Nubya Garcia

Nubya Nyasha Garcia is a British jazz musician, saxophonist, flautist, composer and bandleader. She is considered one of the leading forces behind the resurgence of jazz-influenced sounds in the UK.

Nubya Garcia, the Camden Town native with Guyano-Trinidadian roots. Her family was a cultured one, and encouraged Nubya's musical talent as a child with violin, viola, and singing lessons. At 10 years old, she fell in loved with jazz in general, and the saxophone in particular, and she went on to get a scholarship to Berklee School fo Music in Boston, before finishing her studies at a London conservatory.

Garcia cites sax legends Dexter Gordon, Sonny Rollins and John Coltrane as her greatest influences, but her music bears the hallmarks of a range of influences from influences ranging from dubstep to reggae, cumbia to calypso, and hip hop to soul. Her music is bursting with energy and makes listeners want to move. “Jazz was originally dance music,” she says, “so I'm just bringing it back to its roots.”

She made her recording debut in 2017 on the independent London label Jazz Refreshed, and released her breakthrough album Source three years later on the major label Concord Jazz. The following year she made her Czech debut at Jazz Fest Brno, to enthusiastic reviews. UNI magazine wrote “Garcia brought an inexhaustible supply of ideas to her solos, and developed them with rare elegance.”