Jazz Articles about Christian McBride

Christian McBride: Getting the Inside Straight

by Esther Berlanga-Ryan
November 24, 2009

If we think about it for a little while, it's possible to believe that there is something almost mystic and undeniably powerful about jazz. The way it developed through the years and its constant ignition-like energy; the creativity of those who lead the way and those who continue the journey today; the improvisation that takes over souls and willingly delivers its magic for an amazed world to listen.Jazz is a growing teenager whose future is as wide and ...

Christian McBride & Inside Straight: Kind of Brown

by Ken Dryden
August 3, 2009

Since arriving in New York City in the late 1980s, where he briefly studied at Juilliard, Christian McBride has been one of jazz's most in-demand bassists. In addition, he has become a valuable composer, arranger and jazz educator with a wide-open interest in many musical styles. The initial CD by McBride's Inside Straight quartet features saxophonist Steve Wilson, pianist Eric Reed and drummer Carl Allen (with whom McBride worked in Benny Green's trio), expanding to a quintet on ...

Christian McBride & Inside Straight: Kind of Brown

by John Barron
July 30, 2009

Bassist/composer Christian McBride is one of the most in-demand sidemen in the music business, having toured and recorded with the likes of Herbie Hancock, Chick Corea, Diana Krall and Sting. The Philadelphia-native has also made a name for himself as a daring leader, exploring both acoustic and electronic styles. For Kind of Brown, his premier date for the Detroit-based Mack Avenue Records, McBride introduces his new acoustic jazz quintet Inside Straight, featuring pianist Eric Scott Reed, saxophonist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist ...

McBride, Payton and Whitfield at The Jazz Standard, NYC

by Herb Boyd
October 24, 2008

Christian McBride, Mark Whitfield and Nicholas Payton The Jazz Standard New York, New York September 4, 2008

Fresh from a recent busy weekend at the Detroit International Jazz Festival where he was artist-in- residence, bassist/composer Christian McBride was back on his home turf in Manhattan with his familiar sidemen, guitarist Mark Whitfield and trumpeter Nicholas Payton. Familiar too were the friendly confines of the Jazz Standard with a host of fellow musicians in the ...

McCoy Tyner: Quartet

by Jeff Stockton
January 12, 2008

It seems grossly unfair that the debonair, elegant elder statesman on the cover of Quartet, a document of the concerts McCoy Tyner and his band gave on Dec. 30th-31st, 2006 at Yoshi's in Oakland, would still be trying to live up to the reputation for excellence he established with the John Coltrane Quartet some forty-plus years ago. Perhaps tellingly, three of the seven selections come from The Real McCoy, the first solo album Tyner made for Blue Note in 1965. ...

McCoy Tyner: Quartet

by Mark Corroto
November 11, 2007

From the first few notes you know you're going to love this live recording by McCoy Tyner. With a bass line borrowed from John Coltrane's “A Love Supreme (Impulse!, 1964), the quartet doesn't exactly mimic the Coltrane era as much as take inspiration from its legacy. And of course that legacy included Tyner some forty years ago as he, Elvin Jones and Jimmy Garrison were the rhythm section for the most creative jazz artist ever to advance this music.

Christian McBride: Live at Tonic

by C. Michael Bailey
May 24, 2006

Bassist Christian McBride detonated a funkfest in New York City last year and documented it digitally on Live at Tonic. This three-CD set is filled to the brim with music, each disc clocking in at greater than an hour. The problem is there exists a certain 1970s self indulgence on two of the three discs. But that's okay, because the first disc is a crackerjack, the best funk workout since Miles' Agharta (Columbia, 1975).

The first CD contains ...