Christian McBride: The Monterey Jazz Conversation

On and off the stage, bandleader and bassist Christian McBride is major force in the jazz world, a nine-Grammy winner who helms a variety of talent-rich ensembles, who remains a first-pick sideman for jazz legends as well as pop music stars, who serves as artistic director of the Newport Jazz Festival and a host of various jazz programs and podcasts.

McBride takes a few minutes from his busy schedule to allow us to catch up with him, and answer questions like, how does one man juggle so many duties and temptations, while remaining true to his primary mission of supporting jazz? What’s on his agenda these days, and what goals does he still hope to achieve?

Christian McBride is an nine-time GRAMMY Award winning bassist, composer, and bandleader. McBride is the Artistic Director of the historic Newport Jazz Festival, New Jersey Performing Arts center (NJPAC) and the TD James Moody Jazz Festival, and the National Jazz Museum in Harlem. Christian is also a respected educator and advocate as the Artistic Director of Jazz House KiDS, and the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Sessions. In addition to consistent touring, McBride hosts NPR’s Jazz Night in America and The Lowdown: Conversations With Christian on SiriusXM. Whether behind the bass or away from it, Christian McBride is always of the music. From jazz, to R&B, pop/rock, hip-hop/neo-soul, to classical, he is a luminary with one hand ever reaching for new heights, and the other extended in fellowship—and perhaps the hint of a challenge—inviting us to join him.

Ashley Kahn is a Grammy-winning American music historian, author, professor and producer. He teaches at New York University’s Clive Davis Institute for Recorded Music, co-wrote Carlos Santana’s award-winning autobiography The Universal Tone: Bringing My Story to Light (Little, Brown, 2014), and is a producer of Carlos (2023), the documentary on Carlos Santana (Imagine Documentaries/Sony Pictures Classics). He has written books on two legendary recordings: Kind of Blue by Miles Davis and A Love Supreme by John Coltrane, and one on a legendary record label: The House That Trane Built: The Story of Impulse Records. His most recent book is George Harrison on George Harrison: Interviews and Encounters. He also edited Rolling Stone: The Seventies, a 70-essay overview of that pivotal decade.