The London saxophonist Nubya Garcia is heading to Bray this May Bank Holiday weekend.
Garcia is at the vanguard of a new generation of jazz artists in the UK. The jazz musician, saxophonist, composer and bandleader is also a Mercury Prize nominee, and is on her second album Odyssey, released last year.
Alongside contemporaries such as Sons of Kemit and last year’s Mercury Award winners Ezra Collective, Nubya Garcia is one of an array of graduates of the London artist development organisation ‘Tomorrow’s Warriors’.
Nubya Garcia will headline this year’s Bray International Jazz Festival on the May Bank Holiday weekend on Friday May 2nd.
Who is playing Bray Jazz Festival this year?
The 2025 festival bill will also feature New York pianist and multi-Grammy Award nominee Vijay Iyer, Finnish trumpeter Vernari Pohjola, South African pianist Nduduzo Makhathini, young Belgian trombonist Nabou Claerhout, rising French bass star Amy Gadiaga.
This year’s festival will also feature performances by Japanese koto player Mieko Miyazaki, by Scottish avant-trad improvisers Norman Wilmore and Corrie Dick, by Grammy winning pianist Francesco Turrisi, and by some of the very best known players in Irish jazz, including Christine Tobin, Ronan Guilfoyle, Max Zaska and Belfast’s Katharine Timoney.
Nightly double-bills and day-time matinees will take place at Mermaid Arts Centre across the weekend, while concerts will also be held at Whale Theatre in Greystones, Bray Town Hall, Bray’s iconic Harbour Bar, and at other bars and hotels around the north Wicklow town.
The festival takes place on the May Bank Holiday weekend – May 2nd, 3rd and 4th 2025. Tickets for events on sale from the festival website this week at brayjazz.com.
Niall Byrne is the founder of the most-influential Irish music site Nialler9, where he has been writing about music since 2005. He is the co-host of the Nialler9 Podcast and has written for the Irish Times, Irish Independent, Sunday Times, Totally Dublin, Cara Magazine, Red Bull and more. Niall is a DJ, co-founder of Lumo Club, event curator, Indie Sleaze club promoter, and producer of gigs and monthly listening parties & events in Dublin.
