Newport Jawn: A Conversation with Christian McBride (Part One)

From its founding in 1954 until 2019, the Newport Jazz Festival had been canceled only once, for a single year following the unruly behavior of non-attendees in 1960. The event also spent a decade relocated in New York City, but still bore the Newport moniker, continuing its legacy from afar. But, as with much else, the Coronavirus pandemic quashed the chances of a 2020 edition. Festival organizers made the most of the moment while recognizing that nothing could live up to the true magic of being on Fort Adams’ grounds. These efforts included working with radio station WBGO to air several recordings from the Festival’s archives, providing a beautiful retrospective for those quarantined in their homes. The Festival’s Artistic Director, Christian McBride, also hosted a three-part series on his NPR program, Jazz Night in America. Additionally, he began hosting a still-continuing weekly Instagram call, Live Wax with Christian McBride. 

In honor of the – albeit scaled-back – return of the landmark institution that is the Newport Jazz Festival, we sat down with McBride to discuss his role as both its Artistic Director and a performer at the 2021 Festival. Of course, the seven-time Grammy Award winner is also one of the finest bassists of his generation. In addition to several albums under his own name, he’s played with jazz royalty including Freddie Hubbard, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, and Roy Haynes. But McBride has always taken an expansive view of music, as shown by his participation in various projects by Sting, Paul McCartney, The Roots, Queen Latifah, Bruce Hornsby, and James Brown, to name a few. Given this background, it would be folly to not discuss his thoughts on music more generally. 

PostGenre: What has surprised you the most about the state of music during the pandemic?

PG: You first went to Newport in 1991 as part of the Jazz Futures, right?

CM: That is correct.

PG: How do you feel the Newport Jazz Festival has both changed and stayed the same over the past thirty years?

CM: I think it stays the same in that it shares a space for the core artists at the festival. It is very important, at least from where I stand, that people like Charles Lloyd, Jason Moran, and even up-and-coming artists like Immanuel Wilkins are given a voice.

I think, generally, the Festival has gotten stronger over the last thirty years. In 1991, the Festival was only one stage across two days. There were ten acts during the weekend. Now, in a normal year, we have six times that amount– sixty acts spread across four stages and three days. I think the additional performances allow for the Festival to better represent the totality of everything going on in the world of improvisational music.

PG: 2021 also marks the 40^th anniversary of the Jazz Festival’s move to Fort Adams. What are some things that make the Fort both special and challenging as a concert venue?

CM: I have always enjoyed the Fort. It’s a beautiful place and it is hard to find any cons, you know? I’ve also always enjoyed the golf carts and the hang that happens backstage.

Obviously, when you’re dealing with a State Park, there’s always the challenge of timing; you have to be out at a certain time. There’s also the weather. But, of course, that is not exclusive to Newport; it is an issue for any outdoor festival.

There is only one specific con that I can think of, and it is that there is only one way into the Festival. The last time I played with Chick Corea at Newport was in 2016. The performance was scheduled for around 2:30 PM. The day before, we were somewhere else in New England, and Chick said to the band that because it is often hard to get into Newport, he wanted the band to leave early the morning we were performing. We left our hotel at 10 AM so that, even if we hit traffic, we could still get to Newport with a lot of time to spare before our performance. We reached Newport at 1:00 and thought we were in good shape. But by 2:00, we only inched up about a half-mile to the Fort’s entrance. By 2:20, we still had not yet reached the front gate. We were really starting to panic. Chick’s road manager jumped off of the bus and had to beg people to move so we could get in. We made it, but by the skin of our teeth. If there was a way that there could be a separate artists’ entrance, that would be really great. But it is what it is. [laughing]

PG: The same thing happened to Lou Donaldson in 2015, when he was the last performance of the day on the Harbor Stage. The audience had to wait maybe twenty minutes for him to arrive at the Fort. And something similar happened with Hailu Mergia in 2019.

CM: Yeah. I mean, there’s even the famous story about when Miles played the 1969 Festival. Wayne Shorter missed the gig because he was caught in traffic. By the time he finally made it, the set was almost finished. Miles just waved him off. Miles said, “look, don’t worry about it man, we’re almost finished.” [laughing]

PG: Since you mentioned Chick, you were part of several of his different projects over the years. What did you learn the most from working with him?

CM: Primarily, how much you can get out of someone when you are a really nice and fair person. Chick was always a restless pursuer of creativity in writing and presenting music. But more than anything else, he was just a super nice man. I have way more memories of Chick being the nicest man than anything else. Many bandleaders could learn a lot from that.

PG: Which sort of segues into your own role as a leader. One of your several bands, A Christian McBride Situation, will be at Newport this summer. The group started as sort of a spur-of-the-moment thing at Monterey. At what point did you realize you had something special that could become an ongoing project?

CM: I don’t know. There were so many iterations of the Situation. We did a gig in Aspen, Colorado around 2007 where the organizers asked me if I wanted to make the Situation a little larger and told me to go ahead and do so if I did. DJ Logic was already a charter member of the group. I asked Logic if he would be cool working with a second turntablist. He agreed to it but pointed out that only a handful of people could really make the music work. And the person he suggested as possibly the best fit was Jahi Sundance, which was funny because that was exactly who I was planning to get. So, now the band has both Logic and Jahi.

There is also Patrice Rushen. Even though she hasn’t been on every gig, she and Logic are the reason I really wanted to keep the Situation going. Maysa Leak was the original singer in the group and since then it’s been Alyson Williams.

I played with this band at the Blue Note in early 2020. Bruce Gordon, President of the Board of the Newport Festivals Foundation was there and beside himself. He told me I should bring this group to Newport. I questioned the idea at first, but he was very clear that this group should be at Newport. He said that he had seen my trio, Inside Straight, and New Jawn, but that this band would be the best fit for Newport.

I’m always nervous because there are two turntablists and I’m playing about a 50-50 split on electric and acoustic basses. I just want to make sure that we balance out the electric and acoustic sides enough. I am always reluctant to volunteer any of my bands at the Festival, particularly that band, but Bruce was very clear on it. So, that’s what I will have. Unfortunately, Patrice won’t be at Newport but check back with me before the performance and I will have a piano player. [laughing].

PG: Speaking of switching between electric and acoustic basses, you started on the electric before going to the upright, correct?

CM: Yup.

PG: How do you feel starting on the electric first shaped your sound on the acoustic?

CM: Yeah, that’s a good question. I think a lot of what I play on the acoustic probably came from things I had practiced on the electric. There are certain physical things viewed as challenging in transitioning between the two – how you hold the instrument, your hand placement, things like that. I guess because I was 9 years old when I started on the electric bass and 11 when I started on the acoustic bass, I was just too young to really realize that there was supposed to be a big transition. [Laughing]. That’s where naivete works in your favor. You know, a lot of that James Brown music and like all that Motown stuff, I would play on the electric and then just go to the acoustic and try to duplicate what I was doing on the electric.

PG: Your other performance at Newport this summer is with The Jam Jawn, a group with John Scofield, Marco Benevento, and Joe Russo. One of the highlights of Newport each summer since you became Artistic Director has been your “special groups.” A revisitation of the Philadelphia Experiment augmented by DJ Logic in 2017, a trio with Laurie Anderson and Rubin Kodheli in 2018, a trio with Herbie Hancock and Vinnie Colaiuta in 2019, and now, The Jam Jawn. What first gave you the idea of having these “special groups” at Newport each year, and do you have any ideas for some future ones?

CM: Well, in general, I’ve always been very sensitive about booking myself at the festival and have tried to be careful when I do book myself. I don’t want to make it look like I’m somehow taking advantage of Newport to boost my own career. But George Wein and Jay Sweet were both pretty adamant when I became Artistic Director of the Festival that I should continue to perform there and had mentioned it was the perfect opportunity for me to do things I wouldn’t do anywhere else.

The Philadelphia Experiment and the trio with Laurie Anderson were groups I had played with before, though not often. The trio with Herbie was a big treat for me. And doing the Jam Jawn this year is one as well. I never really know which groups I’m going to play with when we start putting the Festival together. They just kinda happen.

The Jam Jawn began when I did a virtual fundraising gig for the Mockingbird Foundation back in March of this year. Marco Benevento, Joe Russo, and the harpist Mikaela Davis were on it with me. Jay saw that and asked if I thought it would be a good thing for Newport. I said, “sure, and let’s add John Scofield to it.” And that idea got everyone so excited. Fortunately, Scofield was available. And so that’s how that happened. It is going to be interesting. It’s going to be 45 minutes of grooving. I don’t know what will be inside of that groove but it will be grooving at least.

In terms of future “special groups,” I never know what’s going to happen. But I do look forward to seeing how it unfolds.

Part two of our conversation with Christian can be found here.

The 2021 Newport Jazz Festival will take place from July 30th to August 1st at Fort Adams State Park in Newport, Rhode Island. We plan to have live coverage of the event. More information can be found on the Festival’s website. Christian McBride will be performing at the Festival with two groups. The first, A Christian McBride Situation, will take the Lawn Stage from 1:30 PM to 2:30 PM on Friday, July 30th. The second, The Jam Jawn with John Scofield, Marco Benevento, and Joe Russo will perform on the Lawn Stage from 4:30 PM to 5:30 PM.

More information about Christian can be found on his website.