Christian McBride's New Jawn - Christian McBride's New Jawn

2018 release

Sure, Christian McBride could have called his new ensemble the Christian McBride Quartet or the Christian McBride Group, or any number of other, somewhat more straitlaced variations on that basic theme.

 But this new chordless quartet - with trumpeter Josh Evans, saxophonist Marcus Strickland, and drummer Nasheet Waits - arrives with a bit too much grit under it's fingernails to warrant a name quite that buttoned up. If there's one thing the acclaimed bassist knows, it's that when it comes to grit there's no better resource to draw from than his own hometown, Philadelphia.

So, McBride turned to one of the city's most beloved colloquialisms to christen his latest project, Christian McBride's New Jawn ("All-purpose term for a person, place or thing"). On the band's eponymous debut, these four stellar musicians ably walk the razor's edge between thrilling virtuosity and gut-punch instinctiveness.