Christian McBride
Jazz House Kids Artistic Chair, Board Member Artistic Director, James Moody Democracy of Jazz Festival
Bassist extraordinaire, composer, arranger, educator, curator and administrator, Christian McBride, has been one of the most important and most omnipresent figures in the jazz world for the last 20 years.
Beginning in 1989, this Philadelphia-born bassist moved to New York City to further his classical studies at the Juilliard School, only to be snatched up by alto saxophonist, Bobby Watson. As a sideman in the jazz world, he's worked with the best of the very best - Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins, J.J. Johnson, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, McCoy Tyner, Roy Haynes, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny. In the R&B world, he played with and arranged for Isaac Hayes, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, Lalah Hathaway and James Brown. In the pop/rock world, he's extensively collaborated with Sting, Carly Simon, Don Henley and Bruce Hornsby. In the hip- hop/neo-soul world, he's collaborated with The Roots, D'Angelo and Queen Latifah. Other specialty projects have had him work closely with opera legend Kathleen Battle, bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer, the Shanghai Quartet and the Sonus Quartet.
McBride has become a respected spokesperson for the music. In 1997, he spoke on former President Bill Clinton's town hall meeting "Racism in the Performing Arts". In 2000, he was named Artistic Director of the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Sessions. In 2005, he was officially named the co-director of the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Also in 2005, he was named the second Creative Chair for Jazz of the Los Angeles Philharmonic Association.
In 1998, McBride composed, "The Movement, Revisited", a four-movement suite dedicated to four of the major figures of the civil rights movement - Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali
and Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. Commissioned by the Portland (ME) Arts Society and the National Endowment for the Arts, the piece was performed throughout the New England in the fall of 1998 with McBride's quartet and a 30-piece gospel choir led by J.D. Steele.
In 2008, "The Movement, Revisited" was expanded, re-written, re-vamped and performed again in Los Angeles at Walt Disney Concert Hall. The updated version featured a gospel choir, an 18- piece big-band and four actors/speakers. The Los Angeles Times said the piece is “a work that was admirable – to paraphrase Dr. King -- for both the content of its music and the character of its message."
Since 2000, McBride has blazed a trail as a bandleader with the Christian McBride Band. Releasing two CD's - 2002's "Vertical Vision", and 2006's "Live at Tonic", writer Alan Leeds called McBride's band "one of the most intoxicating, least predictable bands on the scene today.” In 2009, McBride released his quintet CD "Christian McBride & Inside Straight" on Mack Avenue Records. The CD was a return to his undiluted "straight-ahead" roots featuring alto/soprano saxophonist, Steve Wilson; vibraphonist, Warren Wolf; pianist, Eric Reed and drummer, Carl Allen.
His second release with Mack Avenue Records was "Conversations with Christian," a recording of duets with McBride and some of his best friends and mentors - George Duke, Angelique Kidjo, Dr. Billy Taylor, Hank Jones, Chick Corea, Eddie Palmieri, Regina Carter, Ron Blake, Roy Hargrove and Russell Malone among many others.
In a stellar career that continues to showcase his remarkable talents as a consummate musician, bassist Christian reaches another milestone with the 2011 release of “The Good Feeling,” his first big band recording as a leader and newest release for Mack Avenue Records, which won the 2012 GRAMMY for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Big Band Album.
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