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REVIEWS AND YOUTUBES
PLAYING DRUMSET/MARIMBA with
CONTINUUM "Garcia, an excellent percussionist, really pushes the group, especially in the solo sections....his sparkling cymbal work coloring the background..." CADENCE JAZZ MAGAZINE "There are chops a plenty here, Christopher Garcia's clean and forceful drumming stand out, but they never get in the way of the ensemble...." SIGNAL TO NOISE "His work in fusion music with CONTINUUM puts Garcia in a league with Billy Cobham." RANDOM LENGTHS "Behind the drums, the beefy cragster with the bushy ponytail turns out to be none other than Christopher Garcia, who has jacked up the expressions of his Quarteto Nuevo, Continuum, Alex Cline, Vinny Golia, ZAPPA alumni the Grand Mothers, Dottie Grossman and your uncle the bartender. (And he credits Sab tubsman Bill Ward as an influence.)" METALJAZZ.COM with DAVE ASKREN - JEFF BENEICT PARAPHERNALIA THE MUSIC OF WAYNE SHORTER “Christopher Garcia’s performance is certainly special in every way. It’s inventive, introspective and detailed in its approach. Dave Askren produced this album, using engineer Nolan Shaheed, and somehow they did a beautiful job of recording Garcia’s moves. You’re inside the kit, almost inside Garcia’s mind. You can almost hear his thoughts along the way, and the difference between his improvisation skills, his intuition and his experience.” PARTTIMEAUDIOPHILE.COM with THE GRAND MOTHERS OF INVENTION MOTHERS OF INVENTION//ZAPPA ALUMNI "Starting off with a drum solo/scat singing composition by Garcia, the band plunged into a succession of Zappa tunes, with force and enthusiasm..... The massively accomplished drummer is the bands powerful engine." ARCATA EYE "Besides his own trademark, Garcia mastered many styles from former Zappa drummers like Aynsley Dunbar and Chester Thompson and is inspired by many drummers, hand percussion and mallet influences. As an unexpected and very curious and innovative way Christopher Garcia played a marvellous drum solo as introduction to ‘T’Mershi Duween. Garcia, as humble as he is, showed an unknown, at least for me, part of his genuine musicianship. Playing drum parts while singing Tabla based structures, synchronous and asynchronous. This was really amazing.”. THE BLUES ALONE.NL “Christopher Garcia showed why the marimba is such a beautiful sounding instrument. Loved it. The Zappa tunes were great” UNITEDMUTATIONS.COM "Garcia's drum-solo rendition of "Uncle Meat" caused jaws to drop" SIGNAL TO NOISE "A drum solo by Garcia is deployed, (the man understands the art of drumming) tight, flawless and full of passion, he goes on in his solo and then seamlessly continues. Very very good." DUTCH PUBLIC BROADCASTING "Christopher Garcia was masterful on his impressively large and complex drum set, providing the reliable backbone for each song with steadily building beats." CONNECTICUT INDEPENDENT "Christopher Garcia, was buried behind his massive drum kit the entire night, providing a fantastic rhythm background, and foreground. Garcia, also had a voice that owned such a versatility that ZAPPA would have snagged him up if they had met." THE EXAMINER "Because Zappa played drums before he played guitar, he always got a great drummer, you know, so we had to do that too," said Preston of Garcia, who is known around the world for being an expert tabla player, but can also drum out a hell of a rock and roll beat. " DON PRESTON "Drummer Chris Garcia studied tuned percussion and auditioned for the band by playing the parts that it took two drummers to play on Roxy. He handles Zappa's tricky meters with aplomb, and took Captain Beefheart's vocal turn on "Debra Kadabra." THE DALLAS OBSERVER "absolute lunatic............." METRO MUSIC, CZECH REPUBLIC "Christopher "Chris" Garcia, born in East Los Angeles, California, plays countless percussion instruments and is a composer in many musical ethnological environments such as his family home Mexico. In more than a thousand concerts on the 5 continents he has made a living as a world musician. He has drummed for the "Grandmothers of Invention" as well as for the classical conductors Kristjan Järvi or various chamber music ensembles." ZAPPANALE.DE with MICHAEL PIERRE VLATKOVICH "Garcia's playing is vibrant and alive with passion, humor and a good deal of technical prowess, not to mention the breadth of vision necessary to effectively translate such an unpredictable stream of music. " THE WEEKLY ALIBI "Vlatkovich's concepts start with the very aggressive Elvin Jones-muscular beat of drummer Chris Garcia. From this foundation, the piano-less band shifts pattern and time, not in sharp angles but sure-footed movements. They hop from blues to tangos and marches, all the time the trombones are vocalizing, articulating, and encouraging discourse." ALL ABOUT JAZZ "The pitch range of the cello allows Garcia to oscillate between what an acoustic bass might do in this kind of playing situation and also another "horn," so to speak. Drummer Christopher Garcia fills out the ensemble with a quite respectable free-to-pulse approach. His percussion work adds another dimension of color and texture as well." GAPPLEGATE MUSIC REVIEWS "drummer, Chris Garcia, must stay on his toes as he shifts between sections and changes dynamics as he plays his parts and helps to navigate while pushing the soloists to reach higher. Another winner from the fine folks at pfMentum. - " BLG, Downtown Music Gallery |
was pleasantly surprised to be one of the
musicians on the following post by
RA KALAM BOB MOSES
on his
FACEBOOK PAGE
As a child I grew up in the same building as Max Roach, Art Blakey and Elvin Jones.
I also heard up close Roy Haynes, Edgar Bateman, Rashied Ali, Pete La Roca, Milford Graves,
Billy Higgins, Tony Williams, Ed Blackwell and many other greats.
So I don't use the term great drummer too loosely.
Here is a very partial list of some great, extraordinarily creative,
visionary drummer/percussionists from all over the globe, that inspire
me to keep evolving and go deeper on my instrument.
I encourage you to check these people out and show them
some appreciation and respect while they are still here.
Billy Elgart
James Zitro
Tony Oxley
Franklin Kiermyer
Francisco Mela
Sadhu Bhav Tony Falco
Peter Bruun
Ahued Audra Menconi
Simon Barker
Peter Zeldman
Chris Cutler
Pedro Melo Alves
Vladamir Tarasov
Thomas Praestegaard
Tupac Mantilla
Christopher Garcia
Michala Ostergaard-Nielsen
Billy Drummond
Michel Lambert
Apologies to those I've forgotten.
Love Always Hu Ra Kalam
musicians on the following post by
RA KALAM BOB MOSES
on his
FACEBOOK PAGE
As a child I grew up in the same building as Max Roach, Art Blakey and Elvin Jones.
I also heard up close Roy Haynes, Edgar Bateman, Rashied Ali, Pete La Roca, Milford Graves,
Billy Higgins, Tony Williams, Ed Blackwell and many other greats.
So I don't use the term great drummer too loosely.
Here is a very partial list of some great, extraordinarily creative,
visionary drummer/percussionists from all over the globe, that inspire
me to keep evolving and go deeper on my instrument.
I encourage you to check these people out and show them
some appreciation and respect while they are still here.
Billy Elgart
James Zitro
Tony Oxley
Franklin Kiermyer
Francisco Mela
Sadhu Bhav Tony Falco
Peter Bruun
Ahued Audra Menconi
Simon Barker
Peter Zeldman
Chris Cutler
Pedro Melo Alves
Vladamir Tarasov
Thomas Praestegaard
Tupac Mantilla
Christopher Garcia
Michala Ostergaard-Nielsen
Billy Drummond
Michel Lambert
Apologies to those I've forgotten.
Love Always Hu Ra Kalam
"Starting with having impeccable time, Chris has a way of playing that lets everybody
know where the groove is, yet he leaves lots air to allow for spontaneity. At times the drums almost seem to be invisible. By choosing which notes to leave out, the sense of groove gets stronger.
The big question is “how do you know, in real-time and spontaneously,
which strokes to not play??”
It’s a mystery art.
One of the things I love most about Chris’s playing is that he knows exactly where to stop playing completely,
to make sure the band always has dynamic Headroom. Then when Chris starts playing again, it’s often starting
very sparse to let the spaces of silence linger. As he fills it in, the entire threshold of band headroom has been reset. Only the drummer can initiate a dynamic headroom reset.
Sometimes Chris reduces his part to just 20% of what would be a basic groove.
That’s orchestration, and without it, Don and Bunk would not have had the support they needed to play their best, out front without having to find places between the groove to just be themselves.
This way of playing drums is an art.
Legendary drummer Jim Keltner innovated this way of playing in the 60s, influenced by Hal Blaine of the wrecking crew, in a rock format. But Chris brings it to light in a jazz/cross-cultural context. That’s unique, and Kudos Chris!"
ED MANN
ONSTAGE with BOBBY BRADFORD
ONSTAGE with CONTINUUM
ONSTAGE with CONTINUUM with special guest MICHAEL MANRING
ONSTAGE with ZAPPA ALUMNUS
@ CATALINAS JAZZ CLUB IN LOS ANGELES
@ CATALINAS JAZZ CLUB IN LOS ANGELES
ONSTAGE with MICHAEL PIERRE VLATKOVICH
ONSTAGE with ZAPPA ALUMNUS in EUROPE
GMOI FAREWELL TOUR 2018
playing ZAPPA MUSIC
without a bass or a guitar
with
DON PRESTON
BUNK GARDNER
ED MANN
ONSTAGE with ZAPPA ALUMNUS in Brazil
playing kit and singing
ONSTAGE with ZAPPA ALUMNUS
playing kit and singing
BURNT WEENY SANDWICH SCHMEDLEY
ONSTAGE with ZAPPA ALUMNUS
playing kit and singing
PYGMY TWYLYTE/THE MESSAGE
ONSTAGE with THE YELLOW STRING QUARTET
@
ZAPPANALE FESTIVAL
G SPORT TORNADO arranged by Fried Dahn
"hey Chris, would you play kit on .....?"
"SURE!!!!"
no charts....so just GROOVE and LISTEN and PLAY
