Saxophonist Darryl Yokley’s Sound Reformation Announces New Album Un Mundo En Soledad with Pianist Zaccai Curtis, Bassist Luques Curtis, Drummer Wayne Smith Jr., and special guest, legendary Latin Percussionist Little Johnny Rivero

Out November 1st via Truth Revolution Recording Collective and D-Yokes Records 

Critically acclaimed saxophonist, composer, and arranger Darryl Yokley is honored to announce a new album, Un Mundo en Soledad, his third recorded outing with his long-running group Darryl Yokley’s Sound Reformation. Like its predecessors, Un Mundo en Soledad features a dynamite quartet with pianist Zaccai Curtis, bassist Luques Curtis, and drummer Wayne Smith — here, with special guest Little Johnny Rivero on Latin percussion. The album arrives November 1 via Truth Revolution Recording Collective and D-Yokes Records

Occhi Magazine has hailed Yokley as “not only a masterful saxophone player, but also a skillful songwriter and arranger… with a particular focus on gripping melodies and intriguing arrangements.” DownBeat described him as “nakedly shuttling emotion through his instrument.” 

“I am doing what I love to do, which is make music,” Yokley has stated. “I guess the reward would be knowing that I am leaving behind a legacy with the work that I am doing that can hopefully be appreciated when I am no longer here, and I’d like to think the messages in my music and my art might help change the world for the better, even if it’s just one person.”

His magnificent new offering surely moves that needle forward — and as usual, he has the right men for the job. “These guys are like brothers to me, truly,” he says, pointing out Zaccai Curtis’s “imaginative thinking,” Luques Curtis’s ability to “bring balance to the group,” and Smith’s role as “the driving force for the whole band.” Of Rivero: “His feel, sense of time, and knowledge he has gained from his years of experience are priceless; he truly left his mark on this project.”

The seed of Un Mundo en Soledad was planted over two decades ago, when Yokley read Gabriel García Márquez’s 1967 classic One Hundred Years of Solitude during his junior year of high school. Over the years, he read and reread it, and began trying his hand at authentic Latin jazz tunes; his mother is first-generation Mexican-American and his father is African-American.

As such, this is Sound Reformation’s first album-length hybrid of traditional Latin music and contemporary jazz. It begins captivatingly with the title track, “Un Mundo en Soledad,” which translates to “A World in Solitude.” “This is the introduction to the world of Macondo,” Yokley says, referencing the fictional town in Márquez’s masterpiece. Naturally, “Macondo” follows, a gateway to what Yokley calls “a fantasy landscape of sound.”

“El Pueblo” (“The Town”) was inspired by the Colombian genre of music known as vallenato; Yokley wrote it just a day before the final recording session. “Melquíades, los Gitanos, y la Profecía” (“Melquíades, the Gypsies, and the Prophecy”) contains a voice belonging to One Hundred Years of Solitude’s gypsy leader, Melquíades: “The most important figure for the whole project as he is the narrator of the story on this album,” Yokley explains as his voice permeates the album from beginning to end.

The jubilant “Los Matrimonios Malditos” (“Cursed Marriages”) contains a crucial element of comedy, Yokley says. “There’s a lot of comedy in the novel itself because it discusses very dramatic and emotional instances in a monotone journalistic tone of voice,” he continues. “It sounds like a happy tune — but the bridge modulates a tritone away, which was considered the devil’s interval in ancient times so there’s an underlying irony that exists in the tune.” “El Duelo” (“The Duel”) concerns protagonist José Arcadio Buendía’s deadly spar with Prudencio Aguilar and it draws parallels with the thousand days war in Colombia, which showcases how Márquez would reimagine historical events into fictitious depictions in his works.  

Concerning “Después de la Guerra” (“After the War”): “It has the importance of light, happiness and optimism after the war — maybe thinking things are going to get better,” Yokley reflects. “But it always returns to a very dark and malicious place. (He connects this to the coup d’etats that have plagued and continues to plague Latin America) “Los Gemelos Traviesos” (“The Mischievous Twins”) refers to two brothers in the novel whose identities blur; they even die at the same instant leaving the whole town wondering who was who when they were buried.  The cacophony present in this generation is indicative of the history of the Buendía family and the curse that follows them.  

“Desaparecieron” (“They Disappeared”) references the Banana Massacre of 1928, the unprovoked slaying of United Fruit Company workers and their supporters in Ciénaga, Colombia — a historical event that made its way into Márquez’s pages. That penetrating screech is an Aztec death whistle, played by Yokley representing the sound of death. “Remedios la Bella” (“Remedios the Beautiful,”) is about a girl of incorporeal purity and beauty who unexpectedly ascends to the heavens while hanging the clothes and this powerful scene encapsulates the element of magical realism at the heart of the project.

Yokley conceived of “Maldiciones Concéntricos” (“Concentric Curses”) in a loose rondo form, “to depict this idea that history is repeating itself which is a permeating theme in the novel,” he says. “To show that it’s cyclical, the melodies keep coming back over and over.” And the closer “La Profecía Revelada” (“The Prophecy Revealed”) is a gripping crescendo: “The prophecy which is shown in bits and pieces is finally revealed in its totality before the theme of Macondo comes back in, except it’s faster. It represents the destruction of Macondo by the foretold in the prophecy.”

Would (re-)reading One Hundred Years of Solitude elevate the Un Mundo en Soledad listening experience? Definitely. Is it requisite? Absolutely not: this superlative saxophonist simply absorbed its message, and it led to a sui generis statement of his own. Whether in solitude or in tandem with that classic work, En Mundo En Soledad is ripe for communion.

Track Listing:

1. Un Mundo en Soledad 
2. Macondo 
3. El Pueblo 
4. Melquíades, los Gitanos, y la Profecía 
5. Los Matrimonios Malditos
6. El Duelo

7. Después de la Guerra 
8. Los Gemelos Traviesos 
9. Desaparecieron 
10. Remedios la Bella 
11. Maldiciones Concéntricos 
12. La Profecía Revelada
13. from https://lydialiebman.com