Mcbride, Christian / Live At Tonic
Album: Live At Tonic   Collection:Jazz
Artist:Mcbride, Christian   Added:Apr 2006
Label:Ropeadope Music Entertain  

A-File Activity
Add Date: 2006-06-11 Pull Date: 2006-08-13 Charts: Jazz
Week Ending: Jul 16 Jul 9 Jul 2 Jun 25 Jun 18
Airplays: 2 1 1 2 2

Recent Airplay
1. Feb 01, 2011: Rebop
Hibiscus
4. Jul 14, 2006: Memory Select
Hibiscus
2. Jan 04, 2011: Fo at the Café Bohemian
A-Flat Minor Jam
5. Jul 14, 2006: Sunshine ... in the Afternoon
Mwandishi Outcome Jam (w/ Charlie Hunter & Jenny Scheinmann)
3. Jun 26, 2009: Memory Select
Technicolor Nightmare
6. Jul 07, 2006: No Cover, No Minimum
D Shuffle Jam

Album Review
Craig Matsumoto
Reviewed 2006-06-10
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.

Track Listing
1. Technicolor Nightmare   11. Lower East Side/Rock Jam
2. Say Something   12. Hemisphere Jam
3. Clerow's Flipped   13. Bitches Brew
4. Lejos De Usted   14. Out Jam/Via Mwandishi
5. Sonic Tonic   15. Mwandishi Outcome Jam
6. Hibiscus   16. The Comedown (Lsd Jam)
7. Sitting On A Cloud   17. E Jam
8. Boogie Woogie Waltz   18. A-Flat Minor Jam
9. See Jam, Hear Jam, Feel Jam   19. D Shuffle Jam
10. Out Jam/Give It Up Or Turn It Loose   20. D Shuffle Jam (Part 2)