Few other players straddle the traditional/contemporary line in jazz as comfortably as McBride, and on Sci-Fi he honors his inspirations without falling into imitation. His milky electric lines on "Walking on the Moon" echo Sting, though with more chops than the Police man ever exhibited, and his cover of "Havana" nails the nuance of Jaco Pastorius, from elegant gliss to burning sixteenth-note lines. (Let it be noted, however, that McBride replicates Jaco's electric wizardry on the more cumbersome acoustic bass -- about as insouciant a tribute as one could imagine.)

The band tears it up throughout most of Sci-Fi, enhanced by some burnin' piano on two tracks from Herbie Hancock, a bit of atmospheric but uninspired harmonica from Toots Thielemans, and other guest shots. McBride maps out challenging changes for soloists on his own tunes, with a harmonic and production sensibility that draws from Weather Report. On less inspired tunes, such as the two-chord indulgence "Via Mwandishi," the playing suffers. More often, the players dig into the material and play with rare intensity.

Perhaps the standout track is "Aja." McBride doesn't fool around too much with the arrangement; other than shifting from 6/8 to 4/4 here and there, it's pretty close to the original. But his ability to take the spirit and the letter of the Steely Dan chart, enhance the harmonies, and fill like crazy around the groove makes the point as well as anything else on the album: McBride, the standout bassist of our time, can do it all -- and does.