Rating:
Genre:
Jazz
Release Date: 09/26/2006
Having spent most of his time since the late '90s re-appropriating
pop,
funk,
rock, and
fusion elements into his progressive
jazz albums, bassist
Christian McBride makes a joyously off the cuff return to straight-ahead acoustic
jazz on 2006's
New York Time. Working here with the seasoned rhythm section giants of pianist
Cedar Walton and drummer
Jimmy Cobb as well as an equally engaging contemporary, tenor saxophonist
Javon Jackson,
McBride has crafted a back-to-basics album that, while firmly in the
mainstream jazz tradition, works to remind listeners why they dug him in the first place.
New York Time is as creatively inspired, forward-thinking, and unexpected as 2000's
Sci-Fi and 2003's
Vertical Vision are with their mix of
electronic-
funk and angular, postmodern
jazz, and
McBride can't escape the fact that his true gift is for swaggering, double-breasted, no holds barred, late-night, straight-ahead modern
jazz. Primarily, it's his big, full, commanding double-bass tone that not only drives his bandmates forward, but buoys them on fat swells of sound. It's that natural acoustic tone and earthy pulse of
McBride that fit so well with this kind of no-fuss
jazz. It's also that sound, paired with the soulfully urbane and elegantly muscular chops of
Walton,
Cobb, and
Jackson, that makes
New York Time a
jazz lover's dream.
~Matt Collar, All Music Guide
;)
Listen
