Christian McBride

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<a href="/biography/christian-mcbride">Christian Lee McBride</a> was born on May 31, 1972 in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. He is an American <a href="/biography/christian-mcbride">jazz bassist</a> and record producer. His father, Lee Smith, and his great uncle, Howard Cooper, were both well-known bassists, and they mentored Christian during his early musical studies. Christian started playing the bass guitar, but he later switched to the double bass, before attending and completing his studies at the famous Juilliard School.

He’s been a <a href="/biography/christian-mcbride">teen prodigy</a>, in fact he joined the group of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Watson">saxophonist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Watson">Bobby Watson</a> when he was only 17-years-old. Since when he was 17, till when he became 22-years-old, Christian started playing with many prestigious bands and affirmed musicians, like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bobby_Watson">Watson</a> himself, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Freddie_Hubbard">Freddie Hubbard</a>, J. J. <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/J._J._Johnson">Johnson</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Golson">Benny Golson</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Milt_Jackson">Milt Jackson</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hank_Jones">Hank Jones</a>, and also with other musicians of his same age like <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Hargrove">Roy Hargrove</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Benny_Green_(pianist)">Benny Green</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Redman">Joshua Redman</a>.

Christian has been part in those years even of the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joshua_Redman">Joshua Redman</a>’s Quartet, together with pianist Brad Mehlday, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Blade">drummer</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brian_Blade">Brian Blade</a>. In 1995 Christian started leading his own group, together with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Warfield">saxophonist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tim_Warfield">Tim Warfield</a>, the pianists <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Joey_Calderazzo">Joey Calderazzo</a> and Charles Craig, and the drummers <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Allen_(drummer)">Carl Allen</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Gregory_Hutchinson_(musician)">Greg Hutchinson</a>. In 1996 Christian joined the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Brown_(musician)">bassist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ray_Brown_(musician)">Ray Brown</a> with is group called SuperBass, and they released two albums, “SuperBass: Live at Scullers” (1997) and “SuperBass 2: Live at the Blue Note” (2001). From 2000 to 2008, Christian assembled and lead his ensemble, called the “<a href="/biography/christian-mcbride">Christian McBride Band</a>”, together with the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Keezer">pianist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Geoffrey_Keezer">Geoffrey Keezer</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Blake">saxophonist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Blake">Ron Blake</a>, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terreon_Gully">drummer</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Terreon_Gully">Terreon Gully</a>. This ensemble released two albums: “Vertical Vision” (2003) and “Live at Tonic” (2006).

In 2006 Christian was named to the position of Creative Chair for Jazz with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, and in 2007 he performed with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Roy_Haynes">Roy Haynes</a> and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sonny_Rollins">Sonny Rollins</a> at the prestigious Carnegie Hall. In 2008 Christian joined the group called the “Five Peace Band” where he performed together with <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/John_McLaughlin_(musician)">John McLaughlin</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chick_Corea">Chick Corea</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kenny_Garrett">Kenny Garrett</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Vinnie_Colaiuta">Vinnie Colaiuta</a>. He went in a world tour with the group, and their album “Five Peace Band” (2009) won the 2010 Grammy Award for “Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group”. In 2011 McBride released his first big band album, “The Good Feeling”, for which he won the Grammy for “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Performance”.

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Christian actually leads five groups: the “Inside Straight”, in which there is the alto/soprano <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wilson_(jazz_musician)">saxophonist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Steve_Wilson_(jazz_musician)">Steve Wilson</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Wolf_(musician)">vibraphonist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Warren_Wolf_(musician)">Warren Wolf</a>, the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Martin_(jazz_pianist)">pianist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Peter_Martin_(jazz_pianist)">Peter Martin</a>, and the drummer <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carl_Allen_(drummer)">Carl Allen</a>; a trio featuring the pianist Christian Sands, and the <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Jennings">drummer</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jerome_Jennings">Jerome Jennings</a>; his 18-piece big band; an experimental group called “A Christian McBride Situation”, together with the pianist/<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Rushen">keyboardist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Patrice_Rushen">Patrice Rushen</a>, the turntablists <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/DJ_Logic">DJ Logic</a>, and Jahi Sundance, the saxophonist <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ron_Blake">Ron Blake</a>, and the  <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyson_Williams">vocalist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Alyson_Williams">Alyson Williams</a>; and the “<a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Christian_McBride’s_New_Jawn">New Jawn</a>”, featuring <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Evans_(film_producer)">trumpeter</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Josh_Evans_(film_producer)">Josh Evans</a>, <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Strickland">saxophonist</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Marcus_Strickland">Marcus Strickland</a>, and <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasheet_Waits">drummer</a> <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Nasheet_Waits">Nasheet Waits</a>.

Christian recorded a huge numbers of tracks with many bands, but among the tracks he recorded as a leader there are "Gettin' to It" (1994), "Number Two Express" (1995), "A Family Affair" (1998), "SciFi" (2000), "The Philadelphia Experiment" (2000), "Vertical Vision" (2002), "Live at Tonic" (2005), "Kind of Brown" (2009), “The Good Feeling" (2011, winner of the 2012 Grammy Award for “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Recording”), "Conversations with Christian" (2011), "People Music" (2013), “Out Here" (2013), "Live at the Village Vanguard" (2015, winner of the 2016 Grammy Award for “Best Improvised Jazz Solo”), and "Bringin' It" (2017, winner of the 2018 Grammy Award for “Best Large Jazz Ensemble Recording”).

Christian is married to a jazz singer, whose name is <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Melissa_Walker">Melissa Walker</a>. She leads the “Jazz House Kids”, a jazz school in their home town of Montclair, New Jersey. 
 
Christian is very active in social media, and he has a Facebook account and official page with about 120k likes and followers, a Twitter account with 48k followers, and a YouTube channel with more of 4k subscribers.

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