Being in Tune with Yourself featuring Christian McBride

so excited. Well, I cannot wait for you to meet my friend Christian McBride, who is like it's even too hard to even talk about his accolades. He is a jazz musician, he is a bass player, and mostly he's just the coolest, nicest guy. I can't even tell you his spirit. So I'm really looking forward for you to meet him. I can't wait. So here's our conversation with Christian McBride. Hey, friend, Hey, what's going on? What's going on? I haven't seen you since your birthday party? No right,

thank you for being there. It was great to see. Oh my god, thank you for inviting me. First of all, I don't know if I should we should talk first about your mother, your father or Quest Love or any of those other people, but we'll save that for offline party. Yeah. But but first of all, meet my co host Angelie. Hello, so nice to meet you. What a thrill pleasures all mine. First of all, he went to high school with Quest Love. That's so cool. The two of you guys and boys

Demand and Joey Di Francesco and Kurt Rosenko amazing. Oh my god, but you guys didn't know any of you guys were gonna be what you guys, are you right or did you know? Well, what's interesting is that if you could go back to you know nine, um, uh, Joey d Francesco was actually the one who had you know, he had he signed with Columbia Records when we were juniors in high school, and he joined Miles Davis's band uh just after, just right before our senior year of

high school. So uh, smart money was on Joey at that time, so we knew he was going to be a big star. I mean, he already was a big star by the time we graduated. Um, and Kurt, you know, I didn't even really know guitar with his main instrument until like much later. Because he always played piano around school boys. Two men. We kind of had a feeling then we're going to be big um and Uh. I'm herror and and Uh and Tyreek also known as black thought. I had no idea they were going to become the

world icons that they became. Yeah, I mean of those you guys listening a mirror is Quest Love, who started when he was twelve. I heard him saying his wonderful speech to you that he started as a kid playing with his parents. Well right, well, enough enough about quests. You know it's okay. I'm my nickname for myself as Ed McMahon, which is so not like. First of all, if you're of a certain age, you have no idea

what the hell you're talking about? Ed? Yeah, people might not get Yeah, well you know most people know your name. You do win Grammys every freaking year. How many Grammys do you have? Eight? Eight? Yeah? You hesitated. I did the research. You do have eight Grammys, question, Bride, I

can confirm very Google search eight. And you know this podcast is not to talk about all your accolades, but you know the good stuff you do and who you are and honestly how you do it Because you're on the road more than you're off the road, how do you do it? Like? What what? What do you pull out of your hat to keep you going? Um? Well, you know, during the pandemic, I had to be very careful with my words because wow, you know, we were all being pummeled with this horrible thing that went on

around the world. It was actually I had mixed feelings because to be in lockdown in my in my home for two years was actually quite a blessing. I enjoyed not being able to travel and actually just kind of get in tune with myself and find out who I was and and uh not be on the road for a little while. But over the last I would say seven months, it's been all back to pretty much normal.

I mean, I've I've been to Europe. I was there for most of the month of March, and uh I did a two week run at Disease in April, and uh I was on the West Coast for most of last month, and I'm going back again this month. So I you know, I don't know, I think, um, I think most working musicians are just groomed to be on the road and and do a lot of different projects. Um. You know, particularly as a bass player. Um, you know, I mean I think most rhythm section players, you know,

piano players, guitar players, bass players, drummers. We're always going to play in more than one band, you know, I mean, unless you do get lucky and playing a band that becomes sort of like uh, you know, like the Rolling Stones, you know, like you know, they don't have to work with anyone other than each other for the rest of their lives. That's pretty much the you know yea, and calling yourself a bass player, you're only the world's greatest.

You're one of the like it's been said, not not by me, but you Google you and it's been said you're the number one in the world. And it's like for anyone that you know, probably saying like why is Bobby have this, like you know, Jazz Superstar on her podcast. We've been friends for like, I don't know, a decade. Maybe I don't even remember the first time of night because yeah, uh, you know, Melissa and I have lived in Montclair for almost seventeen years now, so I feel like,

you know, we met you not too long. You have to be moved to Mont Claire, so probably close to that. Yeah, and our friend Rose Calli's house, who now moved from my house to your, which is kind of funny. But we met at dinner and you had a very charming nickname for me, which you still call me sometimes because I told you, I guess seventeen years ago. I was so into flow right on exact and yeah, so you know I got a little with a new name for you. Yeah,

probably b B Queen. We also my dad was with us, whose name happens to be James Brown, so leads me into like, go go talk to me about James Brown and working with him and meeting him and what he means to you. Oh man, Uh, definitely he's been my my mused. I first saw him when I was about six years old, six or seven years old, and I saw him on the h on the Midnight Special. That's that's another restaurance stepped out. Most people under thirty five probably won't get um. But when I saw him on

the Midnight specially blew my mind. I've never seen anybody performed like that, you know, just screaming and falling on his knees and doing splits and you know, with with the hair flinging all over the place. And the band was perfectly choreographed, and he had two drummers, and I mean it was just like watching it was like watching a Martian, you know, the hair was like one member of the band. I feel like it was like and and from that point on, um, I just fell deep, deep,

deep into a James Brown hole. My uncle, uh my mother's brother, was a promotions and advertising manager for w h A T radio in Philly, and uh so, I said, uncle, but you have any James Brown records? And he just like laughed, He's like, do I have any James Brown records? He's like, now, I've been collecting James Brown records since I was a boy. You know. So you know how the grateful dead have dead heads, Well, we became James Brown heads. And we were inseparable James Brown cronies throughout

basically throughout the eighties. And then James Brown started having a out of a lot of issues, you know, going to jail, a lot showing up in the news. And uh so, by the time I moved to New York to start college, he was in jail. But I knew that at some point he would get out and he would reclaim his throne, which he which he did, and I met him for the well, I met him when I was a kid, but I don't really count that one. The first time I met him as a professional musician

was backstage at the Apollo in and Uh. About four months later, my first album came out, and the title track of that album, which is called Getting to It, was based off of the James Brown tune called get It Together. So I sent that CD to Mr Brown and Uh. About six months later, I saw him in Europe at the Vienna Jazz Festival and we had a conversation and he actually listened to my CD, and and I really came this close to passing out. And U story,

but didn't you play with him? I played with him at his UM sixty four birthday bash in Augusta, Georgia, and I produced what was one of his last shows in l a A at the Hollywood Bowl. Being friends with James Brown. Uh, definitely had Uh it's obligatory drama. But that's much too long in the story to tell now. But that's another show. Oh yeah, no, I am sure. So there's a couple of women I want to talk about. First. I want to talk about your mom because I never

met her before. I couldn't believe number one, how young she was and how like spirited. And you know, I went to talk to her. Of course is from one mom to another, because she was talking about you know, how raising you. There was nothing she wouldn't do, like it was just the power of being your mom's and I and I asked her and I just said, how old are you? And she told me that she was like sixteen when she had you. She was a kid. Yeah, And so you guys grew up together. We did exactly right.

You know. I always say that, you know, my my mother was the she was the navigator of the ship. You know, she she's not a musician, but she has got musician ears. Um. And I just remember, like anything I wanted to do, she always went uh to great lengths to make sure that I had a chance to really check it out. Like for example, you know, as as a kid, you you change occupations like weekly, Like one week, I wanted to be a fireman. Okay, so you know she would take me to the local firehouse

to meet the fireman. You know, um, I said, in one week, I wanted to be a cop. You know, She's like, oh boy, but she was like, Okay, if you if you really want to, let's let's figure out how that could happen. And then that changed, and then I wanted to be a base a pro baseball player, and uh. She actually gathered some of the other moms in the neighborhood to see if we can start a

little league team, but we couldn't sustain the momentum. And and then when I finally decided that, you know, I wanted to be a bass player, um, without flinching, my mother said, let's figure out a way to get you a base and uh and that one stuck, obviously. And then your dad too, was you know, a musician, right, he still is, he's uh, he's he's still uh plays, he's based in Philly still, but you know he's on the road now as much as he was back in

the seventies and eighties. And uh, you know, he tells the story about when I saw him play with Michoel Santa Maria, and I decided that I wanted to try to give the base a shot too, and uh, and that's true. So I came home and told my mom and she said, let's make it happen. M It's amazing that your mom would be so supportive. She never said no to me. I'll never forget that. Yeah, it's kind

of incredible. But I feel like my daughter. My daughter has a new idea every week and I indulge in like, yeah, sure, but I don't know that I would take her and buy the equipment and do all the things. And um, it's pretty awesome. And let's talk about the other woman in your life, the woman who is your wife named Melissa Walker, incredible singer, amazing, amazing. I mean a couple of things. How many years you married again? Coming up with seventeen? Wow? And and how do you how do

you guys do it being apart from each other? Like how do you keep it together? Ah? Well, I've always heard like, like the couples that that we know have been together for a very very long time, spending a significant time apart seems to help them stay together a long time. But um, marre all little advice you won't hear everywhere, but it's true. I think it might be true. Yeah, you know what it makes you makes you miss the

person you know? Um, and plus you know Melissa and I have both working musicians, you know, so we knew you know, our lives were similar, you know. Um. Obviously, since Jazz House Kids started to become bigger and bigger and game mormentum, she's game more momentum, she spent less

and less time on the road. But when we first, uh started dating, almost twenty years ago, UM, I was in the middle of touring my latest album at that time, and so, I mean we we both realized that we had to figure out how to do something together because I had my own band, she had her own band at that time. Um. And then she had started this

nonprofit organization called Jazz House Kids. And at that time, you know, that was just something that she was doing on the side, you know, like every now and then when she wasn't working as a singer, you know. Um. And then as time progressed, she started spending more and more time developing Jazz House Kids. And I decided that, uh, well let's do that one together, you know. And I'm very proud of what Jazz House Kids been able to

do over the last uh. I mean, she she started Jazz House Kids before we met, but um, it didn't really become her main focus until I would say, like our second or third year of marriage. We'll tell everyone what Jazz House Kids is because it's pretty cool. Yeah, Jazz House Kids is a jazz educational foundation which is based in our town, Mount Clear, New Jersey. And it started out UM with h going into different schools, which

we still are. You know, Basically, a lot of public schools in Essex County started losing their music programs and so Melissa knew a lot of UH principles and teachers in the school systems, so they would asked Melissa to put a group of instructors and jazz artists to come in and basically give different master classes and seminars and

jazz to their students. And UH, one school led to another, one school led to another, and finally we were probably in about five and six schools throughout Newark and Irvington and the Oranges and UH in two thousand fourteen we opened our own building, UH, thank thanks to Mr Rob Brown and you know, UH since that time we've been able to see UM probably over a hundred thousand kids, which first started out only New Jersey, but now we have students coming as far as London and South America

to our summer program. UH. And then after the summer program, we started the Moncla Jazz Festival. So Jazz House Kids has turned into quite the organization. Very proud of us and you guys together or you started the Montclair Jazz Festival. Oh no, you know what what happened? What the Monclad Jazz Festival. It was completely accidental. Um. We were trying to figure out what to do during the summertime because you know, we had we had staff. You know, we

couldn't put staff. You know, hey guys, you know, uh, uh have a great summer, will pay you in September, you know, So we had to figure out how to keep it going. So we started a summer program two weeks summer intensive, uh course. Um. And at the end of those two weeks, we figured that we would start, um, you know, just have like a little end of the

summer program concert for the kids. And so we had this free concert in niche Wane Park and uh, at that time, it was only the parents of the kids who came to the summer program, which at that time probably were I don't know, a hundred kids maybe, And the following year we wind up getting like a hundred and twenty five kids and more parents showed up in a couple more people from the neighborhood showed up. And then the third year, which I believe was two thousand

eleven maybe or two thousand and twelve, I can't remember. Um, I can't remember what year was, we invited the great Monte Alexander to come and uh perform with us. And we didn't even have a piano. He played on like a little keyboard. And at some point we looked at each other with you know, let's invite another musician to come and play, get a bigger stage, and let's see what happens. And then next thing, you know, the mont

clar Jazz Festival was born. Now this is an annual of in Montclair for yeah, and so when is it happening this summer? Well, it's it's going to be happening the weekend after Labor Day. Shame on me for not knowing the exact dates, but um, the second weekend of September. That's good, that's better than the summer. Yes, Well, do you do the Newport Jazz every year because you were the master of ceremonies or I know it's a bigger name.

What is what is your you know Newport Jazz? Yes, yes, I've been artistic director of the Newport Jazz Yes, uh, since and the man who created the Newport Jazz Festival of the late George Ween. That man was an icon. First of all, he created the template for the music festival.

So every every festival has ever happened from Monterey, both the jazz and the pop festival, Woodstock, the New Orleans Jazz and Heritage Festival, which he started, the Hampton Jazz Festival, the Old Cool Jazz Festival from the seventies and eighties, um, all the way up to festivals now like Coachella and Burning Man and Bonarum, all of these big music festivals.

That template was started by George Ween in nineteen fifty four, and you know he became, uh, you know, literally one of the most important figures in the history of music. So uh, I knew George fairly well, not that well, but fairly well. And in he asked me to join him in Washington, d C. For a round table discussion on the history of the Newport Jazz Festival. And I

was stumped because I thought, why is he calling me? Sure, there's a lot of other musicians who have a much longer history with the Newport Jazz festival than I do. And uh so I went down there and Dan Morgenstern, who used to run the uh um at at at Rutgers um he listened to the jazz studies. Uh, it was just the three of us on this panel, and and so that O'Brien was the moderator. And I'm just sitting there like, why am I here? I w I had no idea, So yeah, right exactly. So I suppose

I did a good job on the panel. And uh the next year, George says, coming from my house for for lunch, and uh, I said okay, And Melissa says, well, what do you think he wants? I said, I don't know. He might ask me to be uh you know, artists and residents or something that at Newport next year. And she said, I don't know if he was going to ask you that. He could probably ask you that over the phone, you know. Uh So I went over to his apartment and I got there and he said, Christian,

I'm glad you're here. Let's go into my office. And he told his assistant to shut the door. And I'm getting nervous, you know, like what does he want? And uh, he says, you know, Christian, I've been. Uh, I've been spying on you. You know, I've been. I've been. I've been checking you out from Afar for a long time. And you know, I've seen what you've been doing. You. I already know what you've been doing as a bass player. I've I've you know, I've been watching to do that

since you were a teenager. But like, you know, the whole thing you were doing out of the Hollywood Bowl, what you've been doing in n j pack, what you've been doing with your wife and jazz I was kids, what you've been doing on NPR and all this all you know, serious sex, m and all this stuff. He said, Uh, I'm stepping down from the Newport Jazz Festival. I'm eighty nine years old, and it's about time, Um someone else runs the ship and me and the board decided that

you'd be the person to run it. And uh, you could have knocked me over with the feathers, like are you kidding me? Really? And uh, he said, well, you know, I like the fact that you don't seem to have any particular musical biases, you know, it's I like the fact that you worked with so many different types of artists, and you seem at home with all of them. And that's the way I want my festival run after. I'm going. First of all, you've done so much I can't even

like begin to list it. You got a couple of podcasts, you got radio, you got radio shows. What haven't you done? Like, what haven't you done that you think? Wow? Like, do you want a line of I don't know? Socks? I don't know. Is there any weird things? That's what's missing. I can see guys in jazz clubs wearing some really colorful, cool socks. Well, I'm going to listen to you guys on that one. So maybe, yeah, maybe I'll check out the socks. Uh. I don't know what if I always

wanted to do? Um, Bobby, I'm glad you weren't around when this happened. But I'll tell you something that I did a little bucket list thing. Um. I went to Trend, our local coffee shop in Montclaire on a Monday night when they had opened Mica or comedy night. And so I did. I did stand up? Oh did phenomenal. I don't know if I was phenomenal, but I didn't get booed. We thought you did it. That's such a big deal. It is hard. I took a stand up class ones

and I was like, never again. I mean it was I took it at the forcing of my manager, my old manager, Rich Nichols. You probably know because you know, yeah, Rich was my old manager. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love I miss him so much. But yeah, he was my first manager when I was working at Google. It's a really weird, long story that will not make any sense in this podcast, but yeah, I'll tell you about that the other time. But yeah, he was. He was trying to get me to do this sort of stuff like

interviews and stuff, and then he forced me. He said, you have to get out of your head because I would always have no cards and like prep. Bobby noses about me with like my prep for interviews. He's like, you need to take an improv class and you're taking a stand up class, like absolutely not not doing it. And I did both. And the improv was fun because you just like get out of your head and it's really good for like speaking. But the I mean, you're

a jazz musician, you know about improv though bad. But the stand up I was like, this ship is hard, Like I love stand up and it was I was like, I am not funny, Like, I'm not not that kind of funny. It's really hard, but yeah, Rich Nichols is who I made me do. Incredible world. This world is always shrinking by the day. Yeah, I'm You're and Tarka old friends, James Poyser the whole like rude script. Yeh yeah.

I went into Trend one day and the young lady behind the cash registers said, uh, she says, you know, I've heard your show on once here at Sexam. She said, I actually think you're funny. I said, well, thank you. Uh. She said you should come do open NC tonight. I was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no way in hell I'm doing that. I am a musician. I love comedy behind that's that's different than going up on stage and and making a fool out of yourself.

You know. She said, no, I'm gonna put your name on the list. I said no, no, no, don't do that. Please don't do that. And she's like, look, be here, seven thirty, I'm putting your name on the list. I was like, oh ship, So I called the list. I said, listen, uh, go home, get a couple of bags back because we might have to leave town around eighty. Can we catch this on YouTube anywhere? It's got no open my god, wait, I want to see Bobby do open Mike. I think

we need to do like Couples Night. I could try. I could only do open mic night if I had the Christian McBride cocktail that I'm obsessed with. So can you tell us, Hollas more, what is in the cocktail? It's the best thing I ever tasted, which I had. I actually didn't know what was in it until I got there. I mean I didn't create that. I knew that was vodka in it. That's all I care about. Yeah, me too, I'm a vodka drinker. But it was so refreshing. There was a touch of soda, there was a touch

of line, and there was a little um not. It's something that made it pink. Yes, it started with the a yes, yes, yeah. I never knew that apperall and vodka work together. So everything oh so Christian. You could add a little hot chili to the operall. Here's a hot tip. You put you stuff a bunch of like tai chilis into the apple. Use it. No, it's really good. And just infuse it and just like let it be. I have one that's been baking in my liquor cabinet for like a year, and it's gonna be solid like

a little kick. Yeah. And and also I've won one very important question. What do you do for self care? Do you do? Self care? Is self care what you do? But do you pay it? I mean from traveling, it's like, how do you keep yourself healthy and feel good? I'll tell you what I have become an acupulture freak. Um. I used to think things like acupuncture and massages all man, you know, it's just some corny, hyhebrow stuff, but it

is not. I really wish that was more standard in in American culture, you know, like I'm talking like serious, you know, like professional massus is and and acupulcture. I mean that really does wonders from me. And do you just get a strange person like you just get when you go into town or call my acupuncturists at home and I get her to give me a list of you know, like give me a network. Who should I call in Chicago? Who should I call in l A,

Who should I call in San Francisco? Are you doing this first specific ailment, not to get into your business. But or is it like just general health and wellness or is it for like pain, just general health and wellness. Yeah, acupuncture is amazing. I'm a big fan. Yeah. About ten years ago, UM, I threw my back out and I never experienced serious back pain before. And so my friend, the great drummer Lewis Nash, she said, oh, man, you

gotta you gotta do accupuncture. I was saying, hey man, that's that's when they stick all those needles in you man nine doing that. It's another way. You gotta do it. It's worth it. So Melissa and I went and we went to Chinatown and uh, and we had an accupuncture session together, and uh, I thought, you know, just say too bad. And eventually my back pain started going away. And obviously took a lot of stretching and things to go along with it, but I became hooked on it.

I did it a lot when I was pregnant, like all through my pregnancy, and I'm convinced that's why I had a touch with largely uneventful pregnancy and like no pain it was. And I'm sure that the accupucture an Yeah, I'm sure like it kept me active the whole time. It was incredible. Trying to get my mother to do it. She's like, oh no, I know my mom would do it either. She's like all this kneat pain and like mom, trust us, and she's like I'm not sticking needles, Like

just like trust us. Like we're Asian, we're Indians. It's gonna work. No, don't do it. S hard to break the role school. And how about food? Do you eat anything special? Or you eat everything? You've seen me? You see my sheep? Yeah, you go up and down, you go up and down. Yeah, I go up and down. Um I've yeah, I fall off the wagon pretty hard during COVID. I think you know um, but I don't have a particular I mean, I absolutely love, love, love, love love Indian food, but I don't think it loves

me as much as I love Bere. There's a new place that just opened. I'm gonna give you a tip. It's called Basil. It's the best Indian food. It's Indian tie, but it's more Indian and in time as like intensely spicy as other Indian food. It's in watch On Plaza. So just f y I up and take out. You will call me up and say, wow, I've never had Indian tie. That sounds so young. Indian Chinese is like a thing that's a whole genre of food, and I'm

obsessed with Indian Chinese. But I've never heard of Indian time. Indian time. Yeah, I think I have to use as in my in laws and Bobby and Christian McBride and Jersey and that the Indian type with Well, Mr McBride, thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us. Are you kidding? What an honor? Thank you for having me. Wait, Bobby, you have to ask your final question, right, I always

ask everyone the same question. If people listening could hear the advice of Christian McBride, what is the one thing that they could do to change the course of their life? Stop taking themselves so seriously? Amen, You're really We're really important, but to an extent, we can be laughed at, at particularly bar at ourselves. Yeah. Well, I just my only regret in life is that I didn't see you on

the stand up. So I'm going to have to see if somebody recorded on their phone, because I'm sure I'll do it again one of these days when when no one I hope you're all saying to do the movement revisited again because I want to see that. Thank you. Yes, um, I don't know when I'm playing. Actually, we just got an offer to do it up in Toronto, but I know there's talk of us trying to do it maybe at Carnegie Hall sometime. Okay, well that would be easier

for me to get to. But Toronto has come up three times in the past twenty four hours, from not kidding, from three very different people of everybody telling me it's like, you have to go to Toronto. You're gonna have so much fun in Toronto. So I think if you can arrange it around my schedule, the company in Toronto, but I mean midtown's easier. I'm not gonna lie like about, sister. Toronto is definitely the New York of the North. Yeah, And can everyone find out where you are on your website?

How do people Christian McBride dot com, Christian McBride dot com. Are you on Instagram and all that stuff? I'm on gram, I'm on the Facebook, Twitter, all that all that stuff. TikTok have you done? Have you done? TikTok? Have a TikTok account? I don't really use it. Yeah, well we'll save that for another day. Christian, I could sit here all day and talk. I just I just there's something about you. From the second I met you, I just love you, not because of what you do, because of

who you are. You are just one of those special spirits. And you know, I'm just really feel grateful that you're my friends. So thanks for coming on. Oh Bobby, the feeling is more than mutual, you know that. And uh, it's an honor to speak with you, and Anjeli great to meet you too, and yeah, let's get together and talk about Rich Nichols and and all the Reeks crew one of these days. I cannot wait. Well, I'll see you at the next open mic, apparently be in line two.