Live at the Village Vanguard [2021]

The first live album from Christian McBride's dynamic quintet Inside Straight, 2021's Live at the Village Vanguard was captured during their 2014 residency at the iconic Manhattan jazz club. This was the same residency that spawned the bassist's equally thrilling 2015 trio album, and in that sense it works as a kind of companion piece to that album. Prior to forming Inside Straight, McBride had moved somewhat away from the hard-driving jazz that first established his reputation, pursuing his love of funk and rock sounds as on his 2003 album Vertical Vision, not to mention work with Sting and others. Inside Straight, while no less adventurous than those projects, brought him back to playing deeply sophisticated acoustic jazz and collaborating with his bandmates -- alto and soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson, pianist Peter Martin, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, and drummer Carl Allen. Although an archival release, Live at the Village Vanguard fits nicely into Inside Straight's discography chron