With this fourth album, Nubiyan Twist perhaps want to offer their definitive answer to the question “what would a big band sound like in the 2120s”? The answer lies first and foremost in the ability to make one of the peculiarities of jazz one's own, namely the ability to embrace new sound proposals and include them in one's own expressive liveliness: hence the mix of jazz, soul, hip-hop, grime, funk, afrobeat, electronics etc. with whom the group works on their songs.
But this is not enough, and then we must remember that Nubiyan Twist is a band of nine musicians, led by guitarist and producer Tom Excell and by singer Aziza Jaye, the latest member of the band, and with a lineup which includes wind instruments (Jonny Enser, trumpet; Nick Richards, alto sax; Denis Scully, tenor sax; Hannah Mae, baritone sax), keyboards (Lewis Moody), bass (Luke Wynter), drums (Finn Booth), voices and percussion, the possibility to wander are assured.
Tom Excell describes the new work as “a snapshot of our collective influences and journeys during the time it was made” and “a catharsis for our struggles, a vessel for our joys.” To anticipate it, there was the single “So Mi Stay”, released at the end of 2023, which presents the entry of the new singer: it is a cheerful and danceable piece, in which the energy of hip-hop and r'n'b sublimate a cheerful and singable refrain, while the rhythm becomes pressing and the horns liven up the scene.
The album instead opens with “Battle Isn't Over”, one of the most reflective pieces of the lot: it is a sort of introduction-declaration of intent, on not giving in to defeats and difficulties. Combined with the presentation of Excell, it seems to introduce us to an album that from the experiences and efforts of each person marks a moment of reflection and rebirth, with which to “find one's flame” and start again. As the next track seems to indicate, “Lights Out”, with its fading beginning of bass and drums which together with the horns takes shape and places us on a 70's dance floor, in a sort of modern reinterpretation of the disco music. It is one of the most important pieces, thanks to the prestigious collaboration with Nile Rodgers, who cuts the chords with his guitar and contributes to the creation of one of the most danceable and enjoyable songs on the album. The following song is also a collaboration, with Mia Moran, less danceable and with ample space for the virtuosity of the solo instruments.
“Woman” has a powerful chorus, halfway between a cabaret show and a Thirties big band, with the voice and the horns responding and reinforcing each other; in this song Aziza Jaye is called upon to show all her versatility as a singer, alternating the rap registers in the verse and the grit of the chorus.
In the following “You Don't Know Me” corta.alto, the multi-musician from Glasgow who in 2023 thanks to “Bad With Names” made himself quite noticed, enters the recording studio, reinvigorating the contribution of the brass and the wall of sound within which the voice ends up blending. “Carry Me” sees the presence of another important guest: Seun Kuti, with whom Nubiyan model one of the most Afro pieces of the album: the drums have the task of laying a rich and lively base, on which the wind instruments model choral parts and soloists.
“Pray For Me” is divided into two parts, two genres, two collaborations; in the first, we have the South American rhythms and the microphone of NEONE the wonderer; in the second, we are back in the Afrobeat zone, and we have KOG, the band's long-time Ghanaian collaborator, always on vocals.
Aziza Jaye's uvula returns to the center in “Reach My Soul”, a sort of urban ballad in which on the lilting rhythm of drums and winds, her singing is almost accompanied by the phrasing of the electric bass. There title track“Find Your Flame” is the penultimate song; it is a difficult piece, extremely tense, which struggles to resolve, in which the bass line seems to contrast with the obsessive progress of all the other instruments, including the voice.
The album ends with “Slow Breath”, which is also the last collaboration in the lineup, with singer Mamani Keïta, former backing vocalist of Salif Keïta. It is a tribute to traditional Malaysian music, revisited by the sounds that Nubiyan have given ample display on the album.
“Find Your Flame”, despite its rhythms and its grooveits solos and its vocal parts, is not an immediate and easy record; the battles and joys, difficulties and tensions that Excell referred to in presenting it are all there, translated into a complex, but not intellectualistic, musical language. It is an album that therefore becomes appreciated as more listens are added, allowing us to grasp its depth, musical richness and the scope of the various collaborators who took part in it.
10/19/2024
Antonio Santini for SANREMO.FM
