Artist: Christian McBride

Christian McBride is an American jazz bassist, composer and arranger. He has appeared on more than 300 recordings as a sideman and  an eight-time Grammy Award winner. 

McBride has performed and recorded with a number of jazz musicians and ensembles, including Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny, Joe Henderson, Diana Krall, Roy Haynes,  Chick Corea, Wynton Marsalis, Eddie Palmieri,  Joshua Redman, and Ray Brown's "SuperBass" with  John Clayton, as well as with pop, hip-hop, soul and classical musicians like Sting, Paul McCartney, Celine Dion, Isaac Hayes, The Roots, Queen Latifah,  Kathleen Battle, Renee Fleming, Carly Simon, Bruce Hornsby, and James Brown. 

McBride is a graduate of the Philadelphia High School for Creative and Performing Arts and studied at the Juilliard School.

McBride was heralded as a teen prodigy when he joined saxophonist Bobby Watson's group, Horizon, at the age of 17. From age 17 to 22, McBride played in the bands of older musicians such as Watson,  Freddie Hubbard, Benny Golson, George Duke, Milt Jackson, J. J. Johnson and Hank Jones, as well as his peers such as Roy Hargrove,  Benny Green, and  Joshua Redman. In 1996, jazz bassist Ray Brown  formed a group called SuperBass with McBride and fellow Brown protégé John Clayton. The group released two albums: SuperBass: Live at Scullers  (1997) and SuperBass 2: Live at the Blue Note  (2001). 

McBride was a member of saxophonist Joshua Redman's Quartet in the early 1990s with pianist  Brad Mehldau and drummer Brian Blade. McBride began leading his own groups in 1995 after the release of his debut album Gettin' to It (Verve). Saxophonist Tim Warfield, pianists Charles Craig and Joey Calderazzo, and drummers Carl Allen  and Greg Hutchinson are among the musicians who played in McBride's early groups. From 2000 to 2008, McBride led his own ensemble, the Christian McBride Band, with saxophonist Ron Blake, pianist/ keyboardist Geoffrey Keezer, and drummer Terreon Gully. The band released two albums: Vertical Vision (Warner Bros., 2003) and Live at Tonic  (Ropeadope, 2006). 

McBride primarily plays double bass, but he is equally adept on bass guitar. He played both on the album The Philadelphia Experiment, which included keyboardist Uri Caine  and hip-hop drummer Ahmir "Questlove" Thompson. Other projects have included tours and recordings with the Pat Metheny Trio, the  Bruce Hornsby Trio, and Queen Latifah. Like Paul Chambers, McBride can solo by playing his bass  arco style. 

In 2006, McBride was named to the position of Creative Chair for Jazz with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, taking over from Dianne Reeves. He was signed to a two-year contract that was renewed for an additional two years. He was succeeded by Herbie Hancock in 2010.

McBride performed with Sonny Rollins and Roy Haynes at Carnegie Hall on September 18, 2007, in commemoration of Rollins' 50th anniversary of his first performance there. McBride was also tapped by CBS to be a producer for the tribute to Rollins on the 2011 Kennedy Center Honors broadcast. 

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