October 2025 "Jazz Corner: Christian McBride" By Sebastian Cabrera

     Last month, I wrote about a jazz musician named Roy Hargrove who became a well-known figure in Jazz. I really enjoyed writing and learning about Hargrove’s history as a musician, so I wanted to write another article about someone new. I learned about Christian McBride during a rehearsal with the Reedley College Jazz band. Professor Alvidrez (Saxophonist and Jazz instructor) wanted us to discover musicians related to our respective instruments. Although I didn’t know where to start, I asked if he could give me some suggestions on different jazz bassists. A week later, he handed me a note that contained seven different musicians, and second on the list was Christian McBride. The first song of his I listened to was called “Gettin’ to It” from his Gettin’ to It Album in 1994. This became my first introduction to McBride and what interested me in writing an article about him.

     Christian McBride was born May 31^st, 1972, in West Philadelphia. His mother, an audiophile, and his father, who played Bass for Mongo Santamaria (a legendary Cuban percussionist), contributed to his love of music at a young age. McBride’s music taste growing up consisted of African American music that slowly became popular during his childhood. Then, around the age of 10 years old, his uncle exposed him to a multitude of musicians like the Isley Brothers and Dizzy Gillespie. But the one that became his idol was James Brown, who was a singer, dancer, and songwriter. The same year, he received his first bass guitar, which solidified his first steps into the music scene. In 1989, McBride attended Juilliard School in New York to expand his classical studies in music after finishing high school at the Philadelphia High School for Creative Performing Arts. While attending Juilliard, Bobby Watson (Alto Saxophonist) gave the young McBride his first gig that would change his career. Around the 1990s, McBride would tour with Watson, Freddie Hubbard (Trumpet), Benny Golson (Saxophonist), and Roy Hargrove (Trumpet). The number of gigs and performances McBride was doing during his early career helped him pursue his passion and led to important roles in the music field. While performing with his group, Legendary double bass player Ray Brown would mentor and collaborate with McBride. Together, they would create an album featuring another Bassist, John Clayton, called Super Bass. There is a recording on YouTube that shows the three legends playing together in front of an audience. What I like about that video is how McBride and Clayton would smile at Brown with admiration. The whole performance was to showcase their talents and McBride's love of music.

     As of now, Christian McBride’s genres of music are experimental, free-leaning jazz, funk, soul, Latin, hip-hop, and rhythm and blues. He spoke about “Racism in the Performing Arts” in 1997 at former President Bill Clinton’s town meetings and a year later wrote a four-piece movement called “The Movement, Revisited”. The album is about the four major civil rights figures: Rosa Parks, Malcolm X, Muhammad Ali, and Martin Luther King Jr. Then, in 2008, he re-wrote the four pieces and performed at Walt Disney Concert Hall in Los Angeles, CA. He currently works as the Artistic Director for McBride’s World at Sea, an Artistic Advisor for Jazz Programming at NJPAC (New Jersey Performing Arts Center), an Artistic Director at TD James Moody Jazz Festival, and a Co-artistic Director at the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Throughout his career, McBride was nominated sixteen times and won nine Grammys. Although Jazz isn’t a genre many people listen to, Christian McBride is an example of a musician who wants to spread his love of music to the world.