Nubya Garcia, Maisha and Triforce surf new wave of UK jazz at We Out Here album launch: Video

Like all the best creative scenes, London’s emergent and youthful jazz-based soundscape is characterised by tight relations between those that perform within it. Drummer Femi Koleoso keeps it grounded: “It’s just my friends doing well,” he says, in a documentary created for the We Out Here album launch at Total Refreshment Centre.

jazzwisemagazine.com This latest Brownswood Recordings cut features an array of London-based musicians with a rich musical rapport, developed through years of learning the ropes and growing together. If it does sometimes feel like an extended group of talented friends, it also feels like a dynamic music scene with its own enthralling sound: spiritual jazz mixed with the best of UK club culture, given a broken or Afro-beat twist and performed with infectious energy.

On the second night of the launch run, the crowd were served up a treat by groups Maisha and TriForce, as well as tenor saxophonist Nubya Garcia, introduced by the MC as the “empress” (not queen) of the scene. If you’re not moving to Maisha’s music, you may want to check your pulse. They specialise in frantic, contagiously joyful percussion, but also offer a shimmering spiritual jazz embrace. They’re tightly rehearsed as anything, (a theme of the night), regularly pausing on a dime and in sync.

TriForce (guitarist Mansur Brown above) mix a Thundercat feel with Hendrixian pyrotechnics and London street sensibilities: fresh-sounding and, at times, jaw-dropping. Nubya Garcia, a member of Maisha, followed TriForce with her own band to soar through a selection of tracks from her 2017 debut EP, Nubya’s 5ive. An extended lead-in to the instantly recognisable ‘Lost Kingdoms’ proved one of the highlights of the night. What did we do to deserve all this? If you’re London-based with an ear for discovery, the energy and sounds that these collectives are producing in a live setting and on record demand your immediate attention. They’re out there, catch them as soon as you can.

– James Rybacki // @james_rybacki