What do you get when you fuse Charlie Parker and Kate Bush together amidst a post-apocalyptic Spanish grunge-scape? The result is the indefinable persona of Jade Nye, whose compositions infuse be-bop with baroque-pop to create a sound that is oddly familiar yet distinctly cutting-edge. Add a unique flamenco flair and you get explosive performances that thrill as well as intrigue audiences of all walks of life, from misfit toys to rich playboys.

Armed with an alto saxophone and powerhouse vocals, the Melbourne artist explains how there was never a time where she wasn’t making music. Whether writing moody ballads or ramping punk thrashers, Jade’s passion for music continued throughout adolescence into completing a Bachelor of Music (Honours) at the University of Melbourne in 2020. In the same year, Jade composed, recorded and produced her first full-length flamenco-jazz album Oscura, harnessing her multi-instrumental abilities to shift between luscious vocal harmonies to soaring saxophone solos, all throughout Melbourne’s strict COVID-19 lockdown.

Jade’s accolades come in spades, a highlight being her 2019 collaboration in the Resonating Spaces exhibition in Beijing, China. Aside from this, Jade cites having featured on the remotely recorded EP from fellow Melbourne jazz composer Katarzyna Wiktorski From A Distance (2020) as a musically-gratifying moment in an otherwise challenging year.

For now, Jade looks ahead to the release of Oscura in early 2021, along with live performances that will allow her to release the caged performer that has lay dormant throughout 2020. In the meantime, she offers The Oscura Demos as a glimpse into the sonic explorations that shape the upcoming LP.

OSCURA

COMING 2021

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