Nubya Garcia

It's winter, and I'm in Chania working on Etz Hayyim Synagogue's local Training for the Contact Zone training programme. Although it's much better than being in Berlin at this time of year, I'm still affected by the change of seasons — I'm spending more time at home, curled up with a book or doing some crocheting. This also means that I leave the house less in the evenings and crave more indoor time.

During this time of year, I usually don't get much opportunities to listen to live music as much. Instead, I listen to albums and recordings, but probably my favourite thing is watching whole concerts that are available online, such as Tiny Desk Concerts or Live on KEXP.

An artist that has been pulling me out of the winter slump, and that I have also had the privilege to watch live, is the incredibly talented Nubya Garcia.

She is a heart-opening, mind-blowing saxophonist who manages to touch my soul, a brilliant composer, and a great performer.

Her music is somewhat at the intersection of jazz, R&B, 'classical' music, and lots of creativity, emotion, and feeling.

This month, I watched several of her concerts featured online: Her live performance on KEXP, the recent Tiny Desk concert she gave at the NPR studios in Washington D.C., and a Tiny Desk concert she gave from "home" 5 years ago during the pandemic. All are brilliant performances that do not fall short of her live performance I saw in Berlin in 2021. And what a great opportunity to engage with music in this way, when the live alternative is not accessible.

That being said, I really recommend exploring her music, and if you have the time to only watch one concert, I'd probably watch the recent Tiny Desk concert from 2025, featuring music from her new album Odyssey.