Alberto García

The wind weaves night and day into a landscape. The ocean pounds the coastline which in return return chops the waves into bite sized sounds. Each unravelling gaze reveals exuberant flora and elusive fauna. Towering trees, twisted into the shape of a forest, knock and creak and thump and tap and rattle and trickle. Spiked summits transform into mountain ridges and punch their rhythm into space, collecting shadows and dotting the sky, fading out of sight on the horizon. The tracks of virtuoso percussionist AG lead to a wide array of sounds, driving rhythms of south American origin as well as strangely familiar melodies, waiting to be discovered somewhere deep inside. Travelling between styles, leaving his own distinctive mark on internalized musical traditions, and intricately interweaving traditional, superficially simple melodies and rhythms – this is Alberto García’s talent. His music remains true to its roots while being turned inside out in the most ingenious way. Alberto Garcia lives and works in Basel but travels throughout Europe to perform with various formations, both on stage and in the studio He composes, conducts and produces for his own projects and shares the international stage with Jeff Ballard, Seamus Blake, Haila or Alain Pérez and many more. Alberto is currently a professor of jazz percussion at the State University of Music and Performing Arts Mannheim, as well as a teacher at Conservatory Winterthur and at Jazzcampus Basel. Text by Mariann Bühler