UK jazz extraordinaire, Nubya Garcia, shares her much-anticipated debut, SOURCE, out now on Concord Jazz, an album the New York Times describes as “a life’s worth of experiences into an hourlong listen.”
Produced by Garcia herself in collaboration with celebrated producer, Kwes, (Bobby Womack, Solange, Nerija), the album was heralded by lead singles, Pace and Source. She’s already made a huge impact in her native UK, with a rousing performance for the BBC’s 2020 Glastonbury Experience as well as a Jazzwise cover for their September issue.
SOURCE explores a multidimensional jazz sound layered with soul, Afro-Diasporic sounds and hints of dub-step along the way. It tells a deeply personal story, despite having no lyrics to accommodate it. Garcia’s saxophone work creates a cohesive piece of modern jazz music. From a slower, more romantic tempo in Together Is A Beautiful Place To Be to the upbeat title track, Source featuring Ms MAURICE, Cassie Kinoshi and Richie Seivwright, Garcia’s instrumental and composition skills are showcased in more ways than one.
SOURCE serves as Garcia’s first official LP to date. Her self-released EP WHEN WE ARE (2018), the title track of which was described as “effervescent” by the New York Times, was named one of NPR’s Best Songs of 2018. Her debut EP, NUBYA’s 5IVE, released in 2017, was hailed as “exceptional” by The Vinyl Factory and sold out on vinyl within 24 hours. In 2018, Garcia also featured on five of the nine tracks on WE OUT HERE, the Brownswood compilation project celebrating London’s young and exciting jazz scene. She won the Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year Award and the Sky Arts Breakthrough Act of the Year Award that same year, and took home the Jazz FM UK Jazz Act of the Year Award in 2019.
Garcia studied under pianist Nikki Yeoh at Camden Music, before joining Gary Crosby’s Tomorrow’s Warriors in her late teens and completed her training at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music. She is a member of the contemporary septet, Nerija, and has toured extensively internationally, playing venues and festivals across Latin America, Asia, Europe, Australia, and the United States. Garcia’s reputation as a DJ is also burgeoning; she currently helms a hit radio residency on NTS.
