Top Jazzmen Draw Crowds at the Atrium
By Paul Backshall
Its fairly unusual for a bass player to front a band, but
then Christian McBride is a fairly unusual bass player. McBride
entertained an
overflow audience at the HLS Community College Friday night in
the latest of the "Jazz Showcase" series, which is
part of the Classics at Atrium season. He brought with him three
other musicians including St. Thomas-raised sax player Ron Blake.
McBride impressed the audience with his dexterity on the acoustic
bass, which has to be one of the more difficult instruments to
play in
jazz - particularly when it becomes a lead instrument, accommodating
the intricate compositions of its prolific player. In the second
half, when the McBride group got into a jazz funk groove, he
switched to electric bass, an instrument he began playing at
the tender age of nine.
Christian has four CDs under his own name but has performed on countless others during a professional career that began when he was only 14. On Friday he showcased his latest album entitled Sci-Fi, beginning with the up-beat and abstract Xerxes. As McBride worked his magic on the bass, pianist Geoffrey Keezer wove an intricate pattern with the keyboard while Ron Blakes soprano sax took off in sometimes seemingly unrelated directions. Drummer Terreon Gulley kept up a battery of ever-changing tempos in the background.
Ron Blake, who was born in Puerto Rico and raised in St. Thomas,
is a jazz star in his own right, having spent some years touring
and
recording with trumpeter Roy Hargrove. During the concert, he
often switched from the mellow soprano sax to the more powerful
tenor horn becoming so engrossed with the music he was creating
that, at times as he bopped up and down, both feet left the stage.
Between riffs and with eyes closed, he would toss his head and
when he resumed blowing his legs took on an almost elastic quality.
The tempo switched to the more melodic tribute to Lt. Uhura
from Star Trek in McBrides composition Uhuras Moment Returned.
Then Keezers piano introduced the slow Lullaby for a Ladybug.
Switching from McBrides compositions to a Steely Dan hit, the
band
romped through Aja and in the second half borrowed a tune from
Police, with Walking on the Moon. Drummer Terreon Gully was
featured on the show closer Havona which took each musician through
his paces with McBride doing amazing things on the electric bass.
This was a delightful concert which gave BVI jazz fans the
opportunity to hear and see top-notch modern jazz musicians at
work.
And as sax man Ron Blake quipped at one point, indicating the
band: "Were having fun."
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