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CSOradio
Acclaimed tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia, who’ll make her Symphony Center Presents Jazz debut on March 13 as part of a double bill with Grammy-nominated vocalist Somi. has been on an upward trajectory since she released her first EP in 2017.
“Playing in Chicago has always felt genuinely special to me,” she says. “There’s such a deep, living musical lineage there across so many different genres — all of them feel embedded in the city’s DNA. I have a deep connection to Chicago, and I’ve had so many wonderful and meaningful collaborations and connections to musicians there. I’m excited to play, excited to listen, excited to reconnect with other musicians. Knowing how many genres have been born or shaped in Chicago, and how strong its musical identity is, really encourages me to pull more fully from all of my own influences. It pushes me to honor tradition while also showing up honestly as myself, and that combination feels incredibly energizing.”
Known for her “intense and frenetic,” style, as the Guardian once described it, as well as her brilliant blending of electronic dance music with jazz that’s rooted in African, Caribbean and Latin sounds, the Camden, U.K.-born Garcia began her musical tutelage on violin and piano, then graduated to the clarinet before taking up the saxophone at age 10. She’s now in her mid-30s, and the instrument that stuck has earned her worldwide acclaim as a pioneering force in her chosen genre. Then again, considering Garcia’s many non-jazz influences— hip-hop, grime, dub/dancehall, bass music — you could say she’s genre-fluid.
In a review of her first full-length album, “Source” (2020), one critic noted, “Nothing here is mired in the past. [H]er music is bracing and modern... Everything flows through experimentations, shifts in tempo and emotions, all without calling any attention to itself. Without warning, you find her music grabbing you, again and again. Her quick thinking and well-chosen melodic pathways make her an exciting new improviser.”
This penchant for musical boundary-busting is also a hallmark of her most recent album, "Odyssey" (2024), which Pitchfork praised as being “full of good ideas — rich, challenging, and inspiring in their largess,” and called it “a record of “ambition and style” that’s “alive with intensity and rich with the luxury of inspiration.”
Garcia, though, considers her relentless musical exploration as creatively curious, rather than artistically risky. It’s about pushing herself to try something different and seeing where it might take her sonically. That sense of curiosity feels inviting rather than scary, she says.
“In performance, I’m excited by the idea of stepping slightly outside what’s familiar, trusting the moment, and allowing new ideas to surface in real time. That’s where growth happens, and that’s what keeps the music feeling alive for me.”
While storytelling is central to how Garcia thinks about her work, and a strong narrative is “the bones of the structure” for both the melody and the overall composition, improvisation is crucial in that it strengthens those bones and gives them flexibility.
“When I improvise, I’m still thinking about journey, tension, release and thematic development. I want the solo to feel like it belongs to the same world as the composition, even as it evolves in the moment. The balance comes from trusting the framework enough that I feel free inside it, and allowing intuition to guide where the story needs to go next.”
Unlike recording, a “beautiful process” that allows for control and revision, Garcia says performing in a live concert space like Symphony Center “really forces you to be present in a way that nothing else does. You’re acutely aware of the room, the acoustics, the audience, and the shared energy between everyone there. Onstage, you can fully enter that state of flow with the band — responding to each other, to the space, to the moment. What happens is exactly what happens — once, and only once. There’s something powerful and grounding about that immediacy.”
From Chicago, Garcia will jet to a concert in Manchester, England, followed in the spring and summer by gigs in Latvia, Belgium and Germany. And those are just the stops as of this writing. But she tries not to let the demanding hustle of being a spotlight star and bandleader overtake the quieter — but equally important — aspects of her career. In fact, Garcia says, she has recently found herself returning to the importance of personal practice and discipline.
“I’ve spent so much time writing, touring, releasing music and managing the many responsibilities that come with being a musician and bandleader today. Right now, I feel really called to get back ‘in the dojo,’ so to speak — back in the shed, refocusing on the fundamentals of my craft.
“Re-centering my practice has been shaping how I perform, helping me feel more grounded, more intentional, and more connected to why I started playing in the first place.”
