When
Philadelphia-born bassist/bandleader Christian McBride arrived in New York in
1989 as a Juilliard student, he was the "Godchild of the Groove" with
unlimited potential. Today, with over 300 recordings as a sideman and 11
critically acclaimed albums as a leader, he now reigns supreme as the
"Lord of the Lower Frequencies." He's the influential and ubiquitous
bassist of his generation, as evidenced by his quintet Inside Straight, his big
band, his trio and his work with everybody from James Brown, Pat Metheny, Chick
Corea and Wynton Marsalis to Sting, The Roots, Bruce Hornsby and Paul
McCartney.
It is
fitting that the four-time Grammy® Award-winning McBride would eventually
record at the Village Vanguard, the most hallowed and historical nightclub in
jazz: an underground Mount Olympus where the gods and titans of the music - from
John Coltrane to Bill Evans - have cast their syncopated spells.
"You
can literally feel the ghosts of all of the legends that played there,"
McBride says. "You feel Coltrane hovering in the vortex. You feel Monk
hovering in the vortex. Miles Davis, Mingus... you feel all of that in the
air."
And with his
new Mack Avenue Records album, Live at the Village Vanguard, you can feel and
hear McBride in the same air, along with his magnificent trio, which features
drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. and pianist Christian Sands. They swing and swoon on
nine tracks of originals, jazz standards and some surprise R&B/pop
selections.
This record
is the fruit of McBride's long association with the Vanguard, where his first
appearance as a leader for the historic club was in 1995. In 2007, the bassist
and charismatic club owner Lorraine Gordon started an annual one-week
residency, which featured McBride's quintet, Inside Straight. "Lorraine
enjoyed my trio and my quintet, Inside Straight. We had such large crowds, so after
a few years with such supportive audiences, we added an extra week. Instead of
doing the same band for two weeks, I just started bringing in a different band.
This has been an ongoing relationship that I look forward to maintaining as
long as I can."
As
encouraging as this association was, McBride's fear of being typecast as a Ray
Brown clone almost caused this trio to not be. "I thought the very last
thing I wanted to do was to put myself in a trio, because then I'll never be
able to shed the Ray Brown comparison," he says. "And then one day I
decided that that's sort of a silly reason not to start a trio, if musically
that's what makes sense. There were a few gigs that [saxophonist] Steve Wilson
and [vibraphonist] Warren Wolf were unavailable for, so I decided to play with
the rhythm section. Peter Martin was playing piano and Ulysses was playing
drums. In 2010, Christian Sands started subbing for Peter in Inside Straight.
So we started doing trio gigs and that's how the group was born.
"In
trying to find repertoire for the trio in our early stages, I tried to come up
with songs that were easy to learn and that you can put your own spin on
them," he says. The opening track, Wes Montgomery's "Fried
Pies," originally released on the guitarist's 1963 LP, Boss Guitar, burns
with a quicksilver, straight-ahead groove, as does the trio's torrid take on
J.J. Johnson's "Interlude" from Cannonball Adderley's 1965 Domination
album.
Sands'
lilting composition "Sand Dune" would make a perfect companion to Coltrane's
"My Favorite Things" on any playlist, while the well-worn standard
"Cherokee" is rendered at a blistering, swing-at-the-speed-of-sound.
In contrast, the trio's take on the spiritual "Down By The Riverside"
grooves in a medium tempo buoyed by Owens' expert and inspired drumming. Billie
Holiday's "Good Morning Heartache" is reborn by the trio with a
ghostly, rubato intro, which evolves into a soulful, sonic séance.
Two
selections from the album aurally illustrate how McBride's outward embrace of non-jazz
material harkens back to a time when jazz had a long-standing engagement with
pop music. The trio's treatment of the Rod Temperton-composed ballad "The
Lady In My Life," (from Michael Jackson's uber-LP Thriller) resonates with
the same kind of noir nuance Bill Evans was known for. "If anyone can get
over the fact that it's not 'a jazz tune,' they'd be able to notice that it's
got one of the most gorgeous melodies," McBride says. The album concludes
with a spirited take on the funky title theme song the 1977 movie "Car
Wash." "This was one tune where even my band members looked at me
side-eyes [laughs]," McBride says. "Even my wife said, 'so what's
next? 'I Will Survive'?"
McBride's
inspirations Ray Brown and James Brown, his respect for non-jazz genres and his
outgoing personality account for this sensational recording and for his growing
stature as a jazz spokesperson and ambassador.
McBride
hosts and produces "The Lowdown: Conversations With Christian," on
SiriusXM satellite radio and National Public Radio's weekly show, "Jazz
Night In America." He also serves as Artistic Advisor for Jazz Programming
at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (NJPAC), and he works with Jazz House
Kids, a nationally recognized community arts organization founded by his wife,
vocalist Melissa Walker, dedicated to educating children through jazz.
"I'm
glad to have these vehicles, like the NPR show, like the SiriusXM show,"
he says, "where I can tell people who may, or may not be into jazz, 'hey,
come on over and play with us'." Live at the Village Vanguard is the titan
bassist's infectious invitation to come swing with him.
"When I
first met Ulysses, he was a student at my summer camp in Aspen, CO. He had a
lot of maturity in his playing, particularly the way he played brushes,"
says McBride. "I could tell he spent a lot of time with Lewis Nash and
Kenny Washington and really studied the legendary drummers. And it was a relief
to hear a young drummer who wasn't coming out of the same bag as other
drummers.
"When I
first met Christian, I was told he was a protégé of Dr. Billy Taylor, Hank
Jones and Oscar Peterson, all of those legendary elder statesmen of the
piano," McBride says. "But then, I heard him playing all of this
esoteric, angular music coming out of an Andrew Hill/Paul Bley bag. And then, I
found out he'd been studying with Vijay Iyer, Jason Moran and Gonzalo Rubalcaba.
I thought man; this cat knows the whole language.
"I
realized that with guys like Ulysses and Christian, we can go anywhere we want
to go: angular, swinging, esoteric, blues, impressionistic and funk."
Christian
McBride Trio · Live at the Village Vanguard
Mack Avenue
Records · Release Date: September 18, 2015
DANIEL SMITH - JAZZ SUITE FOR BASSOON
