The Gainesville music scene hasn’t been the same since Umoja Orchestra decided to go on hiatus at the end of the fall. The Atlantic hasn’t had a line of people around the block waiting to get in. The stage at the Common Grounds hasn’t seen much dancing. The city has been void of Latin music.

But on Saturday night the city might come back to life with a special Umoja Orchestra reunion show at the Common Grounds. I caught up with banjo player Michael Claytor and drummer Evan Garfield to talk about the reunion show. They didn’t want to give too much away, but the smiles and winks they were giving to each other during the interview is definitely a sign of some fun on Saturday night.

By Joel Mora

Why are you guys getting back together?
Michael Claytor (MC): The money. (laughs)

Evan Garfield (EG): Yeah it’s all about the money. (laughs)

MC: Because we have trouble letting go.

EG: Well we figured we had too many people in town who were in Umoja still to just let it fade away. We’re missing two guys, and while they’re important, I think we kind of felt like there are so many of us here that we kind of needed to make it last as long as we could.

What does the show mean? Is this a one time deal?
EG: We definitely talked about continuing to play next semester, but it really isn’t for sure. The last show we tried to say, “Probably our last show for a while.” This could be our last show forever, or we could play five times next semester.

MC: We agreed to play Harvest of Hope, but again we’re losing two more members this winter.

EG: There’s been some talk of potentially going on tour again. I want to go all the way west to California, but I don’t know if that’s going to happen. It’s a lot of money.

It’s weird because you’ve put people in to replace Jason Prover and David Borenstein, but then you’re also losing Scott Bihorel on congas which is important to the sound.
EG: I think we have somebody. This guy Johnny [Frias] who’s been playing bongos with us is a really good conga player. He’s willing to help out as much as he can on congas. That honestly is going to dictate how much we play because congas are pretty fundamental to a lot of our stuff.

EG: And we’re losing Keegan [Jerabek] also who plays trumpet, and we have some other people in mind for that. Luckily through a lot of the guys being in jazz band, we’ve met a lot of other horn players, which are hard to come by usually. So we’ve been lucky in that regard.

How are the new guys sounding?
EG: The new guy Carlos [Franco], who played in the Lower 13th Street jazz band, he’s awesome and he fits right in. He was in drum corp with Prover so the transition was really smooth. A lot of times our biggest concern with Umoja isn’t “Are you good enough,” but “ do you fit in.” We’re a pretty eccentric group of people, and a lot of times I fear that people might feel alienated because we’re so tight and he really fit in right off the bat.

Are there any new songs for the show?
MC: There are two new songs.

EG: Sebastian wrote the majority of the composition, and we all collaborated on them eventually.

What do they sound like?
MC: Here’s what I liken it to. This is my metaphor for this. So The Simpsons movie had a lot of Simpsons show jokes in it that you really wouldn’t get unless you watched the whole show. One of our new songs reminds me of that because it’s very much like Umoja jokes.

EG: It’s mostly inside humor. It’s hard to explain. It’s more light hearted stuff.

What was that first practice back like?
MC: Everyone was pretty rusty. Everything was a little sloppy, but we’ve practiced a lot since then.

How did it feel?
MC: It’s like having a party when you practice because you have 13 of your friends come over and hang out.

Any talk of a new record?
EG: I don’t anticipate that. If we plan to tour I don’t think there’s anyway we can make a record because it’s a lot of money.

MC: It would have to be an either or kind of thing.

EG: And I would rather tour. Just because like we have three records, but going on tour is something you can only do when you’re young, and you never know when you’re going to go again.

In the spring you guys are going to lose a lot of people. So what happens then?
EG: It’s too soon to talk, but I’m hoping enough people from Umoja will end up in New York City, which will be really cool. I’m pretty positive that I’m going to move there. When I was there over the summer I was hanging out with Prover and Doug, our old trombone player, and I said, “Well I’m going to move here so at the very least the three of us will play music together in some way. We don’t have to call it Umoja, but I would like to be able to call it Umoja. I hope enough people can move there so we can continue that.

MC: It’s sounding like a lot of people want to do that. So it might be possible.

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