{"id":3024,"date":"2021-07-26T18:24:12","date_gmt":"2021-07-26T23:24:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/?p=3024"},"modified":"2021-07-28T21:47:55","modified_gmt":"2021-07-29T02:47:55","slug":"newport-jawn-christian-mcbride-i","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/postgenre.org\/staging\/4567\/newport-jawn-christian-mcbride-i\/","title":{"rendered":"Newport Jawn: A Conversation with Christian McBride (Part One)"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

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<\/a>. 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\u2019 grounds. These efforts included working with radio station WBGO to air several recordings from the Festival\u2019s archives<\/a>, providing a beautiful retrospective for those quarantined in their homes. The Festival\u2019s Artistic Director, Christian McBride, also hosted a three-part series on his NPR program, Jazz Night in America<\/a>. Additionally, he began hosting a still-continuing weekly Instagram call, Live Wax with Christian McBride. <\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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\u2019s 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. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Pos<\/strong>tGenre: What has surprised you the most about the state of music during the pandemic?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Christian McBride: I\u2019m not sure if anything really surprised me. You know, as musicians, we still have to create. We are creative people and even though we can\u2019t play in front of an audience, it doesn\u2019t mean we can\u2019t practice, can\u2019t write music, or can\u2019t make plans of what we want to do when things are over. Obviously, everyone went virtual for a year and a half. We have a lot of musicians who did these live streaming concerts from home.<\/p>

Of course, there is the tragedy of losing so many people because we all lost people we knew and loved, and that part was hard. But in terms of the creative process, it slowed virtually no one down. At least not anyone I know. Most musicians I know kept right on writing. They kept on practicing. They kept on creating.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n\n\n\n

PG: You first went to Newport in 1991 as<\/a><\/strong> part of the Jazz Futures<\/strong><\/a>, right?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

CM: That is correct.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n\n\n\n

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