Without Further Ado, Vol 1 (Mack Avenue)
Christian McBride Big Band
Released August 29, 2025
Grammy Nominee for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album 2026
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mKfD1LXNML3NdFbeRd9S8fm0IUiCwHh9M
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About:
“Without Further Ado, Vol. 1” marks McBride’s fourth big-band album; it is a follow up to “For Jimmy, Wes & Oliver” (2020, Mack Avenue Records), also recorded in a big-band setting. That disc received a Grammy in the category of Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album and earned one of the nine Grammys that McBride has received thus far. “I really enjoy writing for big band, because it’s a particular art form, writing for large ensembles like that,” he said in an interview posted Aug. 21 on the site rollingout.com. “I’ve been doing this now for a good 25-plus years, and so I enjoy writing for people to perform in my big band and writing my own music for the big band.”
McBride doesn’t take credit for the big-band revival. “I don’t know if I’m bringing the big-band sound back, because there actually has been a really good amount of big bands working under the scenes,” he said. “It’s just difficult to really maintain a big band, because it’s so expensive. You got 17 people in one band. You’re not going to get a long string of gigs without some sort of monumental [financial] backing.”
Of the great big-band leaders of the past, McBride said, “I think that the Count Basie Orchestra was probably the band that bred the longest list of arrangers. Quincy Jones, Frank Foster, Ernie Wilkins, Billy Byers, Sammy Nestico, so many great writers came out of that band. Yeah, I would love to be one of the writers for the Count Basie Band. But I feel very fortunate that I learned directly from two legends when it came to writing.”
Those two are bassist John Clayton and saxophonist Jimmy Heath. “John Clayton has been a great mentor,” McBride said. “The late Jimmy Heath was a great mentor, specifically when it came to big-band writing. Someone we lost [recently], the great [composer/bandleader] Lalo Schifrin, was someone who I had a chance to spend a lot of time with.”
As for “Without Further Ado, Vol. 1,” McBride is thrilled with the caliber of his recruits: “I got Jeffrey Osborne, I have Diane Reeves, but I have some people who folks may not know, like Antoinette Henry, a bad young sister out of Philly, who is going to be a serious problem out there in the jazz world one day. [We have] the great Cécile McLorin Salvant, José James, and so it’s a good mixture of the legends and the contemporary.”
Track Listing:
1. Murder By Numbers (Andrew James Summers / Gordon Matthew Sumner) feat. Andy Summers, Sting 5:05
2. Back In Love Again (Len Ron Hanks / Zane Grey) feat. Jeffrey Osborne 3:49
3. Old Folks (Dedette Lee Hill, Willard Robison) feat. Samara Joy 4:19
4. Moanin’ (Bobby Timmons) feat. José James 6:18
5. All Through The Night (Cole Porter) feat. Cécile McLorin Salvant 3:16
6. Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow (Gerald Goffin, Carole King) Dianne Reeves 6:17
7. Come Rain Or Come Shine (John M. Mercer / Harold Arlen) feat. Antoinette Henry 3:38
8. Op. 49 – Cold Chicken Suite 3rd Movement (Christian McBride) 4:27
Personnel:
Christian McBride: acoustic bass, electric bass
McClenty Hunter: drums
Rodney Jones: guitar
Xavier Davis: piano, electric piano, clavinet
17-piece Christian McBride Big Band
Trumpets: Frank Greene, Freddie Hendrix (solo #4), Brandon Lee, Nabate Isles (solo #1)
Trombones: Michael Dease, Steve Davis (solo #4), James Burton III
Bass Trombone: Doug Purviance (#1, 3, 5, 8), Max Seigel (# 2, 6, 7)
French Horn: Justin Mullen (3)
Alto & Soprano Saxophones: Steve Wilson (solo #7-8)
Alto Saxophone & Flute: Todd Bashore
Tenor Saxophone: Ron Blake (ts on 1-5, 7-8), Dan Pratt (ts on1-5, 7-8)
Baritone Saxophone & Bass Clarinet: Carl Maraghi (bs, bass-cl on 1-2, 4-5, 7-8)
Flute: Janet Axelrod (fl on 6)
Clavinet: Alan Kay (cl on 6)
Percussion: Pedrito Martinez
Vibraphone: Warren Wolf
Background vocals: Shannon Pearson
Special Guests:
Sting: vocals
Andy Summers: guitar
Jeffrey Osborne: vocals
Samara Joy: vocals
José James: vocals
Cécil McLorin Salvant: vocals
Antoinette Henry: vocals
Recorded September 23-25, 2024 and October 4-5, 2022 at The Power Station, NYC
Additional Recording October 17, 2024, at Sear Sound, NYC; May 28, October 2 and December 11-12, 2024, at Blue Engine Studios, NYC; June 29, 2024, at Rocky Mountain Recorders, Denver
Recording and Mixing Engineer: Todd Whitelock
Assistant Engineers: Chris Gold, Matt Soares, Michael Hickey, Ben Miller, Steven Sacco, Chris McNaughton, Dennis Smith
Mastering Engineer: Mark Wilder
Front Cover Art: Keith Jenry Brown
Photography: Evelyn Freja
Layout: Romelle Canonizado
Producer: Christian McBride
Associate Producer: Todd Whitelock
Review:
For Christian McBride’s fourth big band outing, a bevy of guest vocalists assist him in reimagining pop and jazz classics. Fans of the Police will instantly recognize the distinctive voice of Sting on the opener, a 60s-styled big band rendering of the group’s “Murder by Numbers,” with guitarist Andy Summers punctuating with signature slashing chords. McBride switches to bubbling electric bass on the upbeat “Back in Love Again,” a 1977 hit for L.T.D., recreated here with that group’s lead singer, Jeffrey Osborne. New vocal star Samara Joy breaths classy Sarah Vaughan-Ella Fitzgerald elegance into a reverent rendition of the ballad “Old Folks” while singer José James delivers soulfully on Bobby Timmons’ “Moanin’,” a gospel-tinged vehicle in the late 50s for Art Blakey & the Jazz Messengers. McBride’s persistent walking bass underscores this swaggering blues shuffle, which he also cleverly arranged to incorporate elements of Benny Golson’s “Blues March,” another Messengers staple. Cécile McLorin Salvant swings persuasively on a romp through Cole Porter’s “All Through the Night,” which also features some daring arco work from the leader. And Dianne Reeves delivers a mesmerizing reimagining of the Shirelle’s 1961 pop hit, “Will You Still Love Me Tomorrow.”
Bill Milkowski (The Absolute Sound)
