Quebec's
Mehdi Nabti is an accomplished composer, alto saxophonist, flutist, bandleader, and author. Of Algerian descent, he was born and raised in Paris. He creates improvised polymodal and polyrhythmic music as part of what he calls the "Afro-Berber continuum" that crisscrosses jazz, North African folk and dance traditions, funk, fusion, and the avant-garde.
Grooves à Mystères is his eighth album since 2012. While he's been mining this particular vein of exploration in a variety of bands from the beginning, his previous musical discoveries, re-combinations, strategies, and juxtapositions commingle here in a recording that aesthetically complements the explorations of players such as
Yusef Lateef,
Nicky Skopelitis, and more recently,
Shabaka Hutchings and
Sarathy Korwar.
Nabti's band
Prototype also includes electric bassist
Nicolas Lafortune, drummer/percussionist
Bertil Schulrabe, and electric guitarist
Joy Anandasivam (who also leads the Carnatic Jazz Trio).