Christian McBride Hits the Stage at the 2012 Fest

Upon his arrival in New York in 1989 from his native Philadelphia at the age of 17, Christian McBride turned heads as a young phenom who was equally adept at acoustic and electric bass. Nearly twenty years later, he is considered to be one of the marquee jazz artists of his generation who can be rightfully called a star.

In addition to commanding the stage with such peers as Diana Krall, Joshua Redman, Roy Hargrove, Brad Mehldau and Brian Blade, McBride has toured and recorded with the likes of McCoy Tyner, Pat Metheny and Sting. Mentored by such jazz giants as Ray Brown and Betty Carter, McBride has enjoyed a critically acclaimed recording career as a leader (his 2006 album Live at Tonic was a vibrant three-CD collection with an all-star support team).

He has also served as the creative chair of the Los Angeles Philharmonic and the co-director of the Jazz Museum of Harlem. In addition, McBride is committed to furthering jazz education with a new generation of performers. In 2008 alone he performed duties as artist in residence at both the Detroit International Jazz Festival and the Monterey Jazz Festival. A few years ago at a concert where they both performed, bass legend Ron Carter told McBride, steeped in the jazz tradition, “It’s good to see you respecting the music so much.”

In 2009, McBride released the critically acclaimed Kind of Brown on Mack Avenue Records, the first documentation of one his primary current projects, Inside Straight (a straight-ahead jazz quintet). 2011 marked the release of two other pivotal projects for McBride on Mack Avenue: The Good Feeling (the 2012 GRAMMY® Award winning big band project) and Conversations with Christian, on which the 39-year-old maestro places himself in the forefront of the flow on a duet apiece with “13 of my closest musical friends and cohorts”- including Angélique Kidjo, Sting, Dee Dee Bridgewater, George Duke, Eddie Palmieri, Chick Corea, Dr. Billy Taylor, Hank Jones, Regina Carter, Roy Hargrove, Russell Malone, Ron Blake and actress Gina Gershon.