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My name is Jhoely Garay. I’m a Mexican guitarist, composer, and nature advocate based in New York City, and I’m inviting you to help bring my debut jazz orchestra album, Sound Ecosystems, to life!
This project is the culmination of years of creative work, research, and reflection. With your support, it will become a full-length recorded album for a 19-piece jazz orchestra, featuring all original music inspired by the natural world and our relationship to it.
Make a Donation
When you choose to give, you become part of something bigger! Your support fuels progress and brings hope where it's needed most.
The Project
Sound Ecosystems is an eco-social jazz orchestra album that draws from the sounds, textures, and rhythms of nature. Through music, it invites listeners to reflect on the beauty, fragility, and urgency of protecting our ecosystems.
The album blends through-composed writing and improvisation, influenced by contemporary jazz and the rhythms and musical traditions of Latin America. Each piece evokes movement, space, and environment; sonic landscapes shaped by wind, water, soil, and life.
This album marks my debut as a bandleader and my most ambitious project to date.
How It Started
The vision for Sound Ecosystems began in 2019, when I set out to create a musical homage to the diverse ecosystems of my native Mexico.
As I researched different regions and the communities that inhabit them, I encountered a difficult truth: every place I studied was facing environmental abuse and exploitation and I also realized this reality extends far beyond Mexico.
That discovery changed the project, and changed me.
I began examining my own daily choices: what I consume, how I move through the world, and how my creative work could reflect the future I want to see. Music became my way of processing this awareness and opening space for dialogue.
Sound Ecosystems is my response: a creative invitation to listen deeply, reflect honestly, and imagine collective action.
Why Donate?
A project of this scale simply can’t exist without community support.
Recording a 19-piece jazz orchestra involves significant costs, and independent artists rarely have access to traditional funding for projects like this. Your donations allow me to create this album with transparency, intention, and shared ownership, together with the people who believe in the music.
When you donate to this project, you’re not just acquiring an album, you’re helping make it possible.
The Team
I’m incredibly grateful to be working with a stellar creative team, including:
- Dave Rivello — award-winning composer and author (Producer)
- Alec Castro — pianist, composer and long-time collaborator (Producer)
- Some of the most talented and inspiring jazz musicians in New York City
This group of artists brings deep care, excellence, and vision to every note of this music.
Where Your Support Goes
Your contribution will directly support:
- Artist and musician fees
- Recording studio time
- Mixing and mastering
- Album design and artwork
- Distribution and release costs
Every dollar raised goes toward realizing this album at the artistic level it deserves.
Join the Forest!
Sound Ecosystems is about connection; between music and nature, artists and listeners, intention and action.
Every contribution, big or small, helps this project grow and flourish. I truly can’t wait to share this music with you.
Thank you for being part of this journey!
Thank you for supporting independent art!
Gracias por tu apoyo!
Make a Donation
When you choose to give, you become part of something bigger! Your support fuels progress and brings hope where it's needed most.