Written by Saxophonist Nubya Garcia has represented the new sounds and look of the London jazz scene for the past five years. And one could bet that her niche in the scene is bound to become ever more popular, due to its funky reggae and dub influences, which is not so common in jazz.
With the release of “One Love,” earlier this year, the film about the life of Bob Marley, there was an uptick or rekindled awareness of reggae. After Marley’s death, in 1981, reggae reached its highest level of popularity for a spell and through the 80s with Jamaicans Black Uhuru or Steel Pulse. In the UK with UB40, The Police, and The Clash as reggae-influenced groups, reggae was integral to the era’s pop music and was so till the end of the decade with Soul II Soul.
Nubya Garcia (born 1991), as one of the most prominent names of the contemporary London jazz scene, is a love child of this “reggae generation,” raised in North London of Caribbean parents, and as a testament to this seductive dance music’s influence on her youth and her own musical compositions now, the title-track and a few others of her second album “The Source” (released in 2020) are among the best dub and funky-reggae-influenced jazz tracks of our times.
Nubya has crafted her own funky jazz sound around dub, reggae and other Afro-Caribbean influences for three notable recordings, from her 2017 debut EP, Nubya’s 5IVE, another EP release in 2018, When We Are, and her first full-length album The Source is the pinnacle.
However, Nubya released a new album in September, Odyssey, in a new direction, serving as a rebirth of herself and her music by including tracks with orchestrated strings-arrangements and by collaborating with other female vocalists, including Ritchie, and Esperanza Spaulding, bassist and vocalist, an overall high priestess of contemporary American jazz. With this album, Nubya essentially steps up to the plate as an artist and songwriter, and not merely an entertainer. As a vocalist singing her own lyrics, she tells her story as a united one: “Your journey is yours, full of many twists and turns…. We experience so many things in this odyssey of life…” she sings on “Triumphance,” which is the last track on the album, and a reggae-influenced standout at that.
Nubya studied jazz in the UK at the Royal Academy of Music, and at the Berklee College of Music in Boston, where Esperanza Spalding was at one time on faculty (till 2016), which means while Nubya had the opportunity to study for one summer there. Nubya completed her studies in Jazz Performance (2016) from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, in London.
So now Nubya Garcia is performing her new and old songs around the world, including Australia, Japan, and the United States. But she will have a few concerts in Europe in November with her quartet, which features Lyle Barton (keyboards), Daniel Casimir (bass guitar) and Sam Jones (drums). Both Casimir and Jones are on her last two albums, so it is essentially her core.
Nubya Garcia and her quartet will be at the venues below in November.
Saturday, Nov. 9—Locomotiv Club, Bologna, Italy
Sunday, Nov. 10—Monk Club, Rome, Italy
Saturday, Nov. 16—Prague Sounds Festival (Lucerna Music Bar), Prague, Czech Republic
Tony Ozuna is a senior lecturer for the School of Journalism, Media & Visual Arts at Anglo-American University in Prague.
Featured Image: Maurits van Hout.
Last modified: November 4, 2024
