Christian McBride's second recording as a leader is an all-star affair, matching the young bassist in various combinations with either
Kenny Garrett or
Gary Bartz on alto,
Chick Corea or
Kenny Barron on keyboards, vibraphonist
Steve Nelson, drummer
Jack DeJohnette and percussionist
Mino Cinelu. The music ranges from fairly straight-ahead to funky. Both
Garrett and
Bartz have opportunities to blow hard (pity that they were not teamed up);
Chick Corea revives his "Tones for Joan's Bones," and
McBride (who contributed all but four of the ten songs) overdubs his basses on
Freddie Hubbard's "Little Sunflower." Continually interesting music which contains plenty of variety. ~ Scott Yanow