Review Summary: stand with each other.
I don’t know much about jazz music, at all. I don’t know much about the scholastic side of its theory, nor do I truly grasp the richness of its storied history, and I sure as hell wouldn’t know what hard bop is even if it bopped me right over the head. In fact, my understanding of jazz is so humbling for my inner music critic that I avoid writing about it at all costs, instead sparing my enjoyment to the confines of solitude where ignorance and awe-struck appreciation reign supreme.
Kind Of Blue? I like it, but I don’t get it.
A Love Supreme? Love it, but lose the plot approximately one minute into its runtime. Even the contemporary benchmarks like Kamasi Washington’s
The Epic work angles that my two surviving brain cells simply can’t keep pace with. Maybe I’m not smart enough for it, or maybe I’m just not a purist; at least not in the sense that the jazz critics, aficionados and collectors who tastemake the yes’s and no’s of the scene are. And maybe, just maybe, that’s why Nubya Garcia’s debut proper offers so much light for people like me, who truly and genuinely want to fall in love with a wider spectrum of jazz, but are stuck in the dark fumbling for a matchstick to illuminate our misunderstandings.
SOURCE, you see, is a lot more than a straightforward jazz album. It’s a cultural melting pot that connects the lines of a collective lineage with broad strokes of love and passion captured through the lens of afro, spiritual, and soul jazz sensibilities that sweep through the Caribbean and head south of the equator. It’s an album that posits a challenge to newcomers by being unabashedly ambitious and expressive, yet overwhelmingly inviting by sheer force of charisma. Moreover, genre veterans are sure to have plenty to chew on here as well, with the myriad nooks and crannies of this thing all being well worth getting familiar, and the prodigal instrumental performances boasting layers that reward dedicated attention.
Perhaps that welcoming demeanor is an unavoidable consequence of Garcia’s mission to connect the dots between the African diaspora at large, her own Guyanese and Trinidadian roots, and the new London jazz wave. The epic twelve minute title track says it all, with a roots dub reggae bassline courtesy of Daniel Casimir holding the whole venture together while Garcia traverses every cathartic emotion under the sun through her tenor sax. It’s at once a beautifully warm tune, but the 28-year-old Camdenite and her troupe of troublesome troubadours aren’t keen to settle in the lounge here, instead opting to unleash a rapturous celebration of wonder, hope and release that jaunts into the song’s streets like a mid-summer festival. “Together Is A Beautiful Place To Be” would have felt like an easy layup next to that titular tune, that is, if Ms. Garcia's softer side wasn’t so equally enchanting as her bombast. A woman known in hip circles for playing her sax with a style that is equal parts diminutive and captivating, her delicate touch slips in and out of Joe Armon-Jones’ keyboard, serving up the tune as a breezy discourse on understatedness. Of course, none of this dynamism should come as a surprise for those that have followed her through a star-spangled resume that includes work with Moses Sumney on his lauded
Grae, Makaya McCraven’s
Universal Beings and of course the woman-ran Nérija collective. She’s paid her dues, cut her teeth on the scene both at home and abroad, and kept everything she’s discovered along the way close at hand. The fruition? A debut longplayer that deserves a lot more present credit than it will likely get, but one that ought to age brilliantly.
While it boasts the cursory choir section, improvisational meanderings, and all that kit and caboodle that underpins the scene's leftfield,
SOURCE still caters to an intrepid audience as it trailblazes new connections between distant locales and contemporary attitudes in earnest. The quartet truly covers thousands of kilometers worth of geography, both musically and literally, likely due in large part to the fact that most of the compositions were sketched out while Garcia was on tour soaking up the sights and sounds of new places. How else could the jubilant ”Inner Game” or the staunch cumbia of “La Cumbia Me Está Llamando” play off-the-cuff so naturally were it not for that special sense of inspiration that can only be found in unfamiliar terrain. Ms. Garcia and her team's dedication to conveying wordless journeys through music is simply uncanny and engrossingly immersive, right from the wandering keys and poignant bass jabs of opener "Pace" through to the closing notes of "Boundless Beings"' subdued poetry. There’s an indelible chemistry hard as diamond that supports the group’s adventurous attitude, readily exemplified by the exuberant interplay of “Before Us: In Demerara & Caura”, or the nuanced parlance of “Stand With Each Other” acting as easy trees to the forest of hyperbole-ready tunes that comprise these 62 minutes of sonic ecstasy. Indeed, while Garcia certainly doesn’t shy away from working the limelight with brilliant confidence throughout, she’s keen to leave plenty of room for the whole ensemble to flex their own virtuosic talents as well. This is truly a band's affair, produced with a deep soundstage that affords a wide breadth for Sam Jones’ work behind the kit to burst like fireworks above the vistas laid out by Casimir & Armon-Jones. It’s a winning recipe that shows them moving in lockstep when it's needed, but the moments where they cut loose, throw ideas around the room and jostle about with one another are where the charisma of their individual styles really gets a chance to shine.
Above all else,
SOURCE is true message music that invites everyone from the squalorly to the scholarly to listen in. There’s a powerful message inside of its wild forays that’s meant to be felt within and around every heartbeat; a message about our own personal power, our collective power, and the shared histories that shape the differences that truly unite us as a global community. It’s clear that Garcia put a whole lot of heart into making every moment count for something greater than itself, and it shows. The communal bonfires that burn away our frustrations and bring us closer together through their warmth are ones that shine bright against the moonlit skies of Garcia’s compositions and the values that fashioned them, engendering a front-to-back experience that is well beyond the sum of its already-impressive parts. For that,
SOURCE is a resounding success by every measure, and one that surely garners a great deal of optimism about Nubya’s future. Along the way, we might even be so lucky as to find a bit more optimism about our own futures as well.
