Christian McBride has just released a new project that's a bit of a departure from the swinging grooves we're used to from him. It's an imaginative record that emerged from the chaos of the pandemic. It's called Prime and it features Christian's quartet, the New Jawn. This eight-time Grammy award winner is busy! We got all caught up on what he's up to and why he's so excited about the new music.
Watch our conversation here:
Interview transcript:
Pat Prescott: I think the interesting thing about you is the way you continue to evolve. It's hard to believe that you're the age that you are and that you've accomplished as much as you have and that you're somebody that people look up to and somebody who I think people feel like has been around for a long time. How much of this evolution is really focused and a product of intention and how much of it is just following your instincts and your intuition?
Christian McBride: I think a lot of it is just following the path that takes me wherever. I came into this business because I wanted to play bass with all of my heroes, all of these great jazz legends that I fell in love with as a teenager. Everything has come out of wanting to play the bass with the best musicians out there. All of this other stuff that doesn't really have a lot to do with the bass, like the artistic directorships and DJing and radio—all of that—that just happened. None of that was ever on my wish list. But now that I have it, I love it and I plan on taking care of it and honing that craft.
It seems like a lot of it is just a process of being present, of just being right here in the now. Paying attention to what's going on and welcoming the blessings that come.
That's it. You can always make plans. You can always have dreams. But you also have to be ready for what comes your way, because some of life's best moments are the ones that you don't expect.
That's true. Well, let's talk a little bit about Prime, the new project from the New Jawn. The first minute of the first track, which is called “Head Bedlam,” truly lives up to its name by the way. That first minute really grabs your attention and then once the groove sets in, the next thing you notice is the instrumentation. I hear the saxophone, I hear the trumpet, I hear the bass and the drums. No piano or guitar. Very interesting space. It kind of lets the groove breathe a little bit and then we exit the same way that we arrive. The whole thing reminds me of this two or three year period that we just experienced. Tell me about the genesis of this song and the whole album concept.
Well, you nailed it because I think that for most of us during 2020 through 2022, that's the sound a lot of us heard in our heads, trying to deal with the pandemic and dealing with all of the political and the social uprisings going on. It's just been a lot of noise going on and it's very difficult to find the groove in the middle of all of that noise.
From an artistic standpoint, I feel like the New Jawn is much different than any other band I've ever had, but we've been together now for almost eight years. I really wanted this band to be a complete 180-degree turn from the trio that I had with Christian Sands and Ulysses Owens, because that trio got to be very popular and they had a very distinct sound and a distinct personality, as well as my quintet Inside Straight. I said, “I want to do something a lot different.” We did our first record in 2017 and it came out in 2018. And then this new one Prime just came out. I really enjoyed playing with this group a whole lot. It's a lot different.
There are a lot of talent and a lot of variety in what it is you do. Your big band is awesome. I'm sure a lot of this has to at least do with keeping this thing interesting, doesn't it?
I think there's a dual reason. One, because I really enjoy playing a lot of different styles of this great art form that we call jazz. Then at the same time, I like people not really knowing what my next move is going to be.
Keep the mystery going. Well, there's no mystery that you keep really great artists around you. Talk a little bit about this quartet that you're working with here. A lot of talent.
Thank you very much. I feel like every band I have ever had starts with the drums. The bass and the drums are the most important relationship in any group. Nasheet Waits is someone I've known for a long time, but we've really never had a chance to play together that much. I had this gig at the Vanguard, my annual two-week residency in December. In 2015 I was deciding what kind of band do I want to put together. Then I started thinking about what became the New Jawn.
I said, “Okay, who’s going to be the core of that band?” And I said, “Let me try Nasheet.” I've been dying to play with him for years. I've known Marcus Strickland for a very long time. We played together in a lot of different bands through the years. I started asking around about trumpet players. I knew Josh Evans, but I hadn't played with him. Everybody said, “Well, for what you're describing, you might want to check out Josh Evans.” So then Josh became that guy. And it's been like that ever since.
It’s great. This album is a departure, but I think within the record you also have a great deal of variety. There's this one song “Moonchild” with the bass clarinet and the bass together. And then “Obsequious” which is hard driving. Then you've got “The Good Life,” which is a happy-go-lucky song.
I'm not sure Ornette intended for it [“The Good Life”] to be that. I call it Ornette meets Sonny Rollins in the Caribbean.
I like that. When you look at your career whether you want the title or not, you're kind of the de facto standard bearer for this current generation of jazz. But I don't think you're much into titles, are you?
I don't know. Titles, they come and go. They change as people see fit. The only title I really care about is being a good musician, because that guarantees me work for the rest of my life. [laughs]
You're no stranger to work. You wear a million hats. Tell me if I'm wrong, but I get the sense that you're the kind of guy who's aware of mortality and so you are working to get it all done. You're present in this life, making it happen right now as the opportunities present themselves.
I see a musical world, or not even a musical world, just a really big world. I really would love to learn as much about it as possible and I know that's impossible to do in one lifetime, but it's worth trying.
You are definitely trying to do that. I can feel you getting a lot of it done. What I like most about you though is the obvious joy that you have in what you do. You love your job, don't you?
I do. Anytime I'm doing anything involving music, particularly when it comes to playing my instrument, that's my happy place.
It’s a happy place for a lot of us as well. Legacy seems to be something that means a lot to you too. I can see it in your advocacy for jazz in general and also your mentorship of others. How much of this is paying back what was given to you from these great artists that you had the opportunity to work with?
That is definitely what it is, because when I was in high school with Joey DeFrancesco and Kurt Rosenwinkel and all of us were coming up together in Philly, I will never forget the impact it had on me when people like Max Roach or Dr. Billy Taylor or Grover Washington Jr.—all of these great musicians—would come through Philly and they would spend time with us, sometimes not even playing. It would just be talking. Wynton Marsalis became like a big brother to me when I was 14 and Branford Marsalis too. It was a no-brainer for me that if I ever got into that same position that I would do the same thing. That's just what you have to do because we've been trying to make jazz more accepted, more popular, because people tend to run from jazz. It's too heady. It's too hard to understand. And oftentimes people who don't know that much about jazz, we tend to make them feel bad. We get dogmatic. “What do you mean, you don't listen to jazz? Don't you know this is the greatest American art form?” People don't want to be talked to like that. You have to meet them where they are and draw them to come with you. I would love to see jazz get more of an acknowledgement on the mainstream scale, as opposed to one artist per generation sort of getting lucky and cracking that glass ceiling. It needs to be open for a lot more people.
This interview has been edited for brevity and clarity.
