En Motion

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 jazzs 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 Motions 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 Wendels tenor introduce Eckroths and Francies keyboards in a funky strut punctuated by a fretless bass and Gilmores chunky chord vamps; it sounds nothing like it, but swings as hard as Stevie Wonders "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 "Bates 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 Pearsons classic "Cristo Redentor" pays direct homage to Byrd and the Blackbyrds. Faithful to the melody, its shuffling hip-hop drums, Wendels bassoon, Berliners 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 Coreas "La Fiesta" (originally on Return to Forever) adds flamenco guitar and trumpet amid skittering drums and percussion, as Eckroths 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 musics reach. ~ Thom Jurek