Caribana Afterparty by Omar Thomas

Omar Thomas (b. 1984) began life in Brooklyn as the son of Guyanese parents. After completing an undergraduate music education degree at James Madison University, he set off for Boston and the New England Conservatory, where he earned a Master of Music degree in jazz composition. While completing this program, at age 23, he was appointed to the faculty of the Berklee College of Music to teach harmony. After several years teaching at the Peabody Conservatory in Baltimore, he began a faculty appointment at the Butler School of Music at the University of Texas, Austin in Fall of 2020. He studied with Ken Schaphorst, Frank Carlberg, and Maria Schneider. His music of all sorts (original jazz charts, arrangements, and classical pieces) has been winning awards for years, including the first ever William Revelli Composition Prize to be awarded to an African-American composer (for 2018’s Come Sunday). In the wind band world, he is known especially for pieces that spotlight elements of Black music, including 2016’s Of Our New Day Begun and 2019’s A Mother of a Revolution, which has made headlines this year. Read more about him at his website, Berklee College of Music, Wind Repertory Project, Blue Dot Collective, the University of Texas, and I Care If You Listen.

Thomas wrote Caribana Afterparty in 2023 for that year’s Summer Band Symposium at Duquesne University. His program notes (to which I have added links):

A further exploration and study of the dance styles at heart of my larger work “Caribana,” Caribana Afterparty (the second “a” in the word Caribana is bright, as in the words “ant” and “after”) brings soca and calypso music within reach of younger musicians, as well as musicians just beginning their exploration of Caribbean dance music. Caribana is the former name of the largest Caribbean carnival celebration outside of the Caribbean itself, which takes place in Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Titling this piece an “afterparty” gave me space to incorporate themes from the original work while developing new and different grooves from the region, reimagining them in a more accessible context.

The main melodic material of Caribana Afterparty is taken directly from its older sibling “Caribana,” and is presented in this work, in part, as a lush opening statement, before quickly giving way to the full theme over an easy calypso groove. As the piece progresses, we are carried from the easier, more calming stylings of calypso music to the more jumping rhythms of soca music. Complete with a “riddim section” breakdown section that calls for all winds to use either their body or their music stands to add to the celebratory groove, this work promises to be a blast to listen to and play, while providing pedagogical richness and stylistic diversity to your program!

This is also included in the score for Caribana Afterparty. There, Thomas goes on to offer a wealth of additional resources for the piece, including purpose-built warmups for both winds and percussion, recommended listening, and research/discussion questions. Finally, he offers a series of “suggested pedagogical practices” that are worth repeating here:

As Caribbean dance music is very seldomly found in traditional large ensemble concert music, it requires expanded pedagogical practices to help your students internalize and correctly “pronounce” this syle of music.

-As students are able, it is strongly recommended that they stand as they rehearse larger sections of this music, which will facilitate their internalizing of the grooves and how their part fits with the groove.

-As it make sense, all wind parts rehearsed should be done with the percussion – not separately – as the percussion section, known as the “engine room,” is foundational to all the music that occurs on top of the grooves they create. Furthermore, it may make sense for the percussion to play four bars leading into whichever section is being rehearsed, so that the wind players can begin to internalize the groove and think about fitting their music into it.

-It is strongly recommended that the students be able to sing their parts with rhythmic precision – special attention paid to articulation – in addition to playing it. The singing should also happen while the percussion plays, removing the complicated mechanics of playing the wind instrument and redirecting that bandwidth to listening and focusing on rhythm, groove, and articulation.

Scale exercises utilizing the various syncopations found in the piece are provided to introduce the rhythms to the winds while minimizing their need to read the music. This will free up bandwidth which they will be able to redirect to listening and feel. All scale exercises should be performed with the rhythm section.

The goal is to internalize these rhythms such that feel is given a greater presence and purpose in the learning of this style of music. Capitalize on as many opportunities as you can create for your musicians to listen to and imitate the sounds they are hearing (i.e., playing by ear, looping sections, etc.) such that the feel and groove components of the music making become automatic, exactly as if you are teaching a new language.

With that, let’s hear a fluent performance!