Find Your Flame

ナイル・ロジャースとシェウン・クティ参加!
9人編成のジャズコレクティヴ、ヌビヤン・ツイスト
3年ぶりの最新作『ファインド・ユア・フレイム』リリース!

イギリス、リーズのカレッジオブミュージックで結成され、ロンドンを拠点に活動するギタリスト兼プロデューサーのトム・エクセルを中心とした9人編成のジャズコレクティヴ、Nubiyan Twist(ヌビヤン・ツイスト)。前作『Freedom Fables』から3年ぶりの最新作が遂にリリース!今回も豪華ゲスト勢揃いでディスコにおいて右に出るものはいないナイル・ロジャース参加の「Lights Out」とアフロビートの創始者として有名なフェラ・クティの息子シェウン・クティ参加の「Carry Me」の2曲は必聴とグローバルなグルーヴ、ソウル、ジャズを織り交ぜた購入必須のアルバム!

Since forming at Leeds College of Music in 2011, Nubiyan Twist has expanded and refined their musical palette without succumbing to excess. They weave depth, sophistication, emotional heft -- political, spiritual, and personal -- discipline, and resonant emotion to create nearly limitless creative possibility in a savvy stylistic juxtaposition of neo-soul, funk, jazz, hip-hop, Afrobeat, reggae, and EDM. Find Your Flame is the bands fourth album. Fans got a luscious first taste with 2023s "So Mi Stay." This break-laden, horn-drenched exercise in uptempo contemporary jazz-hop is as poignant as it is elegant in guitarist/composer Tom Excells arrangement. Opener "Battle Isnt Over" is a lithe jazz-funk tune with new frontwoman Aziza Jaye holding the instrumentalists in check with her warm, powerful vocal riding brass, reeds, bass, keys, and drums. "Lights Out" features the instantly recognizable, chunky hyper-strum of Nile Rodgers guitar leading a slick horn section vamp that recalls Boz Scaggs "Dirty Lowdown." Denis Scully delivers a glorious tenor sax solo as Jayes voice rides high before a chanted disco chorus. Jazz singer Ria Moran delivers the futurist jazzy soul of dance tune "All the Same." Drummer Finn Booth, bassist Luke Wynter, and keyboardist Lewis Moody bathe Morans sensual, jazzy neo-soul in warmth. The keyboard solo hovers above rippling breaks as the entire horn section answers. Jaye is the queen of authority and wisdom on the swaggering "Woman," an exercise in anthemic, funky jazz feminism that recalls the influence of Herbie Hancocks Feets Dont Fail Me Now and Monster, but its warmer, less polished, adding to the tunes uplifting spirit. Glaswegian jazz wunderkind Corto.Alto guests on "You Dont Know Me," a rhythm collision of brass, breaks, and club jazz with transcendent lead vocals from Jaye. Seun Kuti, youngest son of Afrobeat progenitor Fela Kuti, guests on "Carry Me." An organ pulses with a two-chord vamp as Jaye and a backing chorus assert Kuti as a duet partner, seamlessly melding future soul with Afrobeat and spiky post-bop. Kuti delivers a scorching alto sax solo. The two-part "Pray for Me" features rapper NeONE the Wonderer on the jazz-hop first part, and K.O.G. on the dubwise funky highlife on the second. "Reach My Soul" is arguably the finest track on the set thanks to Jayes performance. As Excell creates a gorgeous guitar shimmer, buoying the vocal with subtlety and taste, Wynters bassline weaves snake-like around singer and guitarist, and Booth rides a sultry groove on his hi hat. While the title track offers dynamic jazz-funk fusion, closer "Slow Breath" is delivered by guest and Malian vocal icon Mamani Keita, using her reedy instrument to underscore the melodic, African-style jazz. Find Your Flame is the Nubiyan Twist album where what theyve done before, and this sophisticated new direction comes together with remarkable consistency and explosive creativity. Its the album that reveals, 14 years on, that Nubiyan Twist is no longer a good band; theyre a great one. ~ Thom Jurek

『Blue Note Re:Imagined II』にも参加していた注目のUKジャズ・コレクティヴによる3作目。ナイル・ロジャースの軽快なギターをフィーチャーした"Lights Out"をはじめ、かつてのUKソウルやアシッド・ジャズに通じる爽快でメロディアスなサウンドが持ち味。シェウン・クティを迎えた"Carry Me"などの小気味良いアフロビートも多数で、踊れる現代ジャズとして抜群だ。
bounce (C)池谷瑛子