HOW TO DONATE
Our costs will always be there. So readers who can donate towards the cost of the site, please open a Skrill account. Readers who wish to contribute to BigO will now have to use Skrill (click here). We are no longer able to use PayPal to receive donations. Register an account at Skrill. To make a payment, use this e-mail address as recipient’s e-mail address in Skrill: mail2[at]bigomagazine.com. Looking forward to hearing from you.
+ + + + +
JUST TO LET YOU KNOW
To reduce spamming, the BigO website is going through Cloudflare. What it does is scan your browser to ensure the visitor is not a spam. Do not be alarmed as this usually takes only a few seconds. Email us if you still have difficulty accessing the BigO site; or playing or downloading the tracks. If you know a better way of reducing spam, do let us know.
+ + + + +
Click on the panels for a better view or to download jpg artwork.
CHRISTIAN McBRIDE BIG BAND
Cheltenham 2018 [no label, 1CD]
Cheltenham Jazz Festival. Cheltenham Town Hall, Cheltenham, UK; May 6, 2018. Very good BBC webstream.
Jon Turney, londonjazznews.com:
Seventeen players on the stand. Catchy hooks, grooves, and funk. An effortlessly charming master of ceremonies who also arranges, and leads from the bass. A well-drilled band, visibly enjoying their power to conjure that old-school sound, from ear-splitting riffs to velvet-cushioned swing. A clutch of stellar soloists: Marcus Strickland properly raucous on tenor sax; Brandon Lee on trumpet, bluesy on I Thought About You, fervently upbeat on an old Jazz Messengers theme; Xavier Davis on piano sparkling against the band backdrop almost everywhere.
Three powerhouse vocals from Melissa Walker (Mrs McBride). With help from a tasty alto sax obligato from Gabrielle Garo she almost manages to redeem A Taste of Honey as a jazz vehicle. Almost. The encore, as several previous numbers, features an absolutely jaw-dropping bass solo that has zero effect on the leader’s impregnable composure.
+ + + + +
Thanks to PsyKies for sharing the show at Dime.
Pictures by John Watson, posted at londonjazznews.com - Thanks!
Lineage:
BBC Radio 3 > 323kbps 48k HLS aac stream > ffmpeg > aac > Audition > FLAC
Captured live off air from the original BBC Radio Three broadcast during Jazz Now on May 14, 2018. Source was the BBC 48kHz HLS 323kbps aac internet stream.
Audition was used to increase levels by 6dB, move interview to start of show, track and convert to 16bit/44.1k FLAC. FLAC tagging done using mp3tag and fingerprints generated using TLH.
Click on the highlighted tracks to download the MP3s (320 kbps). As far as we can ascertain, these tracks have never been officially released on CD.
Please Do Not Hammer The Links. Due to the size of some of the files, please be very patient when downloading the tracks. It could be that the server was very busy. The tracks should still be around. Please try again later.
Kindly email us if you encounter persistent problems downloading the files. Also email us if you have any rarities you’d like to share with our readers.
Track 00. Interview 4:08
Track 01. Getting To It (McBride) 9:33
Track 02. Youthful Bliss (McBride) 8:10
Track 03. I Thought About You (Mercer) 7:00
Track 04. Thermo (Hubbard) 7:10
Track 05. In The Wee Small Hours (Hilliard) 4:54
Track 06. The Black Messiah Part 2 (George Duke) 11:09
Track 07. The More I See You (Gordon) 5:16
Track 08. Band intros 2:44
Track 09. In A Hurry (McBride) 12:51
73 mins
Lineup:
Christian McBride: bass/leader
Quincy Phillips: drums
Xavier Davis: piano
Melissa Walker: vocals
Trumpets:
Brandon Lee
Frank Greene
Benny Benack III
Nabate Isles
Trombones:
Steve Davis
Michael Dease
James Burton
Douglas Purviance
Reeds:
Marcus Strickland tenor, flute
Gabrielle Garo alto, flute
Todd Bashore alto
Dan Pratt tenor, flute, clarinet
Carl Maraghi baritone
Click here to order Christian McBride releases.