Stephen Acourt
Grammy-winning bassist, composer and bandleader Christian McBride played with his intriguingly named ‘New Jawn’ on a
wintery Wellington Wednesday to open the Wellington Jazz Fest. As he described ‘jawn’ is simply slang from his hometown
of Philadelphia for ‘thing’ or ‘project’, as in “Christain McBride has got a ‘New Jawn’ going on.” He sure does, McBride
is a highly respected bandleader and figure in the jazz world having performed with his own ensemble for over twenty
years now. However this was the first stop on a world tour with this new quartet Josh Evans (trumpet), Marcus Strickland
(tenor sax) and bass clarinet and drummer Nasheet Waits.
McBride is the real deal and was an excellent choice for the festival opener. He is host of NPR’s Jazz Night In America
and an artistic director for the jazz program at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center (in Newark), the National Jazz
Museum in Harlem, and, as of last year, the venerable Newport Jazz Festival. As Will Friedwald puts it in the Observer:
“There’s no doubt that the No. 1 bandleader, spokesman, and role model of the contemporary jazz scene is Wynton
Marsalis. But, as a virtuoso soloist, an organizer of many different ensembles, and an eloquent advocate for the music
in general, bassist Christian McBride is right behind him.”
He let the music do the speaking and didn't speak much until 45 minutes into the set (about the length of a standard
festival set), incidentally that was only two songs. These first two songs were Pier One Import, by Evans and a Larry Young tune Obsequious.
These two tracks were excellent with dynamic changes in tempo from frenetic pace to a loping casual groove. Mcbride was
a rock solid presence in the middle of the stage with impressive triplet runs up and down the frets and bouncy twanging
notes, micro-elaborations and a massive slap driving the whole thing along. Evans and Strickland dropped in and out and
left stage when not playing giving a dynamic visual effect. When they were there they were there in full playing with
all their energy.
Christian’s Bass sounded at times almost to hit Eastern scales and the contrapuntal melodies of trumpet and sax
interwove and harmonised alternately. When the band dropped down to just bass and drums for a section of Pier One Import
we saw what these two could do as they traded solos in evolving time signatures total synchronicity.
Stephen ACourt
Waits drumming was insane and full of fire and creativity
throughout with trills and rolls, great tom's sounding like African djembes and punchy military style snares,
tintibulating cymbals and a solid kick syncing perfectly with the bass or at times wandering off on side tangents.
Obsequious was a great tune with the Sax at times screeching smoothly with beautiful sound and timbre and at other times
staccato bursts, farcical ‘rusty bugle’ sounds. It had a real Miles Davis soulful feel with an Eastern or Spanish Gypsy
“sketches of Spain’ tinged vibe.
When McBride did speak it was with a genuine warm voice, you feel like you know and good sense of humour. He said how
great it was to be back in New Zealand and that he had ‘appropriately’ been walking around in his “All Blacks” jersey,
but added that the name was “a bit misleading.”
He also introduced the band saying Strickland is one of the finest reed players in jazz today and that they have spent
ten years playing together. And that he had known Waits for 25 years but this was their first band together.
A highlight was Christian’s original song ‘Brother Malcolm’ part of his Movement Revisited work with choral director JD
Steele. It is “bluesy and soulful oratorio for big band, gospel choir with soloists, and four speakers representing
great figures of the Civil Rights Movement.” The work was inspired by the written words and speeches of Rosa Parks,
Muhammad Ali, Martin Luther King, Jr. and President Barack Obama and in this case Malcolm X. We didn’t get the choral
elements here but it was an excellent and moving piece full of raw emotion.
This piece featured the best example of Christian’s bass skills with a bass solo ranging from classical or flamenco
guitar, to 80s digital computer sounds and deep bouncy drawn out bass lines. It had beautiful sax lines with deep rich
timbre and a dramatic New Orleans southern feel. You could feel the pain and sadness emotion in the piece, building up
into rebellious and proud lines then fading out to noise and ending with a funeral march.
The piece evolved into an original piece by Strickland, which was a great juxtaposition and a highlight for me. It had
an atmospheric subdued drum beat and repetitive done bass sound in a 5 beat time holding it all together repeating over
and over at different speeds. The solos came in an out starting slowly repeating different variations on the bass motif
and building back up to fast pace before uniting for a final flourish of hamony. A sublime piece of music and the crowd
was entranced with feet tapping showing more than just me would have rather been dancing than sitting in a stuffy Opera
House for this one. This was a great show and I would definitely see him again. I hear his other band is more electric
and heavy on the funky soul and fusion. I’d love to see that and hopefully in a dancier setting.
In the meantime we can look forward to an album of these songs in the future.