Christian McBride and Inside Straight
People Music
Mack Avenue *** 
There’s lots of enjoyable swing and propulsion here and the vibes of Warren Wolf and Steve Wilson’s alto are where most of the interest lies. A Golden Age record made in the present day, that’s the template, People Music is a night time record that live would be perfect for a good jazz club, but in a more passive listening experience at home, it’s not so involving. Recorded at New York’s Avatar, a fine midtown studio for jazz that people may well in the future compare to Rudy Van Gelder’s New Jersey place at Englewood Cliffs, McBride has produced the album and written some tunes, although other band members add material as well. Not as strong an album as 2009’s Kind of Brown partly because it’s not so settled and more importantly because no one tune matches the sheer quality of ‘The Shade of the Cedar Tree’. Eric Reed also brought something special to the band then and he’s hard to replace. People Music is a style record, quite generic in feel, and not one about great tunes necessarily. But it is also about momentum, for instance how ‘Fair Hope Theme’ gathers pace with some jaw-dropping bass riffs more of which crop up on ‘New Hope’s Angel’ where McBride summons an overall air of contentment and draws all the threads together. Just released