Cork Jazz Festival review: Stunning show from Nubya Garcia at Everyman
Nubya Garcia performing at the Everyman on Sunday during the Guinness Cork Jazz Festival. Picture: Darragh Kane
It may have taken till late on Sunday night for a headliner playing jazz to take the stage at the Cork festival this year, but it was almost worth the wait, given it came in the shape of an astounding performance by London sax star Nubya Garcia and her supremely talented quartet.
We open, fittingly, with from her 2024 album It’s almost a statement of intent: as Garcia’s big, in-your-face playing lays down the tune, drummer Sam Jones crash-banging the cymbals behind, as James Beckwith on keys soon takes over with a wonderful solo. Max Luthert on bass completes the lineup, a steadier, more low-key player in contrast to the other three, but all the better for the group’s cohesion Garcia is a commanding presence, at her ease in the spotlight.
But as throughout this epic show, she soon takes a step, or should that bit a shimmy, stage left, where she grooves along with her bandmates. She’s like a consummate old-school band leader that way, recast as a thoroughly modern, democratic musician.
A little later she stops to tell us, “This is dance music. Jazz is dance music.” That was already obvious just by looking at her swinging along to this superb band.
In an opening section that lasts almost 30 uninterrupted, thrilling minutes, we segue via some strong bass lines into That’s the summer one, Garcia eventually quips, and that vibe is certainly welcome on the Sunday the clocks went back. There’s no wintry gloom to be found in this life-affirming set, that’s for sure.
Instead, it’s intense, groovy, propulsive stuff, with enough complexity, interplay and diversity to keep any jazz fan happy. Garcia can go as ethereal as whispered as Jan Garbarek, as skronky as Pharoah Sanders, or as rich in tone as Cannonball Adderley.
Garcia continues to draw on her album with the funky, drum and organ-led while the more spacious is a particular highlight. Those expecting the lush string arrangements associated with that and some of the other tracks on Odyssey would have been disappointed, “We didn’t have the budget for ‘em,” Garcia jokes.
But the transcriptions for quartet of these tunes is a rewarding novelty for those who’ve been following her work. There’s no fear of feeling short-changed with a performer like this, who gives everything in her soaring solos. By the end, it’s Garcia herself who’s on an odyssey, stepping down from the stage to mingle with the audience and circle the stalls with mic in hand chanting, “Your difference is your power. Our differences are our power.”
This is the kind of night that reminds you that the Everyman, with its moody lighting, great sightlines, big framed stage, and enthusiastic audiences, remains the best venue in Cork for this kind of music. Perhaps we could just have a little more of it in the venerable old venue next year.
