Nubya Garcia and the Nu Civilisation Orchestra [Graeme Miall/Tomorrow’s Warriors]

A RECENTLY previewed a gig by Camden-born saxophonist Nubya Garcia and the Nu Civilisation Orchestra, where they intended to re-create and improvise on Focus, a well-known Stan Getz album. Normally I would have been at the performance, but it happened to clash with my wedding anniversary. So in best jazz fashion I sent a “dep” – Daniel Silverstone. Danny plays alto sax in a group called the Equinox Quartet, which specialises in music of Getz’s contemporaries such as Wayne Shorter and Sonny Rollins, is a keen student of jazz history, and also runs an informative and entertaining blog, https://mylifeinjazz.co.uk.
And so, while I had dinner with my wife, Danny headed for the South Bank. Below is his report.

ROB RYAN

THE 1961 recording of Focus was a collaboration between star saxophonist Stan Getz and composer/arranger Eddie Sauter and has mythical status in jazz circles.

Focus was a unique undertaking, a one-off fusion of contemporary classical “third stream” with a jazz sensibility provided by Stan Getz, bringing together a large string orchestra with the lustrous but deeply troubled Getz at the peak of his powers.

The piece was never played in public. The notoriously lugubrious Getz regarded it as his master work. And he was right, his improvisations soaring above the orchestra were truly remarkable. Focus is rightly regarded as one of the landmark recordings in the history of jazz.

Roll on 60 years and Camden’s own star saxophonist, Nubya Garcia, chose to perform this uniquely challenging piece with the Nu Civilisation Orchestra at a packed Royal Festival Hall on September 15. This is a challenge that Nubya and the orchestra’s founder, bassist Gary Crosby, have been plotting for a number of years, ever since the teenage Garcia graduated from Tomorrow’s Warriors.

Garcia is a serious student of many of her great predecessors in jazz, particularly Dexter Gordon and Sonny Rollins, and she has clearly put in the hours going back to the original Getz/Sauter recording.

The piece requires an outstanding saxophonist with an immediately recognisable tone and presence, to fashion a series of in-the-moment improvisations to reflect the score. And to do so without simply offering a poor copy of Getz’s original performance.

Nubya Garcia rose to that challenge superbly. Her tone, her dynamic range, her intimate connection to the orchestra, her sensitivity and total command of her instrument all added up to a very distinctive and truly outstanding performance,

The Nu Civilisation Orchestra were also superb throughout, playing with great passion and attention, both to the detail and the spirit of the piece. Conductor Scott Stroman, a late replacement for the indisposed Peter Edwards, led the orchestra with precision and dynamism.

The evening’s performance began with two original compositions, Ricochet by Peter Edwards, and Chemy by Oleta Haffner. The Edwards composition had a more discernible jazz feel with short solo improvisations emerging from individual members of the orchestra. Chemy, conducted enthusiastically by the composer, had an elegiac feel to it, quite reminiscent in parts of Elgar. Both pieces were beautifully played.

Returning to Focus, this was Nubya Garcia nailing her jazz credentials and her emergence as a true jazz original on the world stage. Following so soon after Ezra Collective’s triumph at the Mercury Prize, London, and in Nubya’s case, Camden, can now increasingly claim to be home to some of the most compelling and exhilarating jazz to be found anywhere in the world.”

DANNY SILVERSTONE

• Danny Silverstone and the Equinox Quintet begin a monthly residency at MAP Studio Cafe at 46 Grafton Road, NW5, on October 1. See: http://mapstudiocafe.com