Live At Tonic

Three disks of live sessions from a couple of special concerts held by bassist McBride at Tonic -- normally a Lower East Side haven for avant jazz, but here, home to some high-energy funky jamming.

In addition to some nice grooves, you've got McBride directing the band from the stage, introducing special guests, and calling up band members. It's a bit cheesy in parts, but it gives the CDs a very "live" feel.


DISK ONE -- Lots of funky energy and some electronic crossovers into fusion territory with lots of keys and occasional "outside the changes" soloing.

1- Fusion, bluesy jam, mid/fast. Sax & guitar solos.
2- More complex beat than #1, faster and kinda furious. Starts coolly. Ends w/spoken intro to track 3.
3- For Flip Wilson(!), a bouncy, energetic one.
4- Calmer, cooler, but still fairly fast. w/flute, for an easier sound
5- Warm, easygoing funk, a casually open midtempo. Opens w/bass solo.
6- Fusion! Cool electric sound
7- Slow fusion, sort of romantic. Eh. Ends w/intro to track 8
8- Sly, sneaky, spare, funky fusion. Bursts energetically after 7 minutes and eventually gets really fast and hard. Ends with band intro.


DISK TWO -- Follows the same groove/jam pattern but with some spacey, untethered interludes thrown in. Track 1 is 33 minutes; the others segue to form one long jam

9- Half-hour jam that starts bouncy and happy, almost bucolic, and later gets into a more serious kind of groove, with some sparse and nearly avant-garde spots. Charlie Hunter shows up early; Jenny Scheinman after the halfway point.
10- Decent jam that takes a while to lift off.
11- Mellow, flute-led bit, mid/fast.
12- Spacey slow weirdness; actually I think *this* one, not track 5, hits the melody line that's taken from "Bitches Brew"
13- Midtempo and a little off-kilter. Starts w/last of track 4 weirdness
14- Quiet, spacey float. 2nd half: Groove returns; violin solo
15- Staggery mid/fast, a bit cerebral. Develops a strong groove with cool keyboards, and blazing guitar later
16- Slow, grinding, noisy weirdness!


DISK THREE -- Adds some hip-hop and turntable sensibilities (DJ Logic, Scratch) and otherwise goes for the straight funk

17- Electric funk. McBride tosses out lots of band-member intros. Scratch, the human beat box, shows up around -11:00 for a "Make some noise y'all" solo.
18- Hip-hop mode (due to Scratch) and funky unison horns.
19- Long bass solo into a big funky section marked by loud, bright crisp horns. Ends w/ quiet bass solo that SEGUES into track 4
20- Funky shuffle beat, bit cooler than #3. Scratch reappears halfway through. Ends w/lengthy band intro.