Christian McBride Band

Christian McBride made his name as a bright light among jazz bassists with five progressively more adventurous albums on the Verve label, culminating in 2000’s Sci Fi, which found him more sure-footed as a bandleader and skillfully interweaving the threads of his previous work. He moves over to Warner for his new fusion-friendly Vertical Vision, which wanders nicely between hard funk and mellow smoothness. His sidemen are strong players in their own right, especially saxman Ron Blake and keyboardist Keezer, each of whom provide splendid compositions of their own on Vision. Dakota, 1021 E. Bandana Blvd., St. Paul, (651) 642-1442, www.dakotacooks.com