There are many fine jazz records coming out of London currently. Source, with its adventurous, kinetic, and sophisticated approach in wedding modern composition, improvisation, and production to rhythmic and harmonic traditions, is one of the very best.

Saxophonist Nubya Garcia has taken the London jazz scene by storm in the last few years. She has a gift for self-expression and for channeling raw energy in her playing. Her debut album, which follows two Eps and albums with Maisha and the septet Nérija, is a sonic self-portrait that reflects her Afro-Carribean heritage and her expanding musical horizons.

It ultimately makes for a tantalizing listen, but one that would be enhanced by the bandleader’s confidence to fully cut loose and elevate her ensemble along the way. Therein lies the key to pushing this now well-established London scene further into a truly individual moment of unfiltered and radical expression. Until then, Source is simply a satisfying debut.

Her high praise from scene heavyweights like Shabaka Hutchings and Theon Cross is well-deserved; she’s a great player with a voice of her own, and while she definitely shows traces of the scene she came up in, there’s always more to Garcia’s music.

On her stunning debut, the tenor saxophonist and rising member of the London jazz scene meditates on her humble family heritage, the continuum of jazz history, and the power of collective action in our present moment.