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| Christian McBride and Ursa Major |
The
jazz bassist Christian McBride has a gift for spotting and developing young
jazz musicians. Much like Art Blakey with the Jazz Messengers, he has built
bands that serve as launching pads for emerging jazz musicians who go on to
become major bandleaders, often stars. Among those McBride has helped elevate
are drummer Ulysses Owens Jr., pianist Christian Sands, and vibraphonist Warren
Wolf. McBride’s current group, Ursa Major, features drummer Savannah Harris,
pianist Mike King, saxophonist Nicole Glover, and guitarist Ely Perlman. On Friday
night at Orchestra Hall in Midtown Detroit, the group closed the 2026 Paradise
Jazz Series in grand fashion. McBride describes Ursa Major as an all-in-one group
that incorporates elements of his other ensembles: New Jawn, Inside Straight,
and the Christian McBride Big Band. It is an ambitious concept, but the group
carried it off easily over a terrific, mostly swing-driven 90-minute set. Their
debut recording, “Point of Light,” is due out this summer, and McBride drew
much of the evening’s set list from that project, along with songs from his
earlier recordings. The band opened with an abstract original by Glover before
igniting a brushfire with the next, which Glover gobbled the changes like a
hungry man ripe fruit. Throughout the performance, she demonstrated that she
can blow lovingly and freewheelingly. The performance was filled with ravishing
highlights. I awoke this morning thinking about the exchange between King and
Harris on McBride’s “Black Mood.” Their interplay matched the energy and
intensity of pianist Joey Calderazzo and drummer Justin Faulkner during their
heated musical dialogues. Harris’s attack, rim shots, and cymbal work have a
strong kinship to Faulkner's style of drumming. There were times when the musicians
came up for air, playing slow-tempo numbers that were not as arresting as the
harder-swinging selections that immediately won the audience over. Although
McBride assembled Ursa Major largely so Harris, King, Perlman, and Glover could
swing and develop, he never languishes in the background. He reminded the
audience of his considerable virtuosity with death-defying bass work on Chick
Corea’s “La Fiesta.” Yes, he was showboating some, but the near-capacity
audience was totally invested. McBride has long favored forming new bands every
couple of years, and continuing to staff them with ambitious, swing-conscious
young musicians has proven a winning formula.