“Odyssey”, Nubya Garcia | Le Devoir

The young composer, band leader and tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia, one of the leading lights of new British jazz, makes a surprising refocusing on Odysseyher third album. Like this London scene, she incorporated reggae and Afrobeat into her vision of jazz, reflecting the cultural diversity of her environment. However, on this new album, the musician returns to a more classical form of orchestral jazz; it is by focusing on her playing (Coltranian, magnificent, eloquent, lively) that these African and Caribbean influences are revealed, more so than in that of her accompanists Joe Armon-Jones (excellent, he distinguishes himself on the piano from Dawn opening, on which we hear the voice of Esperanza Spalding), Daniel Casimir (bass) and Sam Jones (drums, brilliant on Solstice). Subtle jazz-soul-afrobeat fusions on Set It Free And We Walk in Goldfeaturing Georgia Anne Muldrow’s vocals and saxophone motifs that evoke the sound of Ethiopian jazz. For form as much as for pleasure, the album ends with a cavernous groove dub-reggae, Triumphance.

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