Nabaté 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 a wide variety of talent from Yasiin Bey, Christian McBride, and Robert Glasper to Dianne Reeves, Ravi Coltrane, and Matthew Shipp, to name a few. He issued Eclectic Excursions, his debut leader date for Universal, in 2018. He followed it with the star-studded En Motion in 2023 on Ropeadope. In addition to his musical career, Isles is a sports broadcaster and producer, and hosts the podcast Where They At.

Isles was born and raised in New York City. He began his trumpet studies in elementary school, playing in the school orchestra and band. While in high school, he played the 25th anniversary concert of the Louis Armstrong Archives in 1991. He represented jazz's fifth generation, playing alongside Doc Cheatham, Dizzy Gillespie, Donald Byrd, Jimmy Owens, Jon Faddis, and Wynton Marsalis. While attending Rochester, New York's Eastman School of Music, Isles was a featured soloist with the Rochester Pops Orchestra. He 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 bachelor of music from Eastman and his masters from New York University.

Isles quickly established himself after leaving school. He began working on commercials and playing live with dozens of musicians in genres ranging from jazz and R&B to hip-hop, funk, and even rock. He made his recording debut with saxophonist/composer Steve Coleman on 1997's Genesis The Opening of the Way. In 2000 and 2001, he played with pianist Mike Longo and the New York State of the Art Jazz Ensemble, recording the 2001 album Aftermath. In 2002, he played with the all-star septet the Cats (Jay Hoggard, Randy Brecker, Grady Tate, Uri Caine, Buster Williams, and Joe Ford) on Philly Sound: Much Respect?, a tribute set of compositions by Philadelphia jazzmen.

In 2009, Isles gave trumpet lessons to actor Rob Brown, who played Delmond Lambreaux in HBO's Treme series. Isles began his formal association with the Christian McBride Big Band on 2011's The Good Feeling. That same year, he played on Year of the Tiger by Fred Ho the Green Monster Big Band. Two years later, Isles joined the Oliver Lake Big Band to record and tour the album Wheels. 2017 saw his return to McBride's big band for Bringin' It.

In June 2018, Isles issued his leader debut Eclectic Excursions on Universal. His all-star lineup included McBride, Johnathan Blake, Brad Jones, and David Gilmore, among others. Well-received critically and commercially, the album spent six weeks in the upper half of the jazz albums charts. In 2019, Isles guested on Austin, Texas-based jazz pianist/composer Christine Smith's acclaimed Meet Me on the Far Side of a Star. In 2020 he returned to recording and touring with McBride for the big band's For Jimmy, Wes and Oliver. The following year, Isles worked alongside Chuck D on The Amazing Willie Mays EP.

In December 2022, Isles released the funky "Harlem Shuffle" as an advance single, and followed it with "Black Girl Magic" in January 2023. Both songs appeared on his second album, En Motion, from Ropeadope in late January. Referencing jazz's origins as dance music, he sought to restore that element to the genre's forefront. Blending 21st century sounds in jazz, funk, R&B, and hip-hop, with improvisation, he looked derived inspiration from 20th influences such as Donald Byrd -- with and without the Blackbyrds -- Quincy Jones, Roy Ayers, Tom Browne, and the Roots. Isles enlisted a core band that included keyboardist/producer Sam Barsh, pianist Rachel Eckroth, drummer/percussionist Eric Harland, bassist Kaveh Rastegar, and guitarist David Gilmore. Among the star-studded guest list were musicians James Francies, Ben Wendel, Sasha Berliner, and Chuck D. ~ Thom Jurek, Rovi