CHRISTIAN McBRIDE
Live At Tonic
Ropeadope
Bassist Christian McBride is only in his mid-thirties,
but he has already played and recorded with virtually every
important jazz artist to come down the pike in the past
decade. In the mid-nineties, by his own estimate, McBride
was playing on something like twenty new jazz releases a
year. More recently he has concentrated on being a bandleader,
and that is what his new 3 CD recording, Live At Tonic,
is about. Of course, there’s plenty of McBride’s
fantastic acoustic and phat electric bass work, but there
are also the contributions of the impressive musicians that
make up the Christian McBride band: keyboardist Geoffrey
Keezer, drummer Terreon Gully, and saxophonist/woodwind
player Ron Blake.
McBride’s group played for two nights
at Tonic nightclub in NYC—January 10 & 11, 2005.
The first set each night was by McBride’s band, and
the first disc of this set is comprised of the best first
set performances from each night. In many ways this first
disc comprises the ‘meat’ of this release in
as much as it features McBride’s group unadorned,
doing their thing most impressively. What is clear here
is that McBride and company are not hampered or hemmed in
by any traditionalists’ idea of what so-called jazz
musicians ‘should’ be doing. What these guys
should be doing is playing music, and damned it they don’t
do that as well as pretty much any small jazz ensemble playing
today. They can swing, as you hear at times in tracks like
“Say Something,” but they float effortlessly
through stylistic flirtations with funk, hip-hop, dub, rock,
and more as well. Keezer, a pianist’s pianist, is
heard here on many electric keyboards as well as acoustic,
and his playing will be a revelation for many listeners.
Ron Blake, whose own composition “Sonic Tonic”
is featured, plays some roof-raising tenor on the opener
“Technicolor Nightmare” and McBride’s
tribute to comedian Flip Wilson “Clerow’s Flipped.”
And Terreon’s drumming is rock solid, holding the
groove down and creating a great pocket along with McBride.
The first disc’s closer is Weather Report’s
“Boogie Woogie Waltz,” a barnburner for W.P.
and just as solid for McBride’s group. By the end
of this near-fifteen minute cover, one can’t help
but think that this first disc was easily worth the price
of admission all by itself.
Discs two and three are, essentially, long
jams with guest musicians, and almost by definition they
are less focused and looser. However, that does not make
them filler or inconsequential by any stretch of the imagination.
On the contrary, there is a lot of great music here, even
if there’s nothing that one can walk down the street
humming afterward. On both discs, McBride and his band lay
down a groove, and then guest artists take things off in
different directions. On disc two, the second set from January
10 is heard in its entirety. The thirty-minute “See
Jam, Hear Jam, Feel Jam” starts with Gully and McBride
laying down a second line-inspired rhythm, with McBride
taking a nice acoustic bass solo to put everyone at their
ease. Charlie Hunter is the first guest, and his groove-supported,
blues-influenced jam kicks the session into high gear in
no time flat. Next up is pianist Jason Moran, who plays
blues, funk, and R&B-styled piano with his own unique
language. No matter what Moran plays, you know it’s
Moran, and I mean that in a really good way. Jason is one
of the most well-versed pianists in the history of jazz
piano since probably Monk. Here he unleashes a typically
inspired flurry of pianistic soloing that definitely gives
the jam a different inflection. Things are allowed to cool
a bit following Moran’s incendiary playing, then the
proceedings are turned over to the third guest soloist,
violinist Jenny Schienman. Schienman has worked extensively
with Bill Frisell as well as guitarists Nels Cline, Marc
Ribot, and a host of other musicians and singers. She adds
depth as well as heat to the proceedings, working off the
groove as well as leading into a new area, which is impressive
indeed. Following this introduction, the group and its guests
work their way through a variety of grooves, from the James
Brown rave up “Out Jam/Give It Up or Turnit Loose”
to a slow funk workout on “Bitches Brew.” This
is definitely a bunch of first rate musicians cutting loose
and jamming, but it is not self-indulgent noodling and will
definitely be of interest to most listeners.
Disc Three features the jam session second
set from January 11, with a new set of guest musicians in
tow. This time the featured guests include guitarist Eric
Krasno of Soulive, turntablist DJ Logic, trumpeter Rashawn
Ross, and Scratch on beat box. Once again the band lays
down a heavy groove, this time with McBride on electric
bass, and the guests take turns soloing. There’s no
doubt that this is a more all-out groove based jam session,
with only a few tracks, all of them pretty lengthy. Krasno
solos ably and provides nice counterpoint rhythm guitar
work as well. Logic and Scratch do their respective things
well, but it’s still hard to think of turntables as
a jam session instrument. Ron Blake adds some real grit
to the proceedings with his solid baritone sax work, creating
a funky line that bounces around and off of McBride’s
bass work. Ross’ trumpet is a welcome additional tonal
color, and he gets off some nice solo work as well. This
is a looser jam that will appeal most to the jam band crowd,
though funksters and fusionistas will also find a lot to
like in this set.
While Live at Tonic may seem like
an overdose of music to some, particularly in light of the
lengthy jam sessions included, there is no question that
listeners are getting extraordinary value for their money
(as did the audiences in attendance both January nights).
At less than $20 for the set, one can afford to skip tracks
that don’t particularly appeal to one’s sensibilities
while still getting more than enough great music for one’s
money. Live At Tonic is not only a welcome addition
to Christian McBride’s discography, it demonstrates
his abilities as a bandleader and highlights the high level
at which his current group is operating. That makes it well
worth the price of admission, and an excellent value at
that. There was a time when a major record label would put
out material like this because it was great music, even
if they thought three discs was a lot of music and it might
not sell millions of copies. Those days are gone, though,
so one is thankful to musicians like McBride who still believe
that it’s ok to just release plain old high quality
music and to labels like Ropeadope who will still take a
chance on something like this.
