Bassist Christian McBride and pianist Peter Martin perform in the Jazz24 studios on April 5, 2012. Photo by Justin Steyer
In the first generation of be-bop musicians, Ray Brown was King of the Jazz Bass. Today, the ‘go-to’ jazz bassist is Christian McBride, so we felt quite lucky when he said he had the time to stop into to KPLU studios for a performance with pianist, Peter Martin.
Christian talked about his formative years, the difference between playing with vocalists as opposed to instrumentalists and reminisced about his mentor, the afore-mentioned Ray Brown, and another great bassist of be-bob’s first generation, Charles Mingus.
He and Martin also treated us to their duo arrangements of Milt Jackson’s ‘SKJ’ (see video above), McBride’s own ‘Used ‘Ta Could’ (below) and closed with a beautiful rendition of Duke Ellington’s ‘Sophisticated Lady.’ Ray Brown may be gone but the mantle of King of the Jazz Bass couldn’t be in better hands than those of Christian McBride.