Nubya Garcia
Koko, London

THIS is a much-anticipated show, Garcia’s last in Britain before embarking on her world tour, and the first in her hometown of Camden since the release of her critically acclaimed Odyssey LP. 

The album is a beautiful, shimmering delight, weaving together many diverse strands of black music into a glorious whole. This is very definitely jazz, but it is jazz played by people who grew up steeped in jungle and hiphop and are proud to pay homage to them in their sound. 

Garcia has collaborated with jungle pioneer Congo Natty, and Sam Jones’s skittering drums are often to be found hovering teasingly around the borders of the genre, his patterns traversing all kinds of rhythmic territory without ever losing the punch and solidity of the breakbeats which inform them. 

Nubya’s quartet are accompanied for much of the set by a four-piece string section on loan from the groundbreaking Chineke orchestra. Her skill in composing for strings shines through in Water’s Path, an exquisite cello piece laid over a pizzicato violin duet evoking droplets trickling down a wooded ravine. 

The band are also joined by talented soul singer Richie for Set It Free, built around a sultry hiphop beat, double bassline and brooding chord sequence reminiscent of Tribe Called Quest. Garcia explains that the two of them first met at the ages of 14 and 16 respectively through Tomorrow’s Warriors, the incredible youth mentoring scheme that has cultivated an entire ecosystem of phenomenal musicians. The resulting scene has enabled much cross-fertilisation, evident tonight on We Walk In Gold, a contemplative piece with definite shades of Garcia’s sometime collaborator Shabaka Hutchings. 

Other stand out tracks include The Seer, a fiery and life-affirming piece based around an unsettling piano sequence and deliciously relentless pounding bassline. The overall effect sounds to my ear like McCoyTyner jamming over a Fall track with the drummer from Can. 

This is music that is not afraid to take its time. The band hold and caress their melodies, exploring them from every angle before pinning them down and tenderly f***ing their brains out. Garcia’s one-time collaborator Esperanza Spalding has spoken, in relation to jazz, of “the power that emerges from oppressed peoples’ self-healing technologies.” Garcia’s music is very much that — deeply soothing without ever losing touch with the struggles that made it necessary or the spiritual force it channels. 

Garcia herself cuts a majestic presence on stage. Bedecked in a floral corset with huge off-the-shoulder gold sleeves matching the hue of her saxophone, the look creates the same impression as her music — that Nubya and her instrument were born for each other. 

The set finishes, fittingly, with Triumphance, a jazz-dub masterpiece overflowing with love, wonder, forgiveness and self-acceptance. A triumphant homecoming indeed. 

On tour internationally until July 13. For information, see: nubyagarcia.com