Christian McBride Trio, Wigmore Hall

Bass maestro Christian McBride leads his powerhouse trio, featuring prodigious young pianist Christian Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., in this hotly anticipated London return, the first date in the bassist’s recently announced Wigmore Hall jazz series.
McBride is one of the greats of the contemporary jazz scene, renowned for his virtuosity and lyricism, and along with four Grammys he has over 300 recording credits to his name. He’s equally at home playing both pizzicato and arco (with the bow), a rarity for jazz bassists, and has worked everyone from Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny to Joe Henderson, Diana Krall, Roy Haynes, The Roots and James Brown.
According the bassist himself, this trio takes “‘hardcore swingin’, blues and the American songbook” as its foundation and that’s certainly borne out by their latest release, 2013’s Out Here, a collection of classic standards and classy originals. Ham Hocks and Cabbage, a blues on which McBride’s melodic dexterity comes to the fore, is the pick of bunch and one to watch out for, along with My Favourite Things, playfully reworked thanks to some rhythmic trickery, Oscar Peterson’s Hallelujah Time and a blistering rendition of Cherokee.
The trio kick off at 7pm, but if you can make it for 5.30pm, when the bassist will be appearing in conversation with journalist and broadcaster Kevin LeGendre, then all the better. With a career like that, McBride can’t fail to have some stories to tell.