Jasmine Myra opened up her world to us at Kantine am Berghain, and we’ve been thinking about it ever since. At one point, she spoke about finding herself again after the pandemic, before playing a piece that brought us right back to coming out of confinement and trying to find our own place in the world again. She put it into better words than we could. And even better notes.
We’d been listening to Myra for a while. The sensitivity of her second record, Rising, caught us when it came out in 2024, and this year’s Where Light Settles took that affection considerably further. At Kantine, “Opening” and “Reflections” welcomed us into that latest record, with “Echo” and “Some Rain Must Fall” following early in the set. We’d come wanting to spend an evening inside this music. She seemed very happy to let us in.
What we hadn’t quite expected was how personally welcome we’d feel.
Kantine am Berghain was packed and attentive, with longtime jazz lovers up front and newer listeners alongside them, everyone seemingly ready to get a little emotional. Myra gave us plenty of opportunities. She shared the stories behind her compositions, read us a lovely poem and kept drawing our attention to the incredible musicians around her. There was such warmth in how she spoke to us. Even when the stories opened a door into her personal life, the music that followed felt as though it had been played with us in mind.
“Fragments,” “Likeness and Shadow” and “In an Instant” carried the later stretch of the set towards “Where Light Settles,” with “Glimmers” also on the setlist. The evening gave us plenty to return to across both records, although we were already quite certain we’d be listening differently the next time around. These pieces now had a person, a room and a few very particular memories attached to them.
And there was plenty to listen to from there. George Hall’s drums were incredibly tight, with Sam Quintana’s double bass holding the rhythm section just as firmly. Alice Roberts’ harp offered these lovely countermelodies, giving Ben Haskins’ guitar an atmosphere to move through, while Rianna Henriques and Joel Stedman’s flutes and Jasper Green’s piano had their own moments to pull us closer. You could happily follow what everyone was doing around each other for a while, although Myra’s saxophone kept bringing us back. There was a reason she kept drawing our attention to this lot.
We can only imagine the work involved in composing all those parts and making them fit together. Thankfully, appreciating it required considerably less expertise. You could hear something, feel it fit into a corner of your own life and stay there for a while. One of the loveliest things about the evening, without a doubt.
Her saxophone had a lot to do with it. Mellow, warm and full of feeling, it had a vocal quality unlike anything we remember hearing from the instrument live. Saying a saxophone “sings” is probably asking for trouble in a jazz review, but honestly, what else are we supposed to call it? In Myra’s hands, it sang. The phrasing felt so personal that following a melody became a little like listening to someone tell you something they’d been meaning to say.
She was sharing her own experience, and somehow there was room for ours too. Bits of the music fitted into things we’d lived through, feelings we recognised but wouldn’t necessarily have known how to explain. We’re still returning to that moment ten days later, which probably tells you more than any attempt to describe her performance would.
For all the scale of her compositions, Myra was wonderfully down to earth. She seemed so aware of the people around her, onstage and off, and so happy to acknowledge what they brought to the evening. Her enthusiasm for the band made us listen more closely and her openness made it easy to let the music get close.
Afterwards, we bought her latest record, got it signed and exchanged a few words with her. It was lovely to find the same warmth we’d just spent the concert getting to know. There’s always something especially nice about discovering that someone whose music you love is also lovely company.
As we stepped outside we immediately sent her music to our friends. There were a few more people we wanted to let in.
All images were taken by Pablo Iriarte with the permission of the artist and venue and are subject to copyright.
For usage rights, please contact photo@piriurdi.es .
