Our man in NYC 5a

CJ Intern's NYC Adventures Part 5a: Objects in Rear View Mirror are Closer Than They Appear, or the Third Christian

By Jeremy Tsuei

Well - here we go. The last one. Back home to Australia, but not before a brief family visit in Vancouver. Back to the shed, back to family, back to a bit of normalcy. With a lot of notches under the belt. Not only did I get to jam in New York (many, many times) - I also got asked if I was available to play a gig. The answer was no (I didn't have my own bass in any case), but that was certainly something I didn't expect which I now get to come away with. 

Tuesday - Christian McBride and Inside Straight

Christian McBride's second live album with Inside Straight (Peter Martin (piano), Carl Allen (drums), Warren Wolfe (vibes), Steve Wilson (sax)), recorded in the Village Vanguard in 2014 and released during/after the pandemic in late 2021, is one of my favourite releases ever. The feel is so good throughout, and every note feels right, but there are still those small live inflections that give it that atmosphere and spontaneous vibe - like McBride's little 'what?'s as he's backing Wolfe's solo in "The Shade of the Cedar Tree". Speaking of "The Shade of the Cedar Tree", attentive readers will remember that that tune is one of my favourites, and the version from that album is probably my favourite recording of that tune. A veritable stacking of favourites!

Ten years later, and the band is back for their December residency. The atmosphere and vibes (pardon the pun) were spot on - ten years of gradual evolution, but this was the same band, playing many of the same tunes. Being at this gig was like stepping into something intensely familiar, but also like experiencing it again for the first time. This was the band I've heard many many times over, playing in many cases the same songs, but finding new ways to do it. 

There was no "The Shade of the Cedar Tree", nor was there a bass solo in every song (although there were some neat traded fours with Carl Allen towards the end of the gig). Nor, I'll mention, did I get to meet McBride - a lovely man by all accounts, but I understand why he had a bodyguard in front of the green room. But there's something to be said for getting the reality of something, rather than having it fit the demanding moulds of wish fulfillment. What I got was something just as satisfying and so much more true to life than anything I might have imagined from what I'd experienced before. This was a lovely close to my trip. Hearing one of my favourite recorded bands, not deviating from their established sound, but finding new pathways and avenues within. Getting something new, and being given the opportunity to evolve as a listener as the band has evolved as a band. 

Describing Chris Botti's band from the previous night, I'd used the loaded moniker of 'smooth jazz' to address some of the less fulfilling aspects of that (still very worthwhile) gig. I suppose when we're talking about 'smooth jazz', we're talking about stuff that is content with not pushing the bounds, or content which seemingly has no interest in breaking free into new territory. It's the sound of jazz as the lay listener expects jazz to sound, if you will. That spectre of the familiar is at play in my reflections with this band, and its ties to a decade-old set of recordings. But what I hear - and what I heard from this gig - is a band that is content with pushing their own boundaries, and not necessarily any boundaries set by others. A group that has played together for this long, filled with members who know each other so well, striving to play at nobody's best but their own. Fearsome stuff. 

To be continued very soon ...