CHRISTIAN McBRIDE + INSIDE STRAIGHT
TO RELEASE LATEST MACK AVENUE RECORDS ALBUM,
PEOPLE MUSIC, ON MAY 14
Three-Time GRAMMY® Award Winner's First Inside Straight Project Since 2009
Features Core Group: Steve Wilson, Warren Wolf, Peter Martin and Carl Allen, With Guests Christian Sands and Ulysses Owens, Jr.
"The
bassist-as-bandleader is a fairly rare thing, with the torch being
passed over the years from Charles Mingus to Ron Carter... and now to
Philadelphia-born Christian McBride." - NPR "All Things Considered"
"The deep, dark-maple tone that Christian McBride elicits from an upright
bass is one of jazz's forthright pleasures." - Nate Chinen, The New York Times
It's not simply his abundant virtuosity that has made Christian McBride the most in-demand bassistof
his generation. McBride consistently combines his deft musicianship
with an innate ability to communicate his enthusiasm to an audience-a
warm showmanship that transforms his own passion into infectious joy. It
comes across whether he's leading his own bands; sharing the stage with
jazz legends like Sonny Rollins, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock or Pat
Metheny; accompanying pop giants like James Brown, Sting or The Roots;
or collaborating with classical masters like Kathleen Battle, Edgar
Meyer or the Shanghai Quartet.
Any
time that McBride steps into the studio or onto a stage he plays what
could be called "people music," but it's a particularly apt title for
the second release by his hard-swinging acoustic quintet Inside Straight. Four years after Kind of Brown, the band's acclaimed debut album, People Music delivers a more road-tested, "lived-in" Inside Straight, able to dig deep while projecting that ebullient vigor that has become McBride's trademark.
"People Music
is my personal mantra as a musician," McBride says of the title.
"Sometimes jazz musicians can get too caught up in their own heads; they
get so serious and so caught up in their creativity that they're not
bringing the people in. So I figure the best way to communicate is to
let the people navigate where you should go."
For Inside Straight,
that inclusiveness extends to the name of the band itself, famously the
result of a contest that generated more than 3,000 submissions from
fans. But more importantly, as is evident throughout the 8 original
tunes on People Music, that means balancing intense interplay with an exuberant personal expression that speaks directly to the listener.
"When
you pull the people in, you can go anywhere as long as they feel like
they're a part of the ride," McBride continues. That's why Cannonball
Adderley was always my hero-he always exemplified high artistry, but no
matter how esoteric or abstract it could get, he still related to
people. And I've always felt that this band plays 'people music'."
Make
no mistake-there is a major difference between "people music" and
"popular music" (though the two can overlap). McBride makes the
distinction clear on the new album's opening track, "Listen to the
Heroes Cry." The tune's melody, evoking a modern spiritual, was inspired
by the parade of vapid performances on a music awards show McBride
watched one night, all garish spectacle and absolutely no substance. "It
bothered me that the show was more about the image and less about the
music," he says. "It made me wonder what Duke Ellington or John Coltrane
or Billie Holiday or Sarah Vaughan would think if they could see this. I
think they would be crying."
Those icons would be cheered by People Music, however, which features two slightly different incarnations of Inside Straight.
Six of the album's eight tracks feature the core lineup of McBride,
saxophonist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, pianist Peter Martin
and drummer Carl Allen. The other
two tracks substitute pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens,
Jr., who have performed extensively with the band when Martin's touring
schedule with Dianne Reeves or Allen's duties as Artistic Director of
Jazz Studies at Juilliard keep them away from the bandstand. Sands and
Owens also comprise McBride's new trio, which will make its recording
debut later this year.
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Credit: Chi Modu
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McBride
contributes half of the repertoire for the album, but felt it was
important to also feature pieces written by the other band members, all
of whom are accomplished composers in their own rights. Wolf provides
"Gang Gang," the name that a dancer (like Wolf's wife) would use in
place of a musician's "Afro-Cuban" or "12/8" to refer to the song's
surging rhythm. Sands brings the bright-hued "Dream Train," while Martin
offers the stealth funk of "Unusual Suspects" which recalls the groove
of "Used 'Ta Could" from Kind of Brown.
Wilson's
entrancing ballad "Ms. Angelou" draws inspiration from the words and
rhythms of the great poet while also exemplifying the saxophonist's own
unique approach. "I think Steve did a very good job of capturing the
feeling and soul of Maya Angelou's words," McBride says. "And it's such a
wonderfully unusual song. Just when you think you know where the chords
or the melody are going, they don't go there. It's actually a microcosm
of Steve's improvising concept, because he's always playing these
incredibly different ideas. I think that's why people love Steve Wilson
so much-he's very new school and very old school at the same time."
Something
similar could be said for soul diva Whitney Houston, whose tragic
passing last year inspired McBride to pen "New Hope's Angel." As he
explains, "There have been some untimely deaths in the music world over
the last few years, but Houston's death really shook me up. As far as
I'm concerned, she was one of the last great titans, somebody whose
voice transcends genre. She had one of those voices where opera singers
loved her, jazz singers loved her, pop singers loved her, country
singers loved her. They knew that unmistakable sound, and it's a shame
that it had to be extinguished at such a young age."
The bassist's other compositions for People Music demonstrate the breadth of his activities. "Fair Hope Theme" is an expansion of McBride's main theme for the soundtrack of The Contradictions of Fair Hope,
a documentary film directed by actress S. Epatha Merkerson. "The
Movement Revisited" is drawn from his large-scale suite for choir and
jazz ensemble dedicated to four icons of the Civil Rights movement-Rosa
Parks, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali and Martin Luther King, Jr.
Even more important than the ideas behind the compositions is the thrilling music that Inside Straight
makes from them. McBride bemoans the "unwritten contention that somehow
swinging and imagination are mutually exclusive. I find this band very
imaginative and very swinging. I like coming off the stage having broken a sweat. Inside Straight
is something of a release for all of the members, because we get to
come together and really play some swinging music. It's become a classic
car-a '69 Lincoln Continental."
Upcoming Christian McBride Appearances:
Christian McBride + Inside Straight:
May 3 & 4 / Scullers Jazz Center / Boston, MA
June 20 / The International Festival of Arts & Ideas - Elm Street Stage / New Haven, CT
October 1 - 6 / Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola / New York, NY
Christian McBride Big Band:
March 16 / 92nd Street Y / New York, NY
August 31 / Curacao North Sea Jazz Festival- Celia WTC /Netherlands Antilles
November 9 / 2nd Annual James Moody Democracy for Jazz Festival / Newark, NJ
January 22, 2014 / University of Texas - Austin Bass Concert Hall / Austin, TX
Christian McBride Trio:
May 23 & 24 / 92nd Street Y - Kauffmann Concert Hall / New York, NY
May 30 / Venue 505 / Sydney, Australia
June 1 - 3 / Melbourne International Jazz Festival / Melbourne, Australia
March 5 & 6, 2014 / Fort Lewis College - Community Concert Hall / Durango, CO
March 7 & 8, 2014 / Dazzle Restaurant & Lounge / Denver, CO
Special Appearances:
* September 6 / University of Maryland - Clarice Smith Performing Arts Center - Dekelboum Concert Hall / College Park, MD
Various Dates (Exact Dates at Link Above) / Various Venues / Various cities
Various Dates (Exact Dates at Link Above) / Various Venues / Various cities
*= Christian McBride's The Movement Revisited with Big Band and Choir.
^ = Indicates Christian McBride on select dates only.
People Music - Track Listing
1. Listen to the Heroes Cry (McBride)
2. Fair Hope Theme (McBride)
3. Gang Gang (Warren Wolf)
4. Ms. Angelou (Steve Wilson)
5. The Movement, Revisited (McBride)
6. Unusual Suspects (Peter Martin)
7. Dream Train (Christian Sands)
8. New Hope's Angel (McBride)
Christian McBride + Inside Straight · People Music
Mack Avenue Records · Release Date: May 14, 2013
For more information on Christian McBride, visit christianmcbride.com
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