For Jimmy, Wes And Oliver (Mack Avenue)
Christian McBride Big Band
Released September 25, 2020
Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album 2022
YouTube:
https://music.youtube.com/playlist?list=OLAK5uy_mtdHn1M2JfPl-4GLi4VTD1fUwn8mR3Hc8
Spotify:
About:
Christian McBride solidifies his role as the champion of the past, present and future of jazz with his GRAMMY® Award-winning Big Band’s new album in tribute to Jimmy Smith, Wes Montgomery and Oliver Nelson. Featuring special guests Joey DeFrancesco and Mark Whitfield, For Jimmy, Wes and Oliver honors the historical legacy of the jazz legends who shaped the soul of music for generations to come.
Track Listing:
1. Night Train (Jimmy Forrest / Lewis Simpkins / Oscar Washington) 05:21
2. Road Song (Wes Montgomery) 06:39
3. Up Jumped Spring (Freddie Hubbard) 08:12
4. Milestones (Miles Davis) 03:47
5. The Very Thought of You (Ray Noble) 08:33
6. Down By the Riverside (Traditional) 08:20
7. I Want to Talk About You (Billy Eckstine) 07:18
8. Don Is (Joey DeFrancesco) 06:32
9. Medgar Evers’ Blues (Mark Whitfield) 07:13
10. Pie Blues (Joey DeFrancesco / Christian McBride) 09:53
Personnel:
Christian McBride: bass
Joey DeFrancesco: organ
Mark Whitfield: guitar
Quincy Phillips: drums
with
Frank Greene, Freddie Hendrix, Brandon Lee, Nabate Isles, Anthony Hervey: trumpets
Michael Dease, Steve Davis, James Burton, Douglas Purviance: trombones
Steve Wilson, Todd Bashore, Ron Blake, Dan Pratt, Carl Maraghi: woodwinds
Producer: Christian McBride
Associate Producer: Al Pryor
Review:
Christian McBride’s first two big-band albums won Grammys. The new one is grounded in specific history. Jimmy Smith and Wes Montgomery recorded two LPs in 1966, The Dynamic Duo and Further Adventures of Jimmy and Wes. McBride says he and his classmate Joey DeFrancesco “wore out the grooves” of these records when they were in high school in Philadelphia. DeFrancesco fills Smith’s organ role on McBride’s new release.
The Smith/Montgomery recordings had pieces for big band arranged by Oliver Nelson and also quartet tracks. So does For Jimmy, Wes and Oliver. But McBride’s tribute is more spiritual than one-for-one. He repeats only four tunes from the 1966 albums. All are big-band tracks. It is fun to hear “Night Train” again, powering headlong over the rails, and to hear McBride’s tight large ensemble crack “Milestones” like a whip.
The quartet here is DeFrancesco, Mark Whitfield, McBride, and drummer Quincy Phillips. The first three take almost all the solos. Given this chance to stretch out, DeFrancesco reveals the enormous range of his B-3 chops, and Whitfield reveals that he should be mentioned more often on lists of the top jazz guitarists.
On this swinging, hard-driving album, two rapt quartet ballads stand out. On “I Want to Talk About You,” Whitfield creates gentle tension by continuously postponing melodic closure. On “The Very Thought of You,” DeFrancesco makes his boisterous instrument whisper in your ear. McBride also solos, pizzicato and arco respectively, on these two love songs. In his hands, an acoustic bass can shamelessly expose the human heart.
This is not an album for adventurous listeners who require risk in their jazz. But this conservative, impeccably executed music is full of joie de vivre. In times like these, who can’t use more of that?
Thomas Conrad (JazzTimes)
