Indeed, this is certainly just the beginning for the North London native and saxophonist Nubya Garcia: marked by her debut LP, Source. Emblematic of today’s jazz scene brimming with confident innovation, Garcia notes herself front-and-centre yet is pinned back by a stunted excavation.
Like many LPs released today, Source was birthed by the very environment most of us find ourselves in - lockdown. Exuding myriad emotions and ventures imbued by this, Garcia situates the LP in relation to her “identity and history...my heritage, my ancestry”, taking a leaf from the transatlantic books of her Trinidadian father and Guyanese mother. And whilst her musical influences trace back to the omnipresent likes of Miles Davis and Hank Mobley, Garcia is undoubtedly a product of the current jazz resurgence playing throughout the western world - from Kamasi Washington, to Sons of Kemet and The Comet is Coming - but how does the multi-award winning artist fare in all of this?
At the very least, Garcia lays bare some impressive foundations amidst her debut sounds: ‘Pace’s flourishing keys, steady basslines, and upbeat tempo eventually gives way to the saxophonist's prowess. Expressively soaring to the heights of the aforementioned Washington, as well as conducting her ensemble through a plethora of crescendos and diminuendos, Garcia undeniably presents her colourful case as we transcend into the 12-minute odyssey title track, ‘Source’. Here, her dexterity between the various musical directions marks a true sign of leadership. Delving into the ancestral backgrounds of call & responses, polyrhythmics, and offbeat ska-esque guitar chords, allows the piece to enticingly twist and turn underneath the hotbed sheets of jazz - impressively circling back on its main refrain in the final chapter.
Ironically, this factor is at the very core of jazz as we know it - pure liberty to take any direction it wants at will. Here, we see it exemplified through Garcia’s digressions into South America’s beloved dance (shamefully had to be looked up on YouTube) on ‘La Cumbia Me Está Llamando’, embracing a more rhythmically-driven sound for modern jazz, switching out drums for djembes and igniting a brighter chorus of vocals. Beyond this, Garcia reverts to the popular dulcet tones of 1950’s/Kind of Blue-era of jazz on ‘Together is a Beautiful Place To Be’, intending to include everyone as part of this listening experience, giving space to our elder generation for an inevitable slow dance together.
However, in spite of her impressive dexterity on this debut effort, it’s not without some stagnation. Shortly after visualising the colourful landscapes painted amongst the first track, its successor ‘The Message Continues’ comparatively lacks a particular bite and fails to launch from the mighty pedestal laid out. Whilst the production within the hollow sounds of ‘Stand With Each Other’ leaves much to be desired against the fruitful concoction swelled on the LP, ‘Before Us in Demerara & Caura’ sees Garcia somewhat going through the motions all too easily with her ensemble - seemingly comfortable within her role as ringleader already.
Blink for one moment and you’ll almost miss the concluding track ‘Boundless Begins’, clocking in at barely 2.5 minutes within a 60-minute LP, yet the bulk of Garcia’s material here will undoubtedly stoke the embers of this country’s burgeoning jazz scene. According to legendary jazz composer Shabaka Hutchings, “she’s already expressed herself within a position that she’s already defined”, and this debut LP will surely solidify her place amongst the rankings of jazz’s hierarchy. Whilst the very core of this project lacks a real evolution of vocals, instrumentals, or production, more than anything this LP necessitates a further excavation of Garcia’s ancestral past (as seen from the likes of Sons of Kemet or Steam Down). But there’s still a long way to go for this 29 year old saxophonist, to which I have no doubt we’ll see her as an integral element of jazz in the not-too-distant future - yet, like she said herself: this is just the beginning.
6/10
Nubya Garcia's debut LP, Source, is out now and can be found here.
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