Graham Reid | | 1 min read
Set It Free (ft Richie)
It seems a very long time since this exceptional British saxophonist's 2020 debut album Source, which was in our best of the year releases.
Her music has undergone numerous remixes (one by Mark de Clive-Lowe) and she's done guest spots (Nala Sinephro, Ezra Collective among them), but this ambitious album is a step in a different but equally rewarding direction.
On the Source she reached towards Coltrane and jazz-funk with dub influences in places. This time out we are in the world of orchestration with singer Esperanza Spalding on the mood-setting opener Dawn and thereafter joyous romantic flourishes (the orchestrated Clarity) or atmospheric pieces (the interlude of Water's Path with cello and violins where she sits out).
However she still reaches for the jazz heights in a few places, notably on The Seer with pianist Joe Armon-Jones holding down the piece as drummer Sam Jones drives the engine alongside Garcia for a furious five minutes.
American R'n'B singer Georgia Anne Muldrow appears on the too brief We Walk in Gold which becomes a heroic ballad running perilously close to a Bond theme.
After Source set her up as saxophone goddess, this might not be the album fans of that album want – too diverse, too disparate – but as a signal that Nubya Garcia is an accomplished composer, arranger, collaborator and more, this odyssey is well worth undertaking.
The final destination on the journey is a dub-influenced groove with spoken word (“your difference is your power . . . we must just allow ourselves to be”) and comes under the telling title: Triumphance.
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You can hear and buy this album at bandcamp here
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