Nubya Garcia

Nubya Garcia
Garcia at INNtöne Jazzfestival 2019
Background information
Birth name	Nubya Nyasha Garcia
Born	1991 (age 29–30) Camden Town, London, England
Genres	Jazz
Instruments	Tenor saxophone
Labels	Jazz re:freshed Domino Concord Jazz
Associated acts	Nérija Maisha Joe Armon-Jones Moses Boyd Theon Cross Shabaka Hutchings Sons of Kemet Cassie Kinoshi Kwes
Website	nubyagarcia.com

Nubya Nyasha Garcia (born 1991) is an English jazz musician, saxophonist, composer and bandleader.

Early life and education[]

Garcia was born in 1991 in Camden Town, London to a Guyanese mother, a former civil servant, and a British Trinidadian filmmaker father, the youngest of four siblings. Her uncle is John R. Rickford, who is the J. E. Wallace Sterling Professor of Linguistics and the Humanities at Stanford University.^[1]

Garcia followed her three older siblings to the local Saturday music center at the age of 5, where she first learned the violin and later played the viola in the London Schools Symphony Orchestra (LSSO). Garcia has said her home life with her stepdad,^[2] a brass player with a vast collection of instruments, and her mother a keen collector of all genres of music from reggae and Latin to classical and soul, coupled with the music activities at school, Camden School for Girls,^[3] meant she was saturated with music of all genres.^[4][5][6]

Garcia began learning the saxophone at the age of 10,^[5] with Vicky Wright. She became a member of the Camden Jazz Band, directed by jazz pianist Nikki Yeoh, before joining the junior jazz program at the Royal Academy of Music. She also attended the workshops of Tomorrow's Warriors under the direction of Gary Crosby. While still in high school, she received a scholarship for a five-week summer program at the Berklee College of Music in Boston. During her gap year she studied with former Jazz Messengers member, Jean Toussaint. In 2016 she graduated with honours from the Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, in Jazz Performance.^[1][7][8]

Career[]

In 2017, Garcia released her debut EP Nubya's 5ive via the label Jazz re:freshed.^[9][10] That year, her band was an opening act at Gilles Peterson's Worldwide Festival in Sète;^[11] the following year she played at the NYC Winter Jazz Festival^[12] and the JazzFest Berlin.

In her 2018 EP When We Are, Garcia explored how electronics can be used in a live jazz environment; the EP was created with the support of the Steve Reid InNOVAtion Award, a development project between PRS Foundation and Steve Reid Foundation.^[7] She is also a member of the collective Nérija^[13][14][15] and the Afro-jazz ensemble Maisha.^[16][17] In addition, she is a collaborator on albums by Makaya McCraven, Theon Cross, Moses Boyd, Sons of Kemet, Shabaka Hutchings and Moses Sumney; she appears on five tracks on We Out Here, a sampler album from the modern London jazz scene issued on Brownswood Recordings in 2018.^[18]

Garcia tours internationally, in Europe, India, Australia, and North America. She regularly performs at festivals in the UK including Love Supreme Jazz Festival^[11][19] and NN North Sea Jazz Festival.^[20] She has headlined sell-out shows at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club.^[21] Garcia also has a burgeoning reputation as a DJ, with a monthly radio residency on NTS Radio since November 2017.^[22]

Garcia was supposed to perform at the 2020 Glastonbury Festival,^[23] which had to be cancelled due to the COVID-19 pandemic.^[24]

Garcia released her debut studio album Source in August 2020^[25] by Concord Jazz. The album was listed on several end of 2020 top album lists. In July 2021 the album Source was shortlisted for the 2021 Hyundai Mercury Prize.^[26]

Nubya Garcia successfully debuted her band on 18th August at the 2021 BBC Proms held in London's Royal Albert Hall. The Telegraph gave the performance a 5* review. ^{[27] [28]}

Musical influences[]

Nubya Garcia has cited the prominent jazz saxophonists Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane, as well as trumpeter Miles Davis and pianist-composer Mary Lou Williams, as her 'musical heroes'. She included Steel Pulse, a UK based reggae band from Birmingham amongst her musical inspirations.

Charitable work[]

Nubya Garcia is a Patron of the Camden Music Trust. ^[29]

Awards and nominations[]

Discography[]

Leader[]

• Nubya's 5ive^[47] album^[48] (2017)
• When We Are^[49] EP (2018)
• "Pace" single (2020)
• "Source" single (2020)
• Source album (2020)^{[50] [51]}

Collaborations[]

• Various Artists – We Out Here (2018)
• Maisha – Welcome to a New Welcome (2016)
• Maisha – There is a Place (2018)
• Nérija – Nérija EP (2019)
• Nérija – Blume (2019)
• Various Artists - Blue Note Re Imagined (2020)

Features on[]

• Ezra Collective – Juan Pablo: The Philosopher (2017)
• Blue Lab Beats – Freedom (2017)
• Sons Of Kemet - Your Queen Is a Reptile (2018)
• Joe Armon-Jones – Starting Today (2018)
• Makaya McCraven – Where We Come From (2018)
• Makaya McCraven – Universal Beings (2018)
• Eun – Darkness must be Beautiful (2018)
• Joe Armon-Jones – Turn To Clear View (2019)
• Theon Cross – Fyah (2019)
• Ben Hayes – Ready Yet (2019)
• DJ Yoda – Home Cooking (2019)
• Moses Boyd - Dark Matter (2020)

References[]

External links[]

• Nubya Garcia at AllMusic
• Nubya Garcia on Bandcamp
• Nubya Garcia discography at Discogs
• Nubya Garcia discography at MusicBrainz

Wikimedia Commons has media related to Nubya Garcia.

• Biography
• Bandcamp-Artist's Page
• BBC Music introducing
• Guardian profile