Thursday, April 06, 2006

 

"What Is Jazz?" @ BB King's

Jazz blew hot and cool at BB King's in New York on Wednesday night. Bassist Christian McBride's quartet literally caught fire when guest trumpeter Rashawn Ross, who weighs in at 300-plus pounds, stole the show with an incendiary solo, reminiscent of Freddie Hubbard, on his own composition, "Sonic Tonic." Ross joined saxophonist Ron Blake, who he performs with on Blake's Lest We Forget cd produced by McBride on the Mack Avenue label. They're a "hot" horn section.

The "cool" part of the evening was guitarist Charlie Hunter's performance. Hunter's the chameleon of jazz guitar. He can swing, bop, rock, reggae and play avant garde styles. On this night he chose to follow the path of Ornette Coleman, with a more experimental, at times sluggish set. His trio included sax player John Ellis and drummer Derrek Phillips, and was augmented by Sex Mob leader Steve Bernstein on slide trumpet and Adam Deutsch on keyboards for the last two numbers. But no matter how hard they tried, Hunter's band failed to ignite.

DJ Logic played exciting sets between the bands (drummer Bobby Previte's band opened the show).

"We don't know what jazz is," McBride commented. "We're just here to have to some fun." Mission accomplished.

For more on Christian McBride: CLICK HERE

For more on Ron Blake: CLICK HERE

For more on Charlie Hunter: CLICK HERE

For more on DJ Logic: CLICK HERE

For more on Bobby Previte: CLICK HERE

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