Nabate Isles is a Grammy-winning trumpeter, composer, and producer from New York City. A well-traveled session and live musician, he has registered credits with
Yasin Bey,
Christian McBride,
Robert Glasper,
Dianne Reeves, and
Matthew Shipp, to name a scant few.
Eclectic Excursions, his 2018 leader debut, joined straight-ahead and contemporary jazz -- vocal and instrumental -- to pop and soul.
En Motion, issued by
Ropeadope, is more ambitious. Here,
Isles looks back to jazz's origins as dance music before bebop and reinterprets it for the present day, deriving inspiration from 20th century influences including the electric, funky
Donald Byrd,
Roy Ayers,
Tom Browne, and
the Roots.
En Motion's 21st century approach to jazz-funk includes R&B, indie pop, and hip-hop in its DNA, and attempts to create fresh musical architectures for dancing.
Isles' band includes keyboardist/producer
Sam Barsh, pianist/keyboardist
Rachel Eckroth, drummer/percussionist
Eric Harland, bassist
Kaveh Rastegar, vocalist/lyricist
Badia Farha, and guitarist
David Gilmore. Further,
Isles' star-studded guest list includes
James Francies,
Ben Wendel,
Sasha Berliner, and
Chuck D, among others.
Opener "The Jump Off" offers a four-on-the-floor kick drum intro before
Isles' trumpet and
Wendel's tenor introduce
Eckroth's and
Francies' keyboards in a funky strut punctuated by a fretless bass and
Gilmore's chunky chord vamps; it sounds nothing like it, but swings as hard as
Stevie Wonder's "Sir Duke." Single "Black Girl Magic" features singers
Farha,
Mumu Fresh, and
Nikki Grier seamlessly wedding neo-soul to polished hip-hop, jazz syncopation, and feminist polemics. Second single "Harlem Shake" offers a Rhodes piano and drop bass before
Isles offers the knotty, boppish head atop a funky backbeat and fingerpopping piano vamps. The killer "Bate's Letter" -- featuring emcee
Chuck D -- melds contemporary jazz, EDM, and syncopated hip-hop complete with steel drums, turntablism, and tablas. "Reality" is another take on jazz/rap fusion. Here,
Isles' trumpet winds around layers of rippling, percussion and spectral electronics.
Kardinal Offishal rhymes and sings dancehall style before
Isles delivers a satisfying solo. The wonderful version of
Duke Pearson's classic "Cristo Redentor" pays direct homage to
Byrd and
the Blackbyrds. Faithful to the melody, its shuffling hip-hop drums,
Wendel's bassoon,
Berliner's labyrinthine vibraphone, and a string quartet add harmonic, textural, and rhythmic complexity. In another example of taste,
Isles and company cover "The Smoke" by English indie rockers
the Smile; while the original is a trippy, beat-laden psych ballad, this one revels in spidery funk with a bumping, upmixed bassline, martial snares, pan steel drums, and spooky strings and keyboards framing
Isles' horn as it carries the melody.
Chick Corea's "La Fiesta" (originally on
Return to Forever) adds flamenco guitar and trumpet amid skittering drums and percussion, as
Eckroth's glorious synth lines provide an expanded textural dimension while remaining completely faithful to the spirit of the tune. In sum,
En Motion showcases an innovative North American nu-jazz approach. While
Isles continues to honor and celebrate his inspirations, he pays them homage by using their innovations to go deeper and wider, expanding the music's reach. ~ Thom Jurek
