Nubya Garcia

Jazz saxophonist and band leader Nubya Garcia is the latest guest at Peel Acres, helping Tom Ravenscroft make sense of his dad’s eclectic music collection - tens of thousands of albums, singles and related paraphernalia.

Presenter: Tom Ravenscroft
Producer: Kevin Core

Track 1: Shake Up - Augutus Pablo (from Augustus Pablo Presents… Ital Dub)
Nubya is drawn to her first pick because of the “beautiful green fern” on the cover (although Tom suggests it’s actually likely something a little more… herbal). The Jamaican roots reggae and dub artist and producer was known for popularising the melodica. The album was mixed by King Tubby; a hugely influential sound engineer who played the mixing desk like an instrument and was key to the development of dub in the late 60s.

Track 2: Cross Breeding - Ornette Coleman (from Ornette on Tenor)
Nubya’s love of jazz comes from being exposed to her mum’s record collection as a kid. She’s excited to find an album by one of her all time favourites, Ornette Coleman - on which he’s playing tenor saxophone rather than his usual alto. Coleman was a principal founder of free jazz - an experimental improvised genre, which takes its name from his 1961 album.

Track 3: Ntombi Mgiyakuthanda - Uthawolfu Amentkentshane (from Soweto Street Music: The Definitive Collection)
Next Nubya pulled out a 1984 compilation of artists originating from Soweto - a township in Johannesburg, South Africa which has strong ties to a number of different music genres. Among them is mbawanga, which heavily influenced Paul Simon’s hugely successful 1986 album Graceland.

Track 4: Thirty Two Twenty - Dr Ross (from Detroit Blues: The Early 1950s)
From one compilation to the next, hailing from another location with a rich musical heritage - Detroit, Michigan - a US city Nubya would love to visit. Her selected track is by Doctor Ross, who usually performed as a one man band; simultaneously singing and playing guitar, harmonica and drums. And, as if that wasn’t enough to think about, he was left-handed but played a right-handed guitar, upside down. Nubya learnt to “feel her way round” music by improvising over blues tracks.

Track 5: Right Choice - African Stone
Next Nubya pulls out a 7” single by Dennis Bovell, a producer and musician she’s long admired. A member of the British reggae band Matumbi, Dennis is also well known for his long term collaboration with dub poet Linton Kwesi Johnson. He was awarded a MBE in the 2021 Queen’s Birthday Honours for services to music.

Track 6: Danse Dans Mo Les Bras - Alain Permal and Mauritius Police Band
The Mauritius Police Band, are exactly that; a specialist music unit within the island nation’s police force. “Danse Dans Mo Les Bras” translates from French into English as “Dance in My Arms”. The 1960 single was recorded with Alain Permal, a singer specialising in Séga - one of the country’s major music genres, originating among its former slave populations.

Track 7: Cherry Baby - Al Campbell
Nubya was beyond thrilled to rediscover this 1983 single by Al Campbell, which she heard on a tour bus seven years ago, and has been searching record stores for ever since. The Jamaican reggae singer was part of the first generation of dancehall artists whose vocals have been gracing records since the late 60s when his group Thrillers, tried out at Studio One. Which leads us nicely to the final track…

Track 8: Better Dub (from Better Dub From Studio 1)
Final track and another compilation album pick from Nubya. Studio One was one of Jamaica’s most renowned record labels and recording studios. Founded by Clement Dodd, “the Motown of Jamaica” helped shape and grow the island’s reggae, dub, ska, rocksteady, and dancehall movements in the 60s and 70s - launching the career of many artists, including a young Bob Marley (and previous pick, Al Campbell).