Out Here

Bassist Christian McBride has already appeared on more than 300 albums as a sideman, with another 11 where he leads the band. Here with two next-generation Young Lions—pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens Jr.—McBride pares his Inside Straight quintet down to an acoustic trio to make this lineup’s debut. With such a virtuoso in the lead, one would assume the youngsters would have trouble keeping up. But even though McBride does take a lot of solo time, the other two have plenty of space to shine on this mix of originals, covers, and standards. McBride puts his low-end stamp on the free-flowing “My Favorite Things” with substantial help for the versatile Sands. Owens, on the other hand, is from the Brian Blade school of narrative drumming (where soloing isn’t a isolated act but rather something worked in whenever there's room, such as on “East of the Sun”). Out Here is balanced by the gospel-ish “Hallelujah Time” and the early R&B standard “Who's Makin’ Love,” not to mention the Oscar Hammerstein ballad “I Have Dreamed,” which has an almost classical feel.