McBride's jazz band electrifies audiences at McCarter

The McCarter stage was covered by stacks of amps, key boards and sound equipment as I stepped into the auditorium to watch the Christian McBride Band. Much of the audience looked around slightly confused. "This is going to be a jazz concert?" people wondered aloud.

Most of the crowd was there to see crooner Dee Dee Bridgewater, who was to take the stage after McBride's group. I understood their confusion; I was experiencing a similar curiosity over rumors of saxophonist Ron Blake's personal brand of lip balm.

I smiled as I sat back in my seat, because I knew this crowd was about to be blown away.

McBride and his burnin' new band soon stepped up to perform selections from their revolutionary new recording "Vertical Vision." Virtuoso pianist Geoff Keezer, surrounded by a fleet of keyboards, began the first song acoustically. McBride brought in the melody with his bow on the upright bass.

The audience wondered "Why in the world is this concert beginning so sweetly and traditionally when the guys have all that electricity up there?"

But that sweetness was not to last long. A few bars later, the band made eye contact notifying it was time, and the Christian McBride Band began to rock McCarter like it had never rocked before.

"Technicolor Nightmare," a noteworthy track on "Vertical Vision," soon blared out of all that electronic gear. The energy shot off like a mad circuit as saxophonist Ron Blake and drummer Terreon Gully roared in on their instruments.

The groove locked in immediately as McBride and Keezer laid down the riffs. The volume shot up as Gully crashed his cymbals and Blake's powerful sound filled the auditorium.

Blake soloed first, implementing an effects pedal. The sound traveled through his microphone and was altered through an amplifier, much like the technique of an electric guitar. This allowed him to integrate overdubbing and electronics into his playing. He told me about how excited he was to try out the pedal last week when I met him at the Jazz Standard, a club in New York City.

I couldn't sit still as he ran up and down the range of the saxophone and wailed on technically amazing blues and rock-infused ideas. When Keezer soloed next, he kept the theme of distortion alive as he switched between various keyboards, spinning back and forth on his stool, occasionally playing two different sets of keys simultaneously.

The next song the band played was at a lower volume, but the intensity showed no signs of decreasing. Keezer's composition, "Tahitian Pearl" featured a beautiful melody traded between Blake on tenor saxophone and McBride's electric bass. McBride's solo on this piece was amazing as he played melodic lines you would imagine coming from a horn player as opposed to a bassist.

Once again the band shook it up by performing the sixth track on the album, "Lejos De Usted." The song is a Latin 6/8 feel and features Blake's talents on flute. The interaction between Keezer and Blake was so exciting; Keezer toyed with the audience's ears by playing dissonant lines in accordance with what came out of Blake's flute.

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After finishing the song Christian McBride stepped up to the microphone to account for the shock the band may have inflicted upon the audience. He explained how excited he was about the new project and the band's current tour to promote "Vertical Vision." They've only been on the road five weeks but it sounds as though they've played together their whole lives.

The energy the group created on stage was as electric as the instruments they were using, and McBride explained how he hoped the audience would feel in the experience: "We like to keep the brain moving, play new things, play new sounds, and hopefully you'll dig it!" The group closed with the last track on Vertical Vision, a cover of "Boogie Woogie Waltz" by the pianist Joe Zawinul, one of the founders of fusion jazz. The four band members displayed their musical and technical virtuosity on their instruments and the electronic tools used to add further color to the overall sound. Like his tenor tone, Blake's soprano saxophone sound was deep and resonant.

He gave it even more distinction with the effects pedal. Keezer glided up and down over each of his keyboards while flipping various switches to bend the pitches. McBride jammed out on one final electric bass solo for us, showing just what kind of soul derives from his hometown of Philadelphia. Then drummer Terreon Gully gave us a taste of his influences with characteristics of hip hop to punk all contained within one magnificent solo.

The concert's ending was just as powerful as its beginning. When the group came together to take their bow the energy current on stage was unmistakable. I believe at least some of that current was passed on to the audience, who may not have known what to think, but was undoubtedly moved by the performance. After the concert I was able to talk with Ron Blake.

"Check out our websites, and come see us at Bryant Park in New York City this June," he said.

Blake, as well as the other group members, made it clear on and off stage that they have the time of their lives playing this music.

It is this kind of performance that gives a spiritual gift to audience members, for which we are all very lucky. I was fortunate enough to leave the show with a material gift too: my very own tube of Ron Blake lip balm, courtesy of the saxophone giant himself.