTS INSTITUTE

MEXICO
"We continue to commemorate our ancestors, this time, in a special way with a concert
by Christopher García, a multifaceted musician who visits the Botanical Garden to awaken our senses with ancestral musical instruments...."
JARDIN BOTANICO
CHARCO DEL INGENIO, SAN MIGUEL DE ALLENDE

INDIA
"Christopher Garcia, a multi-faceted percussionist, added an eclectic array of musical instruments from Mexico, India, and other places creating an imaginative array of sounds along with the movement."
NARTHAKI.COM

USA
"Christopher has a way of composing evocative structures rather than specific notes
and this allows us to interpret the music in ways that are personal and immediate.
Often he'll have a suggestion for a harmonic movement, but it will be up to us whether
to implement it and when. This is very powerful because having the opportunity to change the music as we feel it at the moment helps us grow and learn.
I admire this composing style and I'm hoping some of Chris skill will rub off!"
MICHAEL MANRING
BASSIST/COMPOSER

USA
"Christopher Garcia dedicated "With his Hat in his Hand" to his father, Don Alberto Garcia and like much of his other music it was a piece of humility, confidence, clarity,
and positive feeling - a pleasure to listen to."
LA JAZZ SCENE

USA
"Christopher Garcia, an artist known equally for his accomplishments as both adept player of North and South Indian instruments such as tabla and driving American
drum set player) with the likes of the Frank Zappa alumni band, The Grand Mothers
of Invention and the Bobby Bradford Mo’tet), the group reflects Garcia’s ongoing interest in honoring, exploring, and blending different musical cultures and their unique instruments. With Garcia always successful in his role as multicultural musical ambassador as well as sensitive and tasteful manifestor of thoroughly enjoyable musical experiences."
OPEN GATE THEATER

MEXICO
"México Atemporal is a series of musical compositions and improvisations that surge from an ongoing exploration of the symbiosis between indigenous instruments of Mexico and Mesoamerica, the pianoforte, and the electronic manipulation of sound in real time. This exploration is guided and based in the study of Mesoamerican codex, the Mexica dance tradition, and the study of classical and jazz pianist and composers such as Cage, Debussy, Armengol and Bill Evans. This unique collaboration between Christopher Garcia and Pablo Leñero seeks to intertwine the resonances of the past and present of Mexico."
TIEMPOLIBRE.MX

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KPFK INTERVIEW EXCERPT
with
JOHN SCHNEIDER
When people ask you,
when you are just meeting casually,
what kind of music do you play,
what do you say?

CG
Actually, I don’t know what to call it,
to be honest with you….
I don’t know what you’d call it because were using all types
of different elements ....
but I would say the elements that we're using are pretty organic
in regards to the arc of what I’ve been doing,
and what she’s been doing,
and now what we’ve been doing,
it's pretty organic,
as opposed to let’s put something together that doesn’t
usually go together for the sake of doing it.
We each have lots of years in our instruments and music,
and wanting to work to do something that hasn’t been done before

JOHN SCHNEIDER
This is that!

CG
Very much so

JOHN SCHNEIDER
I think you can call this
“WHIRLED MUSIC”
spelled
W H I R L E D

CG
Okay………

JOHN SCHNEIDER
blended music,
different styles,
different influences,
different instruments.........
extraordinary……

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11/2/SAT/24

RESONANCECOLLECTIVE .ORG
presents
RESONANCIA
DIA DE LOS MUERTOS NEW MUSIC CONCERT
for
INDIGENOUS BREATH, PERCUSSION AND
STRING INSTRUMENTS OF MESOAMERICA
PEDAL HARP
PIANO FORTE
VIOLIN
VOICE

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new music composed fand
woodwind quintet
QUINTETO LATINO

new music composed for
indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
and
pedal harp
GARCIA GODINEZ DUO
MUSIC BEYOND BORDERS

MEXICO ATEMPORAL
new music composed for
indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
and
pianoforte

new compostions for indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
and classical guitar
performed by
MEXCLA MUSIC
with
composed by
Christopher Garcia and Jeronimo Rajchenberg

TARANATH
composed by C. Garcia
performed by
ANADIS MUSIC
Jie Ma - pipa
John L. Stephens - sitar
cg - tabla

EARLY MOURNING SHADOWS
composed by C. Garcia
performed by
CONTINUUM
MUSIC for
piano forte
electric bass
soprano saxophone
EL MONSTRO PERCUSSION

YET AGAIN
composed by C. Garcia
as performed by
Alex de Grassi
Michael Manring
cg - El Monstro Percussion

new compostions for indigenous instruments of Mexico/Mesoamerica
performed by
XOCHI CUICATL
with
Christopher Garcia and Alegria Garcia

Garcia has been invited to perform his compositions
in the United States, Mexico, Costa Rica, Europe, Korea
by the following ensembles

ANADI MUSIC
music for sitar and percussion of India, breath instruments of India, bass flute, bass clarinet
http://anadismusic.weebly.com/

ANADI MUSIC ON FACEBOOK
https://www.facebook.com/pages/ANADI-MUSIC/217503695021311?fref=ts

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ANCIENT GROOVES
music for instruments of Africa, Asia and the Americas
http://ancientgrooves.weebly.com/index.html

ANCIENT GROOVES ON FACEBOOK
  http://www.facebook.com/ANCIENTGROOVES

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CONTINUUM WEBSITE LINKS
music for keyboards, electric bass, saxophone
continuummusic.weebly.com/

CONTINUUM ON FACEBOOK
  http://www.facebook.com/pages/Continuum-Music-Group-Jazz-Rock-World-Fusion/115458121868742

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GARCIA GODINEZ DUO SITE
Music for indigenous instruments of Mexico and Western Harp
http://garciagodinez.weebly.com/

GARCIA GODINEZ DUO ON FACEBOOK
  www.facebook.com/Garcia-Godinez-Duo-1690860077800873/

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THE GRAND MOTHERS OF INVENTION
the MUSIC of FRANK ZAPPA
http://www.grandmothersofinvention.weebly.com/

GRAND MOTHERS OF INVENTION ON FACEBOOK
  www.facebook.com/GRANDMOTHERSOFINVENTION/

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LOST TRIBES PRODUCTIONS SITE
music for instruments of Meso America
http://losttribezproductionz.weebly.com/lost-tribes.html

LOST TRIBES PRODUCTIONS ON FACEBOOK
  https://www.facebook.com/pages/Losttribesproductions/330823677087686?ref=bookmarks

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MANRING GARCIA MUSIC SITE
manringgarciaduo.weebly.com/
music for acoustic guitar, fretless bass and hand and stick percussion of India and beyond

MANRING GARCIA MUSIC ON FACEBOOK
  www.facebook.com/ManringGarciaakamaniax?ref=hl

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MEXICO ATEMPORAL
https://mexicoatemporalmusic.weebly.com/
Music for pianoforte, electronics, indigenous breath, string and percussion instruments of Mexico /Mesoamerica

MEXCLA MUSIC SITE
Music for indigenous instruments of Mexico, classical guitar,
prepared guitar, charango, requinto jarocho and more
mexclamusic.weebly.com/

MEXCLA MUSIC ON FACEBOOK
   www.facebook.com/Mexcla-Music-749227918519839/?ref=br_rs

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QUETZALCOATL MUSIC
folkloric music of Mexico, Central and South America
http://quetzalcoatlmusic.weebly.com/

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QUARTETO NUEVO MUSIC
1999 THRU 2015
music for acoustic guitar, cello, woodwinds and percussion of India and Beyond
http://quartetonuevomusic.weebly.com

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RESONANCIA CHAMBER MUSIC MULTI MEDIA COLLABORATION
https://christophergarciamusic.weebly.com/resonancia-multi-media.html

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TALES FROM THE SILK ROAD
music for shakuhachi, yokobue and perrcussion of India and Meso America
http://talesfromthesilkroad.weebly.com/

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XOCHI CUICATL/FLOWER SONGS MUSIC
https://christophergarciamusic.weebly.com/flower-songs.html