Umoja Means Unity

April 2009

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Written and Photographed by Joel Mora

Umoja Orchestra singer Sebastian Lopez tilts his head up and closes his eyes tight. It looks as if his body is being consumed by the sounds of the orchestra. His right hand closes in a fist as he listens to the exchanges between Jason Prover’s trumpet and David Borenstein’s saxophone.

The slight taps of Evan Garfield’s drum, Scott Bihorel’s congas and Adam Finkelman’s timbales are making hips sway. It’s the middle of a musical breakdown in their song “Talkatalk,” the instruments are in the middle of a conversation and all of The Atlantic is listening in. They are listening closer because it is one of the last times Gainesville will be hearing Umoja Orchestra.

The horns and percussion pick up and Lopez’s feet tap. The horns get louder, the drums go faster and his feet get higher off the ground. The floorboards on the stage bend at the mercy of his dancing.

The energy is electric, and as much as they are performing for the crowd, Umoja Orchestra is performing for themselves.

“When you’re in the studio and have a lot of pressure, you don’t enjoy it as much,” Lopez said. “When you’re playing music with a whole bunch of friends, I think it’s better if you focus on the people you’re playing with and you have more communication with the audience and think of them as part of the band.”

After four years of playing together, the group is disbanding after their summer tour. Borenstein will be going to China, and Prover will be entering NYU’s graduate music program.

“Usually in practice keeping [the band] going is difficult, but lately I feel like we shouldn’t worry about it too much,” Garfield said. “The Atlantic was a nice rounding place where we’re back doing what we enjoy doing the most.”

At their first CD release party four years ago at The Side Bar, it was difficult to understand how this band was going to survive. Being a 14-piece, Latin-influenced orchestra with Spanish lyrics in a north central Florida town is no easy task. But after four years, Umoja is known to sell out almost all their shows in town. The Atlantic last month was no exception, with a line of people wrapping around the block.

The band believes the only reason they are so successful is that they started in Gainesville.

“We learned a lot when we played the Latino festival in Gainesville and we played in Miami,” Garfield said. “When you’re used to hearing something it takes something special and unique to catch your attention. For a lot of people who weren’t exposed to Latin music it was refreshing to hear something that hadn’t been heard before. We were lucky enough to be playing something that was just the right amount of weird for people.”

For singer Natalia Perez, the relationship the band has with Gainesville is seen in moments when they aren’t playing music.

“Before a show we’re doing sound check, and when people start coming in, we’re out mingling with people,” Perez said. “It’s not like we’re hiding. Our friends go to see us, and it’s nice to see friends of friends all come to see us. It becomes a huge crowd.”

At The Atlantic show, everyone’s shoulders were touching. I could feel the sweat dripping off Lopez mixing with the sweat of people around me. With a full house, it would be easy to grow an ego, but the band doesn’t see it that way.

For Bihorel, the band’s popularity is something he has trouble wrapping his head around.

“When I go to see a band on a local level with as big a following as we do, it feels so much different than what it does for the Umoja following,” Bihorel said. “I, as an individual, I’m not any different. I’m still a fan of other music. We’re all just the same old people.”

But the lines that are so common outside of Umoja shows will be absent next year because of Borenstein and Prover’s departure.

Borenstein drops his eyes a bit when he talks about his departure.

“I’m not going to be able to go on with my head up as high as it is now,” Borenstein said. “Me and [Prover] always tacitly have this dream in our heads that in the future we’ll meet up with everyone else again. The way I get over leaving them all now is by telling myself it’s not over.”

The band doesn’t feel comfortable continuing under the name Umoja Orchestra because Borenstein and Prover helped start the band when they met with Lopez and others in the dorms at UF.

However, the breakup is not a surprise.

“When we started and met in college, we knew like ‘Man, we got four years here,’” Garfield said. “I saw it as ‘I have four years to be in this band.’ I never saw it as going longer, but I guess it could if things change. I’m trying to get us big in Japan or in China.”

The band isn’t leaving Gainesville empty-handed. By the time this article is published, they will have played their last Gainesville show at the Common Grounds and released their last album, “Dinner at the Republic.”

Although they are calling it the end, the band knows the future is always uncertain. They just want to make sure that Gainesville gets the farewell it deserves.

“Whoever’s been in Umoja is always in Umoja,” Lopez said. “It’s like a group of friends. If we don’t play we’ll still be in Umoja.”