Grammy award-winning trumpeter Nabaté Isles hails from the Big Apple. Deciding to pursue music seriously since the age of thirteen his dedication to his art has led him to play with artists such as Yasiin Bey (a.k.a. Mos Def), Christian McBride, Kenny Lattimore, Jill Scott, Dianne Reeves, Robert Glasper, The Mingus Big Band and many more as well as recording his debut album Eclectic Excursions, which has gained much success in its own right. With a performance at the white house for former President Barack Obama, five short film scores to his name, and working as the trumpet instructor for Rob Brown for his role as Delmond Lambreaux on the HBO series “Treme,” it’s safe to say he has had a very successful career up to this point.
There is another side to the gifted trumpeter and composer. He is equally passionate about the world of sports and has enjoyed a career as a sports broadcaster that has been just as successful. He hosts a TV show in Manhattan called ‘So Much to Talk About’ and started a podcast this past December called ‘Where They At’. On the podcast, he has featured elite figures such as Chuck D, George Foreman, Warren Moon, Darrelle Revis, Dan O’Brien, Larry Brown, David Robinson, and many others. With such a unique story of balancing these two unseeingly related worlds was too good an opportunity to pass up and we are pleased we had the opportunity to sit down with him to talk about his careers from past to present, and looking toward the future!
You have a very successful double career in music as well as in the sports industry. How did this come about and has there always been an even balance or were (or still are) times where one comes to the forefront? What sports did you play growing up?
I was always into sports and music growing up. If I wasn’t practicing trumpet I was watching a game during my high school years because I didn’t have time to play sports like I did in my elementary and junior high years. I played a lot of baseball, I did karate, and I also did some boxing in 7th and 8th grade… and basketball too, but I wasn’t that great at basketball. When I started to practice when I was 13 years old, I started to be serious about the trumpet. I would just practice and then watch sports if I wasn’t practicing, or I’d go outside to get some fresh air and hang out with friends. But yeah I’ve always loved sports and throughout the years I would always watch sports, and I am a big history person. I’m always into history whether it’s film, music, or sports history. Those are the three historical subjects that I would always be into as well as black history and how it related to jazz, R & B, etc. And black pioneers like black classical composers.
I was always into sports and then I did this game show—I did a few game shows, but I did this one where I was successful called Stump the Schwab and I still keep in touch with Howie Schwab to this day. Years later, I won Sports Jeopardy. So when I won ‘Stump The Schwab’, I just saw throughout that time how there were some people who don’t know their sports but who are talking about it. I call them charlatans, to be honest. So I started to do a TV show public access in 2006 called So much to talk about, and I do that show to this day to keep providing a voice for what I see in sports and to conduct interviews. When I started So much to talk about I started to gain a reputation around the sports media landscape. I met and talked to people, developed good relationships with people from PR, and then I was covering college basketball games, then the Knicks games, then the Giants and the Jets, then Mets, as well as a lot of local events. Then after that I started to work in radio production working with ESPN New York and then NBA radio and I was at both places for a total of 6-7 years. Now I do my podcast Where They At, which takes up some time with preparations for guests, interviewing the guests, then editing.
It was tough to balance the two careers especially when I started to get more immersed in sports media. It was a little time consuming doing both. So with my trumpet even when I got busy I always made sure I had my instrument and would put it to my face to keep my chops in shape, especially when I traveled. If I wasn’t traveling for gigs but rather sports production events and things like that I would always bring my trumpet. I would put a mute in and play in my hotel room or if I had a day off I could really work on some exercises, music, etc. So it’s always been about immersing myself in time management, especially the older I get.
Some people see the sports world as something not on the level of sophistication of music and the arts. The same may hold where people in the sports world see the arts as “cute” or not manly or cool; the high school jock vs. geek mentality if you will! Why do you feel that is and what can both sides do to disperse these notions?
I think when people are younger they have those preconceived notions that band people are nerds and geeks. I think that happens more with those younger as opposed to when athletes become professional and are older. For example, I think there is a correlation as there are many professional athletes that play musical instruments! Take Dan O’ Brien, who I interviewed on the fifteenth episode of my Where they At podcast. Dan played trumpet in the marching band as well as being a track and field and football athlete in high school, so he did both! So I think these stereotypes happen more when people are younger and immature and don’t see the discipline and diligence that is involved on both sides. But professional athletes, that’s all they do! They hang with recording artists and want to be them and vice versa where a lot of recording artists want to be professional athletes and a lot of them do some pro-am competitions as well as pick up games. So that’s pretty much how the vibe is now between musicians/recording artists and professional athletes.
I find there are a lot of parallels between the two worlds in a lot of ways. Can you tell me some of the parallels between the two disciplines?
There are a lot of similarities between the disciplines. As mentioned before it takes a lot of discipline, diligence, REPETITION. To be a great musician you must have repetition and break down things to learn them, especially if you have trouble with a measure or two of a piece you have to repeat the segment over and over. And it’s the same in athletics. If a player has a weakness in a certain part of their game like a basketball player who doesn’t have a good jump shot they have to repeat the act of shooting over and over so they can get better. Another thing is film study. Studying your opponent. In music you don’t really have an opponent, but you do evaluate past musicians and current musicians to see what they do so well that YOU can’t do. Then you try and get better at these particular aspects. With athletes looking at film of your opponents you have to be able to dissect and thoroughly evaluate your opponents’ weaknesses and tendencies so you can attack those components. So there are many similarities between music and sports when it comes to the mindset and physical approach.
What are the positives and negatives of each?
There are positives and negatives to both. The positive for both is that you build an identity for yourself and you have a love for what you do. When you love it, whether it’s music or sports, it’s very fun! It’s very fun, especially if you want to pursue it because it’s a great thing. It builds self-esteem, discipline, and accountability because in music and sports, at the end of the day, they know if you didn’t put the work in. A negative is you’re competing against so many people in music and sports so you have to be willing to outwork, out strategize, you have to know your craft and know the history of your craft more than your competitors, or even your teammates/ fellow musicians. So that’s important to be able to figure out what you need to improve upon and be very gun-ho in learning as much as you can, addressing your weaknesses, augmenting your strengths, and learning who is out there in terms of your peers. See what they do well and implement into what you do. So those are some of the positives and negatives. Everyone is out there wanting to make it so that’s the thing; you’re exposed if you don’t put the work in. So that’s a positive and negative thing. You have to hold yourself accountable.
Your album Eclectic Excursions has amassed quite a bit of success as well as your other performances with legendary bassist Christian McBride, revered rapper Elzhi, Grammy-winning producer Sam Barsh and others. I know we are in the middle of a pandemic, but what are some of your plans for the future, or what were some of your plans pre Covid-19?
Eclectic Excursions was an honor and a privilege to be able to work with so many, so many wonderful musicians and artists that really were able to bring out their own creative identity to help illuminate my music more. I had 25 musicians overall involved in the project, working in various configurations for each of the tracks. Now I am looking to do my second album. I may record it in September but it may be longer due to the Covid-19 pandemic. Things may open up more in September, but I’m just not sure with scientists predicting that there may be a second wave in the fall that could be worse than the one that is currently going on now. So I’m writing music for my second album, which will be different, and it’ll have a lot of voices (artists) that will bring the compositions together. Also sports-wise, I have a couple of projects I’m working on. I am still recording my podcast Where They At and as of May 18th I now have 20 episodes, which I am blessed with because I started the podcast in December 2019 and it’s now May 2020 and I’ve recorded 20 episodes with hall of fame caliber athletes and it’s been great. The one guest who is not an athlete, but who is a major sports fan is the legendary hip-hop artist Chuck D. It was great to talk with him and he is an avid supporter of my first album and my music in general, and I’m just blessed to have him in my corner. But that’s what I’m working on right now, and I’m also doing some teaching throughout the spring via online due to schools being closed as well as giving private lessons virtually, of course.
You have your podcast where you are interviewing some very famous athletes! Tell us about your podcast, what are your goals with it, and who are some other future guests we might be on the lookout for?
The podcast has been a great honor thus far. It’s been a dream come true to be able to talk to these amazing athletes, many of whom I watched growing up and witnessed the zenith of their elite careers when I was younger. So it’s just so amazing that I get to talk with them for over an hour, and a lot of my interviews have been well over an hour and approaching two hours. Then some interviews have a part two where the interviews are over two hours each! But it’s been great and there is a lot that I want to do with it. I want to have more people know about it so I’m building my social media with it, and having people get into it more and promote it, and viewers are downloading and supporting which is great.
Another beautiful thing about this platform is that there are hundreds and thousands of retired athletes so I am open to interviewing any compelling person especially an athlete who is doing wonderful things in their retirement. They may have excelled in a second career and/or are contributing to their community and uplifting people. That’s what’s really big. And I emphasize athletes that are inspiring others not just with what they did on the field, but with what they are doing in retirement. So I’m game to any sport… but I do want to interview a tennis player, a golfer, and a nascar racer! I haven’t had a chance to interview these athletes yet, but we’ll see!
Music and sports are very dear to you. Are you currently marrying the two worlds in your work or are there any plans to do so in the future?
First of all before I answer this final question, I want to thank you Jonathan, Darryl Yokley, and the Occhi Magazine team for featuring me. I’m honored that you guys would like to profile me! In response to the question I’ll tell you this…being involved in both music and sports for nearly fourteen years, I have to say, it’s taken me a long time to figure out how to marry both of them. To figure out what I can do to merge them both. And over the past couple of years I have been developing things to do that and what I do on my podcast is interesting. All the music I use for the soundtrack to my podcast is from my album, Eclectic Excursions so it gives me a chance to let people know who are listening expecting a sports podcast that the host is not just a sports broadcaster but also a professional musician with an album out of music I composed. And also being involved in the music industry as a musician and a composer for over two decades professionally it’s been really something to put my knowledge of both together. So I’m working on projects that build that synergy between the two and as you can see a lot of programming is emphasizing that now, which is good. But I feel very fortunate to be one of the few people that’s hosting sports programming and that has professional production experience in sports, but to also be a professional musician, composer, and producer as well. So I am blessed to be in the best of both worlds and as time goes on those worlds will merge together through my own voice and creativity. Thank you very much.
We want to thank Nabaté for his time and we wish him all the best with both of his careers! Please be sure to visit his website and follow his social media for both his music and his podcast series, and stay tuned as we will hopefully have the privilege of following up with this amazing artist in the near future!
Nabate online links are:
Music website: www.nabateisles.com
Links to Eclectic Excursions:
iTunes/Apple Music: https://itunes.apple.
Spotify: https://open.spotify.
Amazon: https://music.amazon.com/
Links to the podcast:
Spotify Apple Podcasts Google Play HeartRadio
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