Composer, bandleader, saxophone supremo: the 29-year-old musician barely took a moment’s rest until the pandemic hit. As a leading light in the lauded London jazz scene, she’s helped shape one of the most exciting genres to spring out of the city in the past decade. Now that the world is beginning to reopen, the Camden-born artist is determined to pick up where she left off: driving things forward, and uplifting others to do the same.
Text: Natty Kasambala – Photography: Dan Wilton
A MUSICIAN
NUBYA GARCIA RECENTLY MADE A VOW TO HERSELF: STOP WEARING BUSYNESS AS A BADGE OF HONOUR.
The non-stop nature of life as a touring musician was something the 29-year-old had been reckoning with for the past year or so. The focus began with ‘Pace’, a single she released in May 2020, and continued in her own time throughout the various stages of lockdown that followed. In many ways, it took the stillness that came with that period for the saxophonist, composer and bandleader to recognise how intense her routine had really been.
“It was just go, go, go, go – and be thankful that you’re going,” she says of her pre-Covid reality. “But times that by 365 days and that equals a burnout. I didn’t realise how much I put myself through.”
One of the most respected names in the new London jazz scene, Nubya has been at the forefront of the genre for the past five years. As a key part of a flourishing community of young instrumentalists – few of whom are women – her versatility and skill has seen her in high demand, with her imprint felt on an impressive list of projects on both sides of the Atlantic.
Alongside her collaborations, she’s garnered an impassioned fanbase of her own, thanks in part to a series of lauded live shows. I for one vividly remember the first time I saw her perform, despite the fact it was over four years ago. After years of parent-concert trips, to be stood (not sat) in XOYO with my friends on a Sunday night, watching a Black woman captivate a room full of twenty-somethings who looked like me – without uttering a single word – felt exhilarating. To witness jazz literally move an audience to dance and holler as if it were a club night helped mark a new chapter in my own relationship with the genre.
Her musical output around that time – a debut EP, 5ive, in 2017 and her ubiquity on Gilles Peterson’s Brownswood project We Out Here a year later – confirmed her to the masses as an artist to watch. It was last year, though, with the release of her debut album Source, when things really went up a level. The record received high praise from heavyweight publications such as Pitchfork, Rolling Stone and
