Live At Tonic

I was once in a Best Buy store and a black teenager, who mistakenly thought I was a Best Buy employee, asked me where the jazz section was. He said he was looking for some jazz by Paul Hardcastle (Paul Hardcastle - jazz??). I kept my cool and seized the chance to give him a lesson in jazz. It is unfortunate that the jazz section is so small because I would've directed him to this album. It has it all; traditional jazz, funky jazz, some great jams, jazz with some Stevie Wonder and Kraftwerk references and some weird experimental stuff. And as a previous reviewer noted, it's a triple live for the price of one CD. A bargain by anyone's standards.

Solid stuff. 3 Discs. The first is made up of the best tunes from the first set of both nights of this two night run at Tonic. Very nice. McBride's technical skills are amazing. The second two discs are basically jam sessions, the second set of each night, with special guests like Charlie Hunter and DJ Logic. It's cool to hear these guys jam, but since it's totally improv, the second two discs are made up of 15-20 minute jams based around one tonal center = a lot of cool licks and skills but the music doesn't really go anywhere. Everyone playing at this show is a fantastic musician, though especially CM.

Excellent! So what holds me back? Disc 3. Of course, that's subjective. A great price for 3 CD's.

If you love christian Mcbride, then he will deliver on this album. With the funk jams mixed with his upright and fretless bass, you will never get tired of this album!

I totally dig this new CD. I downloaded it at [...] and I've nearly memorized the whole thing lol. Charlie Hunter is amazing on this album IMO - I don't know what one of the other reviewers is talking about when it says he "adds little". I'm no Charlie Hunter apologist but, on the tracks he plays on, he really plays these wild intricate pieces that are unlike the Charlie Hunter I know. Since he has a bass player, he focuses purely on the "lead" guitar and he's frigging awesome lol.

Anyway, this isn't a review of Charlie Hunter's performance... Initially I wasn't too thrilled with Disc 3 since it's a lot of long jams. At first, I only listened to the first 2 discs and skipped disc 3 all together (that's still a lot of music). After a few months, I went back and started listening to Disc 3 and WHOA! It's easily as much fun as the other two.

I would suggest starting with discs 1 & 2 and then, after you've absorbed them, then come back later on and dig disc 3. I really enjoy the whole album now but it took me a few months.