About

- The Analog Vault // Essential Listening -

A queenpin of London’s jazz renaissance, multi award-winning British tenor saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia can be found at her most virtuous in this much anticipated debut album released on Concord Records, under the iconic Concord Jazz imprint. Born to parents from Trinidad and Guyana, Source traces her musical heritage by melding Garcia’s formal foundations in jazz classicism with dubstep, reggae, cumbia, calypso, hip-hop, soul and more.

This album is a stunning introduction to Garcia’s abundant talent - evident as she applies her anguid and sumptuous playing style as a needle to weave together sonic threads from the African diaspora. Aided by producer Kwes (Damon Albarn, Solange, Bobby Womack), Garcia’s graceful fusion of tradition and modernity is richly melodic exploration of collectivism and ancestry. — The Analog Vault

Tenor saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia's first full-length album has been a long time coming—but the wait has been worth it. Source is a cracker and more than fulfills the weighty expectations that built up in anticipation of its arrival.

It was back in 2017 that Garcia debuted with the EP Nubya's 5ive (Jazz Re:freshed) and since then she has been a leading light of the new London jazz scene. One of a triumvirate of tenor stars—the other two being Shabaka Hutchings and Binker Golding—Garcia has since 2017 illuminated a host of other ex-London albums (too many to list here), along with projects initiated by Chicago drummer / producer Makaya McCraven, an early US celebrant of the London scene. She has also been an integral member of the (originally all female) collective Nerija. In the three years since Nubya's 5ive, Source is the first time Garcia has taken the time to stretch out and present her own vision as sole leader.

The jazz which Garcia and her peers have developed is characterised by its cultural inclusiveness, which reflects the Caribbean and West African musical heritages of many of its leading players. It is these diverse but ultimately intersectional sources which, one imagines, give rise to the album title. Certainly they are reflected in the title track, a twelve-minute dub-loaded gumbo sculpted by London's multi-cultural make-up.

Commanding the stage throughout the album is Garcia's gloriously big, rich tenor, in which one can still hear traces of her formative influence, Joe Henderson. Her longstanding keyboard player, Joe Armon-Jones, is also given plenty of space to shine. There are some supporting cameo roles. Armon-Jones, double bassist Daniel Casimir and drummer Sam Jones are joined on the title track and "Stand With Each Other" by trombonist Richie Seivwright of Ezra Collective, and by alto saxophonist Cassie Kinoshi, leader of SEED Ensemble, and trumpeter Sheila Maurice-Grey, leader of Kokoroko, both of whom are fellow members of Nérija. Grey also guests on "Before Us In Demerara & Caura." Seivwright, Kinoshi and Grey double up on vocals on these tracks.

A conscious intention to forge a jazz style embracing the entire African diaspora—along with all progressively minded, liberal people—is the central strand running through Source, and it is underlined by track titles such as "Together Is A Beautiful Place To Be," "Stand With Each Other" and the closer, "Boundless Beings," which echoes the title of Makaya McCraven's album Universal Beings (International Anthem, 2018), the first of two McCraven albums featuring Garcia (along with Shabaka Hutchings and Daniel Casimir). - All About Jazz

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Label: Concord Jazz 
Format: 2 x Vinyl, LP, Album
Released: 2020
Genre: Jazz

File under: Jazz - Saxophone, Modern / Future Jazz
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