Jazz Articles about Christian McBride

Christian McBride: Bass Beautiful

by AAJ Staff
October 6, 2004

Christian McBride, the young and perhaps most exciting jazz bass player since Ray Brown, returned to his hometown of Philadelphia with his new band for an October 2nd concert at the Zellerbach Theatre on the University of Pennsylvania campus.

Joining McBride will be Ron Blake, saxophones/flute; Geoffrey Keezer, piano; and Terreon Gully, drums. Mcbride has been acclaimed worldwide for his brilliant bass. He has six recordings and his latest is Vertical Vision. He has some very personal Philadelphia connections which ...

Pat Martino: Think Tank

by Joel Roberts
January 21, 2004

It's been nearly twenty years since Pat Martino's comeback from a near-fatal brain aneurysm. In that time he's re-established himself as one of the jazz world's premier guitarists, a technically advanced post bop player who combines forward-thinking musical ideas with native Philly grit; think Pat Metheny with more soul. Think Tank , as the name suggests, finds Martino at his most cerebral, which has its pros and cons. The title track, for example, is a blues of ...

Think Tank

by Victor L. Schermer
October 30, 2003

It could be said that Pat Martino most fully represents the evolution of jazz guitar artistry from the 1960's to the present day. His playing displays a striking continuity over time, even though disrupted in mid-stream by his well-known bout with a brain aneurysm that led to nearly total amnesia, and from which he more than regained his full abilities and gifts by a heroic recovery process. Yet within that continuity are all the developments in “straight ahead" jazz from ...

A Fireside Chat With Christian McBride

by AAJ Staff
October 7, 2003

Christian McBride is the most recorded bassist of his generation. That should say something of the value of having a Christian McBride on a record. But mostly, it says something about his versatility. Is he the Macgyver of jazz? Come to your own conclusions after this conversation with Christian McBride, coming to a town near you, unedited and in his own words.

Fred Jung: Let's start from the beginning.

Christian McBride: My father plays bass and ...

Pat Martino: Think Tank

by Clifford Allen
October 5, 2003

It is difficult to make mainstream jazz (hard bop, etc.) relevant in light of the subversion or destruction of its form that occurred over thirty years ago. But, as many improvisers proved, it was possible to make consistently engaging and advanced music in the hard bop idiom well after the innovations of Ornette and Cecil took hold, and though the case for it is a little tougher today, there are a number of musicians who have found something new to ...

Uri Caine / Christian McBride / Ahmir Thompson: The Philadelphia Experiment

by Richard Anderson
February 1, 2002

List the capital cities of jazz and one finds the usual suspects--New York, San Francisco, New Orleans, Chicago--but one city is too often forgotten: Philadelphia. Yes, the City of Brotherly Love, so often the butt of jokes and unkind (if not always inaccurate) characterizations. Say what you want about the city of Benjamin Franklin and Mayor Frank Rizzo, but anyone who knows, knows you can't say Philly doesn't smoke.Bassist Christian McBride, pianist Uri Caine and drummer Ahmir “Questlove" ...

Uri Caine / Christian McBride / Ahmir Thompson: The Philadelphia Experiment

by Todd S. Jenkins
July 1, 2001

Just what is it that makes Philadelphia such a darned soulful city? Is it all that brotherly love floating around, or the deep funk fermented by undying Phillies fandom? All the cholesterol in those cheesesteaks, maybe? Whatever the case, the city has a profound and enduring musical legacy, from Sun Ra to T.S.O.P., Grover Washington Jr. to Khan Jamal. Here, three tight homeboys have distilled the essence of the Philly legacy down into one insanely funky disc that commands repeat ...