Blue Notes: Christian McBride 'Out Here'

In addition to his perpetually full diary as a sideman, bassist Christian McBride is having a busy year as a bandleader.

Out Here is McBride's second release on the Mack Avenue Records label this year, following on from People Music. That CD featured McBride's regular quintet, Inside Straight. This is the first with his new Trio, and his first as a leader in a bass/piano/drums configuration.

McBride, 41, is the most prominent jazz acoustic bassist of his generation, and is often compared to the great Ray Brown, whom he worked with in the 1990s on the SuperBass project with fellow bull fiddle virtuoso John Clayton.

The comparisons became more frequent after that, and because Brown was so strongly associated with the piano trio format, McBride decided to eschew it. Then fate intervened.

In 2009, Inside Straight were booked for a gig which saxophonist Steve Wilson and vibraphonist Warren Wolf were unable to make.

Rather than replace them, McBride opted to play the gig with just pianist Peter Martin and drummer Ulysses Owens Jnr. He liked the result, and formed a regular trio with Owens and pianist Christian Sands. Both are young players, and have deputised at various times live and in the studio for Inside Straight's regular pianist, Martin, and drummer Carl Allen. This is the group's first album.

"It's a pretty diversified trio," says McBride. "The real core foundation is hardcore swinging blues and the American songbook. Part of that is because Christian [Sands] is so well-rounded and willing to go to so many places, that I can't help but want to swing hard with him and Ulysses."