Christian McBride, Edgar Meyer – ‘But Who’s Gonna Play the Melody?’

Christian McBride, Edgar Meyer – But Who’s Gonna Play the Melody?
(Mack Avenue. Album review (*) by Phil Johnson)

Unless you’re a double bass player yourself, the idea of an hour-long duet for two big fiddles might seem less of a treat than a threat of random low-end grumbling. But that’s before you know about Christian McBride and Edgar Meyer. If you were lucky enough to witness one of the very few dates on their debut UK tour in 2016, the experience was revelatory, especially as regards Meyer, the lesser known of the two in jazz circles. McBride has been the Don of the double bass for decades now: a worthy successor to the late great Ray Brown. They both have Grammys to spare.

Playing completely acoustically, the duo began with Meyer laying out a steadfast walking bass line while McBride dexterously plucked or bowed the melody. So far so great. Then they swapped over and your jaw dropped, because Edgar Meyer, a Tennessee native who first learned the instrument from his father, is a total bass monster. He composes and performs with classical ensembles and soloists (think Boston Symphony, Yo-Yo Ma, Joshua Bell, Zakir Hussain), and is as happy playing bluegrass with Chris Thile and Bela Fleck as Bach and the baroque. 

The new Mack Avenue recording is much the same, but probably even better as they’ve been playing together longer. Over four LP sides – beautifully pressed and coloured a tasteful shade of turquoise – they alternate often funky up tempo originals whose titles (‘Barnyard Disturbance’; ‘Bebop, of Course’) give an idea of their charms, with the odd standard, (’Solar’ by Miles, Bill Monroe’s ’Tennessee Blues’, a thrillingly romantic ‘Bewitched, Bothered and Bewildered’, Mancini’s ‘Days of Wine and Roses’), and vary the pace and emphasis of the repertoire over each LP side. There are beautifully bowed, almost baroque-sounding interludes, and Meyer (who writes the lion’s share of the original material), can certainly pen a killer tune.  

The hour and a bit passes by in an all-too brief blur. It’s only interrupted by having to get up and change the record, compensated for by the superb sound quality. The recording venue was Ingram Hall at Blair School of Music at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, where Edgar Meyer is Artist in Residence.

(*) reviewed from the vinyl

from https://londonjazznews.com