Jan 19, 2024 4:30 pm

Nabaté Isles is a Grammy-winning trumpeter as well as a composer and producer, born and raised in New York City. Nabaté’s second album called, En Motion, was released on Ropeadope Records on January 27, 2023. The album features the core lineup of Sam Barsh (also the album’s producer), Eric Harland, Kaveh Rastegar, David Gilmore and Rachel Eckroth & guests include James Francies, Ben Wendel, Victor Provost, Sasha Berliner and Badia Farha. Added featured performers on the album are Mumu Fresh, Kardinal Offishall and Chuck D.

Nabaté released his debut album called, ‘Eclectic Excursions’ in the Summer of 2018. The independent album was in the Top-50 in the JazzWeek charts for 6 weeks and is receiving critical acclaim. The album features a plethora of great musicians like Elzhi, Sam Barsh (who produced the album as well), Christian McBride, Nate Smith, Ben Williams, Johnathan Blake, Brad Jones, David Gilmore and others.

Until this point, he’s had a glorious journey. During his high school years, Nabaté represented the fifth generation of jazz for the preview of the Louis Armstrong Archives, with trumpet greats Dr. Donald Byrd, “Doc” Cheatham, “Dizzy” Gillespie, Jimmy Owens, Jon Faddis and Wynton Marsalis. Nabaté also appeared in a Coca-Cola commercial, directed by John Singleton and produced by Roy Eaton. While attending Eastman, Nabaté was a featured soloist with the Rochester Pops Orchestra. Nabaté also participated in the Thelonious Monk Institute of Jazz summer program at Aspen Snowmass and its Jazz Gala at the Kennedy Center. He went on to receive his BM from the Eastman School of Music and his MA from New York University.

Nabaté has performed, toured and/or recorded with unique artists Yasiin Bey (aka Mos Def), Christian McBride, Chuck D, Kenny Lattimore, Philip Bailey, Fantasia, Jeffrey Osborne, Jill Scott, Leslie Odom, Jr., Robert Glasper, Dianne Reeves, José James, Savion Glover, Gregory Porter, Freda Payne, Shareefa, Oliver Lake, Steve Coleman, Ravi Coltrane, Steve Wilson, Joey DeFrancesco, Muhal Richard Abrams, Matthew Shipp, Charli Persip, Mike Longo, Uri Caine, Buster Williams, Grady Tate, Jay Hoggard, Holt McCallany, the Mingus Big Band, and the José Limon Dance Company. He composed a solo double bass composition called ‘Lessons’, which was premiered by world-renowned double bassist James VanDemark at Louisiana State University. Nabaté also received two commissions from the Festival of New Trumpet Music to compose and premiere new compositions entitled, ‘We Need Unity in the Community’ and ‘Same Strife, Different Life’.

Nabaté provided private trumpet instruction to the actor Rob Brown for his role as trumpeter Delmond Lambreaux on the HBO series, ‘Treme’. Nabaté was part of three Christian McBride Big Band’s Grammy-winning albums, ‘The Good Feeling’, ‘Bringin’ It’ and ‘For Jimmy, Wes & Oliver’ as well as the band’s performance at the White House for the last concert under President Barack Obama’s administration. He has composed five music scores for short films as well as contributing original music to Amos Poe’s innovative film, ‘Empire II’. He recently completed a score for his first feature called, ‘The Rhythm in Blue’. He recently co-released a record dedicated to the late, great thespian and humanitarian, Chadwick Boseman called, ‘Super Hero: Ode to Chadwick Boseman’ with Niles, featuring Beth Griffith-Manley.

Nabaté Isles’ broadcasting and production career is just as vast as his music career. He has covered a plethora of sporting events involving the NFL, NBA, MLB, NCAA Basketball, and world boxing championship prizefights. Nabaté co-hosted a SiriusXM boxing show, Going The Distance with the well-respected Teddy Atlas and Wally Matthews. He was featured and consulted with the ESPN 30-for-30 documentary short, ’86-32′. Also, he was an accomplished producer for SiriusXM NBA Radio.

As a sports trivia expert, he is the only person to Stump The Schwab on ESPN (Season 2) and be crowned a Sports Jeopardy champion (Season 1, Episode #8), on Crackle.com.  Now, he created and hosts his own podcast, ‘Whe’re They At’, which profiles prominent retired athletes (https://linktr.ee/Whe_reTheyAt). The show has featured numerous Hall of Famers and luminaries like Chuck D, Dr. John Carlos, Chris Evert, Darrelle Revis, Warren Moon, David Robinson, Marshall Faulk, Tom Glavine, Larry Brown, Branford Marsalis, Taylor Hackford, to name a few.

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