ロンドン・ジャズシーンを代表するサックス奏者/コンポーザー、ヌバイア・ガルシアの4年ぶり、待望のセカンド・アルバム。

『Odyssey』は、タイトルが示す通り、野心的で壮大な旅路のようなアルバムです。男性優位の音楽シーンの中で、ヌバイアは確固たる地位を築き、エスペランサ、リッチー・セイヴライト、ジョージア・アン・マルドロウといった才能豊かな黒人女性ミュージシャンをこの冒険のために招いている。 前作『Source』に引き続きアルバムのプロデューサーにはKwesを起用。
このプロジェクトの包括的なテーマについて、ヌバイアは次のように語っている。「自分自身の道を真に歩むこと、そして、こうあるべきだ、あああるべきだという外部の雑音をすべて捨て去ろうとすることを表現しています。 それはまた、常に変化し続ける人生の冒険、生きることの紆余曲折にインスパイアされたものでもあります」とコメント。
音楽的には、ヌバイアが初めてストリングスのオーケストレーションを手がけ、作曲の魅力に惚れ直し、膨大な数のオーケストラ・サウンドを丹念に研究したという。ジャズ、クラシック、R&B、ダブを横断する彼女の幅広いサウンドスケープが、今作ではより大きく、より大胆になった注目作品。

発売・販売元 提供資料 （2024/07/04）

When English saxophonist, composer, and bandleader Nubya Garcia released the wonderful Source in 2020, it was embraced by club and concertgoers, jazz fans and critics internationally. It was nominated for a Mercury Prize, and made no compromises in its bracing, modern approach to jazz, wedding it to Latin, Caribbean, and African sources. She followed it with Source: We Move, a collection of remixes in 2021, and a plethora of singles after that. Odyssey, her sophomore long-player, was co-produced with Kwes. Her longstanding quartet featuring pianist Joe Armon-Jones, drummer Sam Jones, and bassist Daniel Casimir, remains. Opener "Dawn" sounds like its title. Amid multivalently layered strings, piano, and Jones rumbling, upright bass, guest Esperanza Spalding lends her inimitable vocal to the cut. It unfolds slowly and serenely with the saxophonist duetting vocally with Spalding as Armon-Jones drives the drummer to increase the tempo as his keys expand the harmony. The title cut is a gorgeous post-bop tune that freely engages modalism; it loosely recalls the early Blue Note compositional traits of Joe Henderson and Wayne Shorter. The seamless interplay between Garcia and Armon-Jones registers poignancy and tension as the rhythm section provides ballast for their solos. Trombonist/vocalist Richie Seivright joins the band on "Set It Free." Casimirs rimshotted breakbeats provide the engine for mysterious Rhodes investigations and a weave of horns, reeds, winds, and reverb under Seivrights scatty vocal. Its followed by "The Seer," an intense post-bop jam with triple-timed junglist drumming, thrumming modal bassline, and Garcias loping, incantatory solo in the horns low register; Armon-Jones adds fat modal chords as her referent. Georgia Anne Muldrow adds her voice to "We Walk in Gold," a cinematic soul cut. Hand drums, skeletal piano, and Muldrow carry the intro and first two verses before Garcias saxophone asserts with Ethio-jazz inspired motifs. Contrast this with "Waters Path," a lovely classical-crossover composition for chamber strings. Garcia and Armon-Jones engage the strings directly on the impressionistic ballad "Clarity." Closer "Triumphance" exists at the intersection of dub reggae, poetry, and modal jazz with loping circular rhythms. Garcias and Kwes sonic weave grabs onto Joness guiding beats and underscores them with layered saxes, processional piano, and Casimirs deep dread bassline. Garcia adds chorus vocals to the backdrop. Odyssey isnt a next step for the artist, but a giant leap into unbridled inspiration, focus, and creativity. Like Source before it, this arrives at a captivating juncture in Great Britains wildly diverse jazz scene, and will no doubt influence it. ~ Thom Jurek

Rovi