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DESCRIPTION:Event Name: Christian McBride & Inside Straight\nEvent Url: htt
 p://www.artsboston.org/event/detail/441062417/Christian_McBride_Inside_Str
 aight\nEvent Date Begin: 2011-01-15\nEvent Date End: 2011-01-15\n\nThe fin
 est musicians to spring from the world of jazz have clearly had an advanta
 ge when it comes to branching into other genres of music. Their mastery of
  composition\, arranging and sight reading coupled with their flair for im
 provisation and spontaneous creation make them possibly the most seasoned 
 and adaptable musicians in the art. Grammy Award winner Christian McBride\
 , chameleonic virtuoso of the acoustic and electric bass\, stands tall at 
 the top of this clique. Beginning in 1989 &ndash\; the beginning of an ama
 zing career in which he still has wider-reaching goals to attain - the Phi
 ladelphian has thus far been first-call-requested to accompany literally h
 undreds of fine artists\, ranging in an impressive array from McCoy Tyner 
 and Sting to Kathleen Battle and Diana Krall. However\, it is his own reco
 rdings &ndash\; albums that encompass a diverse canon of original composit
 ions and imaginatively arranged covers &ndash\; that reveal the totality o
 f his musicianship. He currently leads one of the hottest bands in music -
  the propulsive Christian McBride Band (saxophonist Ron Blake\, keyboardis
 t Geoffrey Keezer and drummer Terreon Gully).\n\nThe most awe-inspiring th
 ing about Christian McBride is that his prowess as a player is only half o
 f what makes him such a respected\, in-demand and mind-bogglingly busy ind
 ividual. The portrait is completed by a mere mid-thirty-something man who 
 carved out time to speak at former President Clinton's town hall meeting o
 n &ldquo\;Racism in the Performing Arts.&rdquo\; He holds Artistic Directo
 r posts at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass summer program and the Dave Brubeck Ins
 titute at the University of the Pacific in Stockton\, CA. McBride particip
 ated in a Stanford University panel on &ldquo\;Black Performing Arts in Ma
 instream America.&rdquo\; He's hosted insightful one-on-one &ldquo\;jazz c
 hats&rdquo\; in Cyberspace on Sonicnet.com. He also scribed the foreword f
 or pianist Jonny King's book\, What Jazz Is (Walker & Co.\, New York).\n\n
 2005 witnessed his adding two more prestigious appointments to his resume.
  In January\, he was named co-director of The Jazz Museum in Harlem. While
  assisting Leonard Garment and Loren Schoenberg in obtaining government gr
 ants and the participation of top flight historians/musicians\, Christian 
 will be focusing on a longtime concern: exposing jazz to young people.\n\n
 &ldquo\;To a degree\, jazz is non-existent in most major urban communities
 \, which deeply saddens me\,&rdquo\; McBride states. &ldquo\;Kids don't un
 derstand who our jazz greats were. My contribution towards rectifying this
  will be getting them to check out free events at the museum by inviting j
 azz and non-jazz musicians\, athletes and speakers that they can relate to
 .&rdquo\;\n\nWhile working for the museum in Harlem\, McBride will be rack
 ing up frequent flyer miles as Creative Chair for the Los Angeles Philharm
 onic\, giving him a degree of influence over commercial and educational pr
 ograms at the Hollywood Bowl and Disney Hall. The position is being passed
  on to him by singer Dianne Reeves who held it for the last three years.\n
 \nNaturally\, there will be more collaborations and sideman gigs\, which h
 e scrutinizes extra carefully now due to his schedule. Most importantly\, 
 he will continue to lead the Christian McBride Band which\, together with 
 special guests\, has recorded this live album for ropeadope. This album\, 
 ever revolutionary as only McBride would have it\, was compiled from two n
 ights &ndash\; two shows apiece &ndash\; recorded at the Manhattan/East Vi
 llage hot spot\, Tonic. A kinetic concert spirit was captured with both co
 llege students and hip hoppers in the crowd\, resulting in a perfect atmos
 phere for experimentation. The first set each night featured just the band
 \, but for the second sets\, specials guests blessed the stage\; DJ Logic\
 , Scratch (The Roots)\, guitarists Charlie Hunter and Eric Krasno (Soulive
 )\, pianist Jason Moran\, trumpeter Rashawn Ross and violinist Jenny Schei
 nman (Bill Frisell).\n\nAddressing how he manages to effectively keep his 
 hands in so many exciting though daunting projects\, Christian states\, &l
 dquo\;I've always believed in the art of working with people. I feel you c
 an always compensate for whatever skills you don't have just learning how 
 to get along with - and communicate with - people. Herbie Hancock is a mas
 ter of that&hellip\;and Quincy Jones is the ultimate master. The first tim
 e I met him\, he hugged me then said\, 'I saw Ray Brown a couple of nights
  ago and told him we would be working together.' I didn't know he knew who
  I was - the contractor called me for the gig! Q studies people and figure
 s out what to do with them like a great basketball coach.&rdquo\;\n\nChris
 tian McBride was born on May 31\, 1972 in Philadelphia. Electric bass was 
 Christian's first instrument\, which he began playing at age 9\, followed 
 by acoustic bass two years later. His first mentors on the instrument were
  his father\, Lee Smith (a renowned bassist in Philly) and his great uncle
 \, Howard Cooper (a disciple of the jazz avant-garde). While intensely stu
 dying classical music\, Christian's love for jazz also blossomed. Upon his
  1989 graduation from Philadelphia's fertile High School for the Creative 
 and Performing Arts (C.A.P.A.)\, Christian was awarded a partial scholarsh
 ip to attend the world-renowned Juilliard School in New York City to study
  with the legendary bassist\, Homer Mensch. That summer\, before making th
 e move to the Big Apple\, the already in-demand bassist got his first tast
 e of touring going to Europe with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra\, and t
 raveling the U.S. with the classical jazz fusion group\, Free Flight.\n\nM
 cBride never had a chance to settle into his Juilliard studies. Within the
  first two weeks of the semester\, he joined saxophonist Bobby Watson's ba
 nd\, Horizon. He also started working around New York at clubs such as Bra
 dley's and the Village Gate with John Hicks\, Kenny Barron\, Larry Willis 
 and Gary Bartz. After one year at Juilliard\, McBride made a critical deci
 sion to leave school to tour with trumpeter Roy Hargrove's first band\, el
 ecting 'experience with as many musicians as possible' as the best teacher
 . In August of 1990\, he landed a coveted position in trumpeter Freddie Hu
 bbard's band until January of 1993.\n\nIn 1991\, legendary bassist Ray Bro
 wn invited the young wunderkind to join him and John Clayton in the trio S
 uperBass. After being hailed &ldquo\;Hot Jazz Artist&rdquo\; of 1992 by Ro
 lling Stone\, Christian continued to prove it as a member of guitarist Pat
  Metheny's 'Special Quartet\,' which included drum master Billy Higgins an
 d saxophonist Joshua Redman. While recording and touring with Redman the f
 ollowing year\, McBride signed to Verve Records in the summer of 1994\, re
 cording his first CD as a leader\, Gettin' to It. He also graced the big s
 creen playing bass in director Robert Altman's 1940's period piece\, Kansa
 s City (1996).\n\nChristian recorded three more career-shaping albums at V
 erve: Number Two Express (1996)\, the soul-jazz fusion project A Family Af
 fair (1998 &ndash\; featuring Christian's first two songs as a lyricist)\,
  and the critically acclaimed SCI-FI (2000)\, marking the inaugural execut
 ion of Christian's concept of music being boundless by genre. The followin
 g year\, he continued to expand his audience with two endeavors. He dipped
  into hip hop with a side project dubbed The Philadelphia Experiment\, a &
 ldquo\;jam band&rdquo\;-inspired CD that reunited Christian with his high 
 school friend\, drummer Ahmir &ldquo\;?uestlove&rdquo\; Thompson (leader o
 f The Roots) and featured keyboardist Uri Caine and guitarist Pat Martino.
 \n\nLater that year\, pop star Sting invited Christian to become a key fig
 ure in his 2001 All This Time CD\, DVD and tour. Then in 2002\, Christian 
 supported George Duke by becoming a member of his band and recording on hi
 s landmark album Face the Music: the legendary keyboardist's first album o
 n his own recording label\, BPM. &ldquo\;Christian is a monster on that ba
 ss\,&rdquo\; Duke states with pride. &ldquo\;It isn't often these days to 
 find a young musician so dedicated to his craft. Christian is my kind of m
 usician\, one that is open to new ideas\, good at playing different styles
 \, reads music prolifically and is dedicated to furthering the growth of m
 usic not only as a musician\, but as a young representative of his profess
 ion. There isn't anyone better. And besides that\, he's a great cat!&rdquo
 \;\n\nIn 2003\, Christian released one album on Warner Bros. Records title
 d Vertical Vision\, a blazing recording that introduced the current incarn
 ation of the Christian McBride Band. Over the years\, McBride has been fea
 tured on hundreds of albums\, touring and/or recording with artists such a
 s David Sanborn\, Chick Corea\, Chaka Khan\, Natalie Cole\, George Benson\
 , and the late greats Joe Henderson\, Betty Carter and Milt Jackson. He al
 so undertook his first pop Musical Directorship at the helm of a Christmas
  show featuring gospel royalty BeBe Winans and pop star Carly Simon. The e
 vent marked stage-shy Simon' first New York concert appearance in a decade
  and she expressly insisted that only McBride could be her MD.\n\nFinally\
 , as a composer\, Christian has achieved several high watermarks. Among th
 em is a commission from Jazz at Lincoln Center to compose 'Bluesin' in Alp
 habet City\,' performed by Wynton Marsalis with the Lincoln Center Jazz Or
 chestra. And in 1998\, the Portland (ME) Arts Society and the National End
 owment for the Arts awarded McBride with a commission to write 'The Moveme
 nt\, Revisited\,' Christian's dramatic musical portrait of the civil right
 s struggle of the 1960's written and arranged for quartet and a 30-piece g
 ospel choir.\n\nThere have been very few artists who truly embody the genu
 ine\, heart-felt passion for music in all areas as has Christian McBride. 
 By boldly continuing to leave his mark in areas of musical performance\, c
 omposition\, education and advocacy\, he is destined to be a force in musi
 c for decades to come.\n\nStart time: 8pm & 10pm
DTSTART:20110115T000000
DTEND:20110115T000000
LOCATION:
SUMMARY:Christian McBride & Inside Straight
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