Christian McBride's New Jawn - Prime

March 7, 2023

Label: Mack Avenue Records, 2023

Personnel - Josh Evans: trumpet; Marcus Strickland: bass clarinet, tenor saxophone; Christian McBride: bass; Nasheet Waits: drums.

Hitting us with the force of a tornado right from the start, Prime, the second chapter of bassist/composer Christian McBride with his post-bop-meets-avant-jazz outfit New Jawn, relies on top-notch musicianship, uncommon technique, and refined taste to succeed. The quartet performs a rich repertoire consisting of two McBride original compositions, one each by his bandmates: trumpeter Josh Evans, saxophonist/bass clarinetist Marcus Strickland and drummer Nasheet Waits, and three refreshing covers with a lot to be savored.

The two opening numbers - McBride’s “Head Bedlam” and Strickland’s “Prime” - are particularly stirring. The group makes a cacophonous entrance in the former, prior to providing guidance and aligning structure through the bassist’s funky groove. In the latter piece, their proposition consists of angularity and ambiguity, rounded out with interesting-to-follow solos and smart accents that pulsate without totally breaking the swinging motion.

Evans’ “Dolphy Dust” is agreeably disconcerting in its swinging allurement and flows with plenty of Dolphy-esque sharp edges. Carrying less exuberance and prone to reflection, Waits’ “Moonchild” kicks off with sharply intoned bass clarinet over articulated bass lines. Equally in this spirit but pouring different emotions, McBride’s “Lurkers” contemplates arco bass and tom-tom fantasies, whose mournful tones can reach spiritual freedom at times.

The covers were chosen wisely and the stupendous energy that characterizes this quartet is brought to the fore, firstly on Larry Young’s mercurial “Obsequious”, a post-bop workout delivered with a free posture and surprising transitions. Evans blows his horn with gleeful enjoyment and geometrical precision; he is followed by Strickland, who is less impetuous but more inquisitive and mysterious. The proceedings end up in a bouncing funk that you can dance to. Moreover, you can do the same during the jubilant Latin tinge of Ornette Coleman’s “The Good Life”.

The session is concluded with Sonny Rollins’ “East Broadway Rundown”, whose initial bass pedal goes beyond the theme statement, and where a bass monologue precedes an audacious drum solo. What McBride’s high-caliber quartet captures here is well worth listening to.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Head Bedlam ► 02 - Prime ► 04 - Obsequious

Christian McBride - The Movement Revisited

March 12, 2020

Label: Mack Avenue, 2020

Personnel Big Band - Christian McBride: bass; Steve Wilson: alto sax, flute; Todd Bashore: alto sax ; Ron Blake: tenor and soprano saxes; Loren Schoenberg: tenor sax ; Carl Maraghi: baritone sax; Michael Dease: trombone; Steve Davis: trombone; James Burton: trombone; Doug Purviance: bass trombone; Lew Soloff: trumpet; Ron Tooley: trumpet; Frank Greene: trumpet; Freddie Hendrix: trumpet; Darryl Shaw: trumpet; Warren Wolf: vibraphone, tambourine, timpani; Geoffrey Keezer: piano; Terreon Gully: drums + Alicia Olatuja: vocals; J.D. Steele: vocals + choir Voices Of The Flame.

The Movement Revisited, the newest opus of first-class bassist/composer/arranger Christian McBride, is an important African American manifesto that takes the form of a five-part suite focused on four indelible figures of the Civil Rights Movement - Martin Luther King, Malcolm X, Rosa Parks, and Muhammad Ali. The bassist gathered an 18-piece band that includes vibrant soloists, a great choral team led by soul/gospel singer JD Steele, and four skilled speakers, who profess the words of each protagonist with passion. In addition to these four activists, the last track on the album, “Apotheosis: November 4th, 2008” acknowledges Barack Obama, the first African American President of the US, as the fifth element. This particular piece is launched with a reflective classical-like intonation and then blossoms with more vivid colors once McBride tosses in a well-balanced bluesy, rock n’ rollish vibe that completely defines the harmonic progression.

The opener, “Overture/The Movement Revisited”, appeals to unity by sequencing spoken word that confronts darkness and light, hate and love. It covers a handful of crucial topics such as violence, fear, freedom, religion, justice, war, and equality. After the wise words, it’s the bandleader’s dancing bass lines that not only encourage the invigorating swinging rhythm imposed, but also substantiates scorching solos from saxophone and piano.

“Sister Rosa - Prologue” describes the Montgomery bus boycott with the benefit of Sonia Sanchez’s dramatic description and a resolute, sometimes spiritual interplay between bass, flute, and percussion. The soulful tones of “Sister Rosa” flutter in the air, resulting from a wise arrangement that incorporates impactful melodies, influential choir singing, and great improvisations from Ron Blake on soprano saxophone, Warren Wolf on vibraphone and Geoffrey Keezer on piano. Also headed by a prologue, which in the case comes underpinned by slick bass slides and bends, “Brother Malcolm” is a musical prayer that complements the human rights activist’s deeds. It features singer Alicia Olatuja as well as Blake’s spiritual tenor calls over a modal piano accompaniment. On the other hand, on “Ali Speaks”, we have drummer Terreon Gully, alone, emphasizing rhythmic punctuation in response to Dion Graham’s cadenced words.

Both “A View From the Mountaintop” and “Rumble in the Jungle” mix jazz, soul, and gospel, featuring the lead vocals of JD Steele and the gospel choir Voices of Flame, which he leads. The latter piece has Carl Maraghi’s baritone sharing the groove with McBride, and its infectious rhythm supports a buoyant conversation between saxophones, which arrives with plenty of in-and-out crusades.

The splendor of the music sides with the force of the words in a powerful and personal musical statement that envisions to alert the world for essential principles. This is the third big band recording for McBride.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Overture/The Movement Revisited ► 03 - Sister Rosa ► 09 - Rumble in the Jungle

Christian McBride - New Jawn

January 23, 2019

Label: Mack Avenue, 2018

Personnel - Marcus Strickland: tenor saxophone, clarinet; Josh Evans: trumpet; Christian McBride: double bass; Nasheet Waits: drums.

Philadelphia-born Christian McBride, one of the most fluid and fluent jazz bassists in the world, debuts a new quartet, New Jawn, whose name derives from Philly jargon and can be translated as ‘new joint’. The quartet affiliates - saxophonist Marcus Strickland, trumpeter Josh Evans, and drummer Nasheet Waits - contribute with two compositions each to a colorful song list that also admits Wayne Shorter’s “Sightseeing”.

The group’s eponymous album spreads thrillingly fresh ideas that surge with infectious energy and grandiose conviction. A great example of that is the opening tune, McBride’s “Walkin’ Funny”, which blends the exhilaration of Lee Morgan’s melodies with asymmetric notions of rhythm and collective improvisatory effervescence that refuses any commercial approach in favor of creative freedom. This same posture marks Waits’ “Ke-Kelli Sketch”, where compelling bowed bass is turned into a galloping groove, at the same time that early loose drumming becomes profusely acute, erecting an elastic avant-garde background over which Evans engraves discernible rhythmic figures. The foundation is reconfigured into a soul-imbued template to welcome Strickland’s melody-driven speech.

Evans’ pieces, “The Ballad of Ernie Washington” and “Pier One Import”, bring chunks of tradition in its rollicking lines. The former brims with a melodicism that is worthy of the Great American Songbook, while the latter is a post-bop incursion with lustrous unison phrases and killing solos. In turn, Strickland bestows “The Middle Me”, a swing ride taken at a burning tempo with a Freddie Hubbard-like intensity, and “Seek The Source”, a blues where everyone finds room to stretch out.

Employing brushes for a more meditative circumstance, Waits outlines his “Kush” song with delicacy. McBride doesn’t let this low-key vibe curb his arco extemporization while Strickland upholds the groove on bass clarinet. The bandleader also improvises on the moderate walker “John Day”, a tune he wrote in 3/4 with a gorgeous head riff and a Nardis-like semblance.

Communicating with countless details and peculiarities, these cats prove they dominate the jazz idiom from end to end.

Favorite Tracks:
01 - Walkin’ Funny ► 02 - Ke-Kelli Sketch ► 08 - John Day

Christian McBride Big Band - Bringin It

October 3, 2017

Label/Year: Mack Avenue Records, 2017

Lineup includes – Christian McBride: bass; Ron Blake: tenor sax, flute; Steve Wilson: alto and soprano sax, flute; Todd Bashore: alto sax, flute, piccolo; Carl Maraghi: bari sax, bass clarinet; Dan Pratt: tenor sax, flute; Freddie Hendrix: trumpet; David Lee: trumpet; Frank Greene: trumpet; Nabate Isles: trumpet; Steve Davis: trombone; Michael Dease: trombone; James Burton: trombone; Joe McDonough: trombone; Douglas Purviance: bass trombone; Rodney Jones: guitar; Xavier Davis: piano; Melissa Walker: vocals; Quincy Phillips: drums.

Every record put out by the world-class jazz bassist Christian McBride is well worth checking out. After digging Live at the Village Vanguard with his trio, the bassist returns to the big band format with Bringin’ It, an honorable follow-up to the 2011 Grammy Award winner The Good Feeling.

What does McBride bring us this time? Originals? Jazz standards? Elated post-bop classics? Well, the answer is yes to all of that, and he does it with an impressive cohort of artists and outstanding soloists, many of them retrieved from the first experience, including saxophonists Ron Blake and Steve Wilson, trumpeter Freddie Hendrix, trombonists Steve Davis and Michael Dease, as well as pianist Xavier Davis and vocalist Melissa Walker.

“Gettin’ To It”, the first of three reshaped old originals by the bassist, flows with soulful energy, colored with Rodney Jones’ funk-oriented guitar chops and filled with lots of jabs and hooks thrown in by the improvisers. Hendrix sounds magisterial in his brave trumpet ululations and then Jones applies all his bluesiness to an individual statement, well backed by a trombone/baritone ostinato.

Freddie Hubbard’s “Thermo” is a triumphant, engaging post-bop vehicle for the soloists, who take us to the golden era of jazz without leaving aside the buoyant twists of modernity.

McBride’s remaining compositions, “Youthful Bliss” and “Used ‘Ta Could”, are both colorful but inhabit different worlds. The former, including a bass discourse with bright melody and groove, cultivates a post-bop idolization with occasional delicate ripples of soul and Latin for extra color, while the latter is a celebratory waltz with plenty of Mingus’ moods.

Another punch in the stomach arrives with McCoy Tyner’s “Sahara”, exuberantly set in motion by Quincy Phillips’ mallet drumming together with free-floating woodwinds, and then leaning on a 6/8 groove with vibrant horn unisons atop. Striking improvisations from piano and alto saxophone occur over modal harmonic progressions while Phillips finishes off what he had started, resorting to his classy rhythmic deftness.

Wes Montgomery’s groovy “Full House” starts with packaging all the original guitaristic steam in Jones’ well-measured solo, passing by Carl Maraghi’s magnetic baritone before the epic finale. The vivacity felt here opposes to the more tranquil vibes of the jazz standards “I Thought About You” and “ In the Wee Small Hours of the Morning”.

The vocal warmness of Ms. Melissa Walker is quite something on Djavan’s Brazilian hit “Upside Down” (the original version is called “Flor de Lis”), and also polishes up “Mr. Bojangles”, a tune by the American country artist Jerry Jeff Walker, here brought up with interesting rhythmic details and a leisurely swing.

Suffused with striking arrangements and turning the ensemble's grandiose sense of unity to its advantage, Bringin’ It is a tour-de-force album that substantiates how a modern big band can sound so stalwart and effulgent at the same time.

Favorite Tracks:
02 - Thermo ► 03 - Youthful Bliss ► 05 – Sahara