You'll Hear It: Full Album Deep Dives with Jazz Musicians - The Most Interesting Man In Jazz

Episode Date: October 2, 2023

He's got flair, he's got style, he's got that iconic SOUND. Nobody's had a career in jazz quite like him. Any guesses to who it is?? Ok wellI'll tell ya - It's Christian McBride ladies and gentlemen... Join Peter and Adam as they jam out to Christian's Tiny Desk episode with his new band. Check it out for yourself right here 👍Have a question for us? Leave us a SpeakPipeCheckout courses from Adam, Peter and more at Open Studio🎹 Head over to our YouTube channel for a better look 👀.Follow us on Instagram

Hey, Peter. Hey. He can go deep sea fishing with nothing more than cat gut strings. Really? He can stop a raging bull with the sheer power of his low end. Huh? He can program a historic jazz festival that doesn't make you want to eat a bucket of nails. What?

He is. The most interesting man in jazz. I'm Matt Abanis. And I'm Peter Martin. And you're listening to the You'll Hear at podcast. Music advice coming at you. Coming at you today, sponsored by OpenStudiojazz.com. Go to openstudiojazz.com for all your jazz lesson needs.

Peter, what are we talking about that? Well, I mean, after that intro, I think I know, but this is super intriguing. We're talking about some beer? Dos Eccis. Hey. Dos Ecces. This was weird, but intriguing. And I think I know who you're talking about and super irreverent.

And a little arrogant. We were talking about jazz thought leader. Yes. Auteur. Yes. We're talking about Renaissance man and open studio artist bassist Christian McBride. Of course. Yeah.

Greatest basis in the game. Greatest, I think, in my opinion, greatest voice in the game. Everything the guy says, you're just hooked. Yeah. Charisma. Seating from his pores. Yeah, he's got it all. Guys got it all.

He is the most interesting man in jazz. And Renaissance man, did we say that? We said Renaissance man. He's on, he's got a show on NPR. Yeah, he's got five bands. He's got five bands that do, good bands. Really good bands. All of them doing different kind of stuff. You're in one of them inside straight. I can barely keep up with the one. McBride's doing them all.

That's a really good one. Yeah. And he's got one called New John. Christian McBride's New John, and they have a new tiny desk concert. Peter, I know you haven't heard this yet, so I'm very excited for you to hear this band. I was going to jump the gun, but I was waiting for the chance to experience. it I mean of course I've heard the band live which is fun but I've been hearing rave reviews on the I love the tiny desk yeah I love Christian McBride yeah dude I love

everyone in this band so I'm kind of chomping at the bit in a way it is so good yeah and I can't wait for you to hear it is of course Christian McBride on the bass Josh Evans on the trumpet Marcus Strickland on the tenor saxophone and bass clarinet and Nashit waits on the drums yeah here it is Christian McBride's new John tiny desk let's check out a little bit of this concert Coming in hot. Coming in hot, off the gate. Wait, pause it.

Wait, you got something to say? Yeah, coming in hot. At the gate. Now the thing is, no. Marcus Strickland on that baseball. The big collective improvisation. Yeah. McBride holding it down this whole time, too, by the way,

allowing everybody else to blast off from planet Earth. McBride is like holding down home base. What are they going up to there? Is that E-flat? To F. F? The bass line's thing on D. I love how he's got the threat marks.

Like the one guy who never needs that. I know. I know. It's so funny. Put your finger here. Dude, I love the sheet weights so much, man. One of my favorites.

When I got low D. Oh. We can still go lower. Going way down. Oh, kill it. How great is that? Yeah. Should we talk about this?

Well, yeah. So, I guess we should. That's such a vibe. It's a great vibe. So they start off. completely free and really like you know put the jet fuel to it from the beginning. Yes. Which is a great opening statement for a concert and then you know there is just a groove there in D minor the that's the basis of the tune really and then that melody is the bassist the bassist and the melody is starts in D and then I think you figured out

but the bass doesn't go up to F minor no base stage is to the relative major though we would say it's really It's a hip concept. And then it wasn't like trumpet solo, bass clarinet solo, bass solo, it was like collective solo of the group. Yes. With really McBride in the role of just keeping everything really locked in

so that everybody else could take it way out. And that is a vibe that I love too. Absolutely. But he's sneaking in a lot of, he's jumping off. He's got little fills and stuff for sure, yeah. But it's like he's doing two different things, as he often does, but very contrapulinal even within his own part.

But, I mean, McBride is a master of a lot of things. That's why he's the most interesting man in jazz, musically, too. For sure. But, like, this, in terms of, like, just his instincts in terms of what the music needs, and this is a quartet of musicians that excel at that, you know. But I mean, McBride even just is a leader amongst leaders of that ability to provide what the music. needs. And it's like, you know, I mean, I've played with McBride a lot over the years and known

him since we were teenagers and, and like the authenticity that he brings to a diverse set of musical situations of which the link is him. His musical personality, which is totally linked to his actual personality. Like there's no, that's like an unbroken chain. There's, and then there's a lot of really interesting nuances with that because he's very supportive, like as you can hear in this in terms of like he never misses that groove of giving the foundation. Yep. But then he's also doing stuff that is spurring the creativity of everybody else at the same time. So like he's de-risking the situation, but then he's pushing everybody to add risk to it

in a really interesting and balanced way that is so nuanced that, you know, but it's so exciting that as you can hear the players experiencing it, but as a listener, you're invited into that. So when people are like, wow, his sound is so warm, his groove, his personality, it's like, yeah, but there's specific musical things that are continually happening that he's providing and that everybody's picking up on that invite the listener in with this really warm musical embrace. Can I talk about a little superficial thing here? So McBride wears all these different hats musically. He's got all these different bands, but he wears all these different hats physically as well. What I love about this too is, you know, last time I saw McBride Live, Christian McBride Live, was here at Jesse. St. Louis where he was playing a tribute to Ray Brown with Benny Green and Gregory Hutchinson. He was in a suit. He looked, you know, dressed up for the occasion. It fit the music that they were doing

straight ahead jazz with Benny Green fit perfectly. Yeah. This fits this vibe, what he's wearing. Like his, like the visuals, I think, is part of telling this story. You're not going to stand. Especially on a tiny desk. Yeah, you can't stand next to Marklerc Strickland with the, with the hip round glasses and the bright colored shirt. And, you know, where. And the ordinary cardigan. Right. And where a three-piece suit, I love that he's so considerate of presentation and everything he does, down from, you know, how obviously music, but all of his cover art on his records, it's always incredibly thoughtful. And then the way he presents himself as an artist, I think it changes depending on the situation. And I always notice in a very thoughtful way.

Like I always think it looks weird when someone, the way they sort of present doesn't match with, you know, it doesn't have to be exactly a match like, but I always find it, it adds, more to it when the whole presentation is like... Well, you wouldn't be the most interesting man in jazz if you didn't have that ability. You might be a good player, but if you didn't know how to match the attire. Yeah.

And that's the McBride logo on his hat. If you rewind a little bit to a close-up of him. Wait, is that a Christian McBride hat? That is a CMB hat, I believe. I might need one of those. Yes. I believe I have one somewhere. Can we trade them an open studio hat for one of those?

I do have one. When I put it on, I look like an idiot. It turns out I'm not the most interesting man in jazz, so it didn't fit me. Well, I'm just cavalier enough to pull it off. Thank you. Big crowd of the Tiny Desk. Thank you very much.

Hey, by the way, I just want to shout out, you know, Bob Boylan retired this week, who is the leader of NPR Music, the founder of All Songs Considered. Yep. Yeah, the founder of Tiny Dust Concert. So shout out to Bob Boylan for introducing me to a ton of interesting music I would have otherwise not discovered. I got an idea for you because I'm a little. hungry for lunch full disclosure here yeah what about if we listen to what mcbride says and then can we jump back to the beginning because i had a one little interesting thing i wanted to say oh you look so

disappointed you want to listen to the whole thing thank you very much what an honor to do our first npr tiny desk concert this is legendary uh thank you for having us that's josh evans on the trumpet hey marcus strickland on the bass clarinet and the tennis saxophone yeah yeah yeah yeah The great, Nashit waits on the drums. Nowhit's a little older, so he calls him the great. Is that how that works? How about. Thank you.

That song we started off with is the original composition of mine called Head Em. And I like to describe it as this. The intro and the outro of that song is a sonic description of us looking at Twitter, particularly during the pandemic. And when you put your phone down, that's when you're the groove starts. So let's groove more. We're going to play a song,

the title track, to our new album, Prime, and it was composed by Marcus Strickland. Here's Prime. Marcus Strickland's amazing artists. And definitely check out Prime after this. But let's go back to the beginning for Peter. Well, no, plus no, people can come and,

they need to go to the source. We're going to get a copyright strike. If we put too much of this up. We put a link to the full video here. Exactly. Okay. I love No, I love this intro

And Like you haven't seen the band yet, right? And you're seeing this and it's like, you know And then you see them Like just visually and sonically, what a great intro And it's like the antidote to what's going to actually happen Yeah In this tune.

It's so dramatic This is a mess, but it's about to feel really good It's such a beautiful mess. I make right, you don't even see his fate like Oh, you just does all this in this. He doesn't he does not plan in his out, but it's very effective. Yeah, to me, I mean, this is, like you still haven't seen his face, I don't think. No, but this is such an effective way of that extremely messy, squiggly line out playing.

When it's connected to something that's so earthy and rock solid. Right. I mean, it's what makes Ornett Coleman so good is he's, is, you know, and Eric Dolfie as well. Like these incredibly, you know, intense and locked in grooves. You think of like lonely woman or gazelle or hat and beard or something like that. So swinging. Yep. And then combined with sheer chaos.

Yep. And it's so effective, man. It's so effective. Life affirming. For sure. Because that's how life is. It's a bunch of chaos strung together with some earthy moments, starting together with some airy moments, strung together with a bunch of sleep.

I love the overlap in this, too. Everybody's super confident, too. Yeah. Yeah. So that's Christian McBride's new John. Go check out the tiny desk. Check out the new album. Yeah.

Really check out anything Christian McBride does because it's all pretty good. Check out Inside Straight. Check out Christian McBride's two courses for Open Studio. And his two courses for OpenSdeo. Open Studio, jazz.com slash McBride. Renowned courses here. Actually, they are friggin terrific courses, man. Cool.

Well, until next time. You'll hear it.