Multi award-winning tenor saxophonist and composer Nubya Garcia released her debut album SOURCE to worldwide critical acclaim. Her first release on Concord Records, under the iconic Concord Jazz imprint, has thrilled both critics and fans alike. Following her album release, the London-based jazz musician debuted on Tiny Desk (Home) Concert for NPR, coming off the heels of a New York Times profile, a Pitchfork ‘Best New Music’ honor and a Rolling Stone ‘Album of the Month’ mention. The New York Times describes SOURCE as “a life’s worth of experiences into an hourlong listen,” while Q Magazine says “Elevated throughout by Garcia’s immaculate phrasing, this is music that fuses the tradition and modern with real purpose.“
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, a feature in VOGUE Magazine, appearing in all 27 of Vogue’s Spring 2021 international issues; a feature story in MOJO Magazine, and the covers of both Huck Magazine andJ azzwise.
SOURCE serves as Garcia’s first full album to date. Her self-released EP, WHEN WE ARE was released in 2018, with the title track described as “effervescent” by The New York Times and named one of NPR’s Best Songs. 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 in 2018, and the Jazz FM UK Jazz Act of the Year Award in 2019.
In 2021 she won Downbeat’s Critic’s Poll Rising Star Award, Tenor Saxophone; the Parliamentary Jazz Instrumentalist of the Year Award, and received a Jazz Journalist Award nomination for Up & Coming Musician of the Year. SOURCE has been shortlisted for the prestigious 2021 Mercury Prize, one of only 12 albums to be nominated in celebration of the best of U.K. Music.
Nubya 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 septet, Nerija, and has toured extensively internationally, playing in venues 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.
On ‘Source,’ [Nubya Garcia] weaves together so many threads so masterfully that she instantly establishes herself as a foundational voice in the larger, ongoing story of the London jazz scene. Her debut is a stunning introduction.” – Pitchfork (‘Best New Music’)
“reaching into the past while planting itself firmly in the present, ‘Source’ reminds listeners to slow down and reconnect with themselves, their cultural histories and those closest to them” – The New York Times
“a gorgeously refined tone — a burnished old-school cry that’s as muscular as it is romantic…” – Rolling Stone
A standing show. Part of Manchester Jazz Festival.