This review appears in the August 2013 issue of The New York City Jazz Record.
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Christian McBride Trio
Out Here
By David R. Adler
At long last, bassist Christian McBride has weighed in with a straight-down-the-line piano trio session. Yet Out Here throws much of the spotlight onto a different Christian — young pianist Christian Sands, who handles with aplomb the great responsibility he’s given. It’s a fine McBride album, but even more satisfying as a showcase of Sands’ talents. Drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr. brings a drive and fluidity to Out Here that’s just as crucial. (It’s worth noting that Owens recruited Sands and McBride for Unanimous, his 2012 debut on Criss Cross.)
This trio has the chops to play anything, and yet Out Here isn’t a showy, technical, “music school”-type record. It could be called commercial in an old sense: melodic, bluesy, rhythmically direct and in-the-pocket instead of elliptical. The one track that reaches into modern modal territory is “My Favorite Things,” over nine minutes long, significantly reharmonized and put into 5/4 time. But Oscar Peterson’s uptempo “Hallelujah Time,” Billy Taylor’s “Easy Walker” and the opening E-flat blues “Ham Hocks and Cabbage” bring out the trio’s core identity as a swinging, grooving beast with a fairly straightforward appeal.
There are nice repertoire twists: a new version of “I Guess I’ll Have to Forget,” originally from McBride’s 2000 Verve release SciFi; a straight ballad take on “I Have Dreamed” (from The King and I) with exceptional legato bowing from the leader; and readings of the bread-and-butter standards “East of the Sun” and “Cherokee” that play to the trio’s strengths ingeniously. “Who’s Making Love,” a tribute to Stax legend Johnnie Taylor — with a “shake ya boo-tay” coda no less — closes with a potent reminder of McBride’s soul roots. It’s a leap between genres, but given the groove-heavy quality it shares with the rest of the date, no leap at all.
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