Christian McBride

Christian McBride
McBride at the 2009 Detroit Jazz Festival Photo: Brian Callahan
Background information
Birth name	Christian Lee McBride
Born	May 31, 1972 (1972-05-31) (age 39)
Origin	Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Genres	Jazz, jazz fusion
Occupations	Bassist
Years active	since 1989
Labels	Verve, Warner Bros., Ropeadope, Mack Avenue
Website	christianmcbride.com

Christian McBride (born May 31, 1972, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania) is an American jazz bassist. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, are well known Philadelphia bassists who served as McBride's early mentors. He is regarded as a virtuoso, and is one of the most recorded musicians of his generation, having appeared on close to 300 recordings as a sideman before the age of 40.

Biography

After starting on bass guitar, McBride switched to double bass and studied at the Juilliard School.^[1]

He has performed and recorded with a huge number of jazz legends and ensembles, including Freddie Hubbard, Joe Henderson, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Diana Krall, Roy Haynes, Chick Corea, John McLaughlin, Wynton Marsalis, Hank Jones, Joshua Redman, and Ray Brown's "Superbass" with John Clayton, as well as with hip-hop, pop, soul, and classical musicians like The Roots,^[2] Kathleen Battle, Carly Simon, Sting, Bruce Hornsby, and James Brown.

In 1996, McBride contributed to the AIDS benefit album Offbeat: A Red Hot Soundtrip produced by the Red Hot Organization.

Since 2000, McBride has fronted his own acoustic, jazz, fusion and funk ensemble, "The Christian McBride Band". As writer Alan Leeds has stated, it is "one of the most intoxicating, least predictable bands on the scene today."^{[citation needed]} McBride also plays on occasion under the moniker "A Christian McBride Situation," McBride's "blanket term for a passing arrangement of sympathetic players" according to writer Nate Chinen.^{[citation needed]}

McBride primarily plays upright bass, but is equally adept on the electric bass. During his tenure with Sting (2001–03), he also played bass for the collaborative project, "The Philadelphia Experiment." The Philadelphia Experiment included keyboardist Uri Caine and hip-hop drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. Recent projects have included tours and recordings with the Pat Metheny Trio, the Bruce Hornsby Trio, and Queen Latifah. His Live at Tonic three-CD set was released in 2006. And like Paul Chambers, McBride can solo by playing his bass arco style.

In 2006, McBride was named to the position of "Creative Chair for Jazz" with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, taking over from Dianne Reeves. He was initially signed to a two-year contract that was subsequently renewed for an additional two years. He was eventually succeeded by Herbie Hancock in 2010.^[3]

McBride performed with Sonny Rollins and Roy Haynes at Carnegie Hall on September 18, 2007, in commemoration of Rollins' 50th anniversary of his first performance there.^[4]

He is also co-director of the new National Jazz Museum in Harlem.

McBride is currently touring in a "straight-ahead" quintet called "Christian McBride & Inside Straight" featuring alto/soprano saxophonist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, pianist Peter Martin (jazz pianist) and drummer Carl Allen, as well as performing as "A Christian McBride Situation" with saxophonist Ron Blake, guitarist David Gilmore & turntablist DJ Logic.

In 2008, McBride joined John McLaughlin, Chick Corea, Kenny Garrett and Vinnie Colaiuta in a jazz fusion supergroup called the Five Peace Band. They released a CD in February 2009 and completed their world tour in May of that year, as Brian Blade took over for Vinnie Colaiuta as drummer in Asia and some US concerts.

Discography

McBride, left with Jimmy Heath

As leader

Title	Year of release	Label
Gettin' To It	1995	Verve
Number Two Express	1996	Verve
A Family Affair	1998	Verve
Sci-Fi	2000	Verve
The Philadelphia Experiment	2001	Ropeadope Records
Vertical Vision	2003	Warner Bros. Records
Live at Tonic	2006	Ropeadope
New York Time	2006	Chesky
Kind of Brown	2009	Mack Avenue

As sideman

With Chris Botti

• To Love Again: The Duets (2005)
• December (2006)
• Italia (2007)

With Regina Belle

• Lazy Afternoon (2004)

With Chick Corea

• Remembering Bud Powell (1997)
• Rendezvous In New York (2002)
• Super Trio: Corea/Gadd/McBride (2006)
• Chillin' In Chelan (2007)
• Five Peace Band (with John McLaughlin) (2009)

With George Duke

• After Hours (1998)
• Face the Music (2002)
• Duke (2005)
• Dukey Treats (2008)

With Benny Green

• Greens (1991)
• Testifyin': Live at the Village Vanguard (1992)
• That's Right! (1992)
• The Place To Be (1994)
• These Are Soulful Days (1999)
• Naturally (2000)

With Roy Hargrove

• Public Eye (1991)
• Family (1995)

With Joe Henderson

• Lush Life: The Music of Billy Strayhorn (1992) – GRAMMY WINNER
• Double Rainbow: The Music of Antonio Carlos Jobim (1995)
• Big Band (1996)

With Bruce Hornsby

• Camp Meeting (2007)

With Freddie Hubbard

• Live at Fat Tuesday's (1992)
• God Bless the Child (1998)

With Hank Jones

• West of 5th (Chesky, 2006)

With Diana Krall

• Only Trust Your Heart (1995)
• Love Scenes (1997)
• The Look of Love (2001)
• Live in Paris (2002)
• The Girl In The Other Room (2004)

With Queen Latifah

• Trav'lin' Light (2008)

With Joe Lovano

• Tenor Legacy (Blue Note, 1993)
• Quartets: Live at the Village Vanguard (Blue Note, 1995)

With Pat Metheny and Antonio Sanchez

• Day Trip (2005)
• Tokyo Day Trip (2008)

With Joshua Redman

• Joshua Redman (1993)
• Moodswing (1994)
• Back East (2007)

With David Sanborn

• Pearls (1994)
• Time Again (2003)
• Closer (2005)
• Here and Gone (2008)

With Sting

• ...All This Time (2001)
• Sacred Love (2003)

With McCoy Tyner

• Prelude and Sonata (1995)
• What the World Needs Now: The Music of Burt Bacharach (1997)
• Illuminations (McCoy Tyner album) (2004) – GRAMMY WINNER
• McCoy Tyner Quartet: Live (2007)

With Michael Wolff

• Jumpstart (1995)
• 2AM (1997)

CD reviews

• Christian McBride | "Kind of Brown"
• Christian McBride | "Live At Tonic"
• Christian McBride with Pat Metheny | "Day Trip"

References

1. ^ Yanow, Scott. "Christian McBride: Biography". Allmusic. http://www.allmusic.com/artist/christian-mcbride-p103298/biography. Retrieved 2011-01-02. 
2. ^ [1]^{[dead link]}
3. ^ "Christian McBride bio". Los Angeles Philharmonic. http://www.laphil.com/press/press_kits/wdch_pk_2006/mcbride_bio.pdf. Retrieved September 23, 2009. 
4. ^ "Garnegie Hall official website". Carnegiehall.org. http://www.carnegiehall.org/SiteCode/Search/AdvancedSearch.aspx. Retrieved 2011-07-17. 

External links

• Christian McBride Throws Down Chris M. Slawecki, AllAboutJazz, May 23, 2006, Retrieved September 28, 2007
• Live at Tonic David Miller, AllAboutJazz.com, May 21, 2006 Retrieved August 11, 2007
• Christian McBride: Bass Beautiful Donald True Van Deusen, AllAboutJazz.com, October 6, 2004 Retrieved August 11, 2007
• The Philadelphia Experiment Todd S. Jenkins, AllAboutJazz.com, July 1, 2001 Retrieved August 11, 2007
• A Situation Is Brewing, Acoustic and Fierce Nate Chinen "New York Times.com", June 28, 2007 Retrieved March 8, 2009
• Christian McBride Band MySpace Page
• Official website
• The National Jazz Museum in Harlem
• Conversation With Christian McBride, 10/01/2007
• Christian McBride telling a story entitled "The Gig" on The Moth podcast
• Conversation with Christian McBride - State of Mind, April 2006

Persondata
Name	Macbride, Christian
Alternative names
Short description
Date of birth	May 31, 1972
Place of birth
Date of death
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