LINCOLN CENTER
Rose Theater
Christian McBride/Henry Butler, Steven Bernstein & The Hot 9
Two world class bands explore the relationship between jazz and American popular song. The double-bill is headlined by GRAMMY® Award-winning bassist Christian McBride, who first composed for big band in 1995 as a commission for the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra.
Now a leader of his own GRAMMY® Award-winning Big Band, featuring a staggering and diverse lineup of top musicians, McBride simultaneously shows off his compositional talent and unmatched ability to drive a band from behind the bass. The other portion of the concert features Henry Butler, Steven Bernstein & The Hot 9, featuring New Orleans piano virtuoso Henry Butler. Described by The New York Times as “both historically aware and fully prepared to cut loose,” this exhilarating group introduces the hot jazz of years past to the endless possibilities of the modern jazz landscape.
Notes on the Program
By Bridget Arnwine
Jazz is an original stitch in the fabric of American popular music. It transcends per- ception and categorization in spite of its firmly established roots in the African- American experience. The music is improvisation from and for the soul. It swings, bops, and lindy- hops through Cotton Clubs, rags, and fuses time, gives birth to cool, and serenades Paris in springtime all without ever losing the core of its identity. Before American popular music ever had a name, jazz was it, and on Friday and Saturday, February 26 and 27, 2016, two highly celebrated bands will demonstrate jazz’s omnipresence in what has become the great American songbook.
Christian McBride is a five-time Grammy Award winning bassist, composer, arranger, bandleader, producer, educator, and radio host of SiriusXM Satellite’s The Low-down: Conversations with Christian and Jazz Night in America, a radio and web-based initiative resulting from a partnership between WBGO, NPR, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1972, McBride is one of the most recorded musi- cians on the scene today. With more than 300 recording credits to his name, he has performed alongside a diverse group of musicians including Bobby Watson, Chick Corea, Joshua Redman, Diana Krall, Pat Metheny, Benny Green, George Duke, Paul McCartney, Lalah Hathaway, Roy Haynes, Sting, Herbie Hancock, The Roots, D’Angelo, Kathleen Battle, Sonny Rollins, Betty Carter, the inimitable James Brown, and his wife, vocalist Melissa Walker, to name a few.
In 1989, McBride moved from his native Philadelphia to New York City, where he planned to pursue classical studies at the acclaimed Juilliard School. It wasn’t long before he began working, taking a position in Bobby Watson’s band. By 1990, McBride made his recording debut as a sideman on trumpeter Wallace Roney’s Obsession. He debuted as a leader five years later on his recording Gettin’ To It (Verve Records).
In 1998, McBride received a commission from the Portland (ME) Arts Society and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to compose what became “The Movement, Revisited,” a four-movement suite dedicated to the work of civil rights icons Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Ali, and Malcolm X.
By Bridget Arnwine
Jazz is an original stitch in the fabric of American popular music. It transcends per- ception and categorization in spite of its firmly established roots in the African- American experience. The music is improvisation from and for the soul. It swings, bops, and lindy- hops through Cotton Clubs, rags, and fuses time, gives birth to cool, and serenades Paris in springtime all without ever losing the core of its identity. Before American popular music ever had a name, jazz was it, and on Friday and Saturday, February 26 and 27, 2016, two highly celebrated bands will demonstrate jazz’s omnipresence in what has become the great American songbook.
Christian McBride is a five-time Grammy Award winning bassist, composer, arranger, bandleader, producer, educator, and radio host of SiriusXM Satellite’s The Low-down: Conversations with Christian and Jazz Night in America, a radio and web-based initiative resulting from a partnership between WBGO, NPR, and Jazz at Lincoln Center. Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania in 1972, McBride is one of the most recorded musi- cians on the scene today. With more than 300 recording credits to his name, he has performed alongside a diverse group of musicians including Bobby Watson, Chick Corea, Joshua Redman, Diana Krall, Pat Metheny, Benny Green, George Duke, Paul McCartney, Lalah Hathaway, Roy Haynes, Sting, Herbie Hancock, The Roots, D’Angelo, Kathleen Battle, Sonny Rollins, Betty Carter, the inimitable James Brown, and his wife, vocalist Melissa Walker, to name a few.
In 1989, McBride moved from his native Philadelphia to New York City, where he planned to pursue classical studies at the acclaimed Juilliard School. It wasn’t long before he began working, taking a position in Bobby Watson’s band. By 1990, McBride made his recording debut as a sideman on trumpeter Wallace Roney’s Obsession. He debuted as a leader five years later on his recording Gettin’ To It (Verve Records).
In 1998, McBride received a commission from the Portland (ME) Arts Society and the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to compose what became “The Movement, Revisited,” a four-movement suite dedicated to the work of civil rights icons Rosa Parks, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Muhammad Ali, and Malcolm X.
In 2000, McBride assembled the Christian
McBride Band, a funk/fusion group consist-
ing of saxophonist Ron Blake, keyboardist
Geoffrey Keezer, and drummer Terreon
Gully. He continued to work and record as a
sideman though the group released two
recordings: Vertical Vision and Live at Tonic.
McBride went on to front several other inno-
vative groups including an award-winning big
band, the Inside Straight quintet, and a trio
that features rising star pianist Christian
Sands and drummer Ulysses Owens, Jr.
With a career that now spans more than 30
years, McBride has earned a place as one of
music’s best and most thoughtful musicians.
Critics are also celebrating New Orleans jazz and blues pianist Henry Butler, trum- peter Steve Bernstein, and the Hot 9 for their high-energy approach to bringing the past and present together.
Butler, a musician well-versed in the history of piano music and the New Orleans style of playing, released his debut recording, Fivin’ Around, in 1986. The professional relationship between Bernstein and Butler developed in 1998 after the trumpeter hired the pianist to be part of his touring band. The two reunited in 2011 when Butler per- formed as a special guest in Bernstein’s nine-piece Millennial Territory Orchestra. When Butler rejoined Bernstein’s Orchestra the following year, the two decided to explore what they could develop together musically, giving way to the evolution of the Hot 9. The group released Viper’s Drag in 2014, the album’s title a nod to acclaimed stride pianist Thomas “Fats” Waller.
Though he was born blind, Butler is also an avid photographer. His work was included in an exhibition titled Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists.
Critics are also celebrating New Orleans jazz and blues pianist Henry Butler, trum- peter Steve Bernstein, and the Hot 9 for their high-energy approach to bringing the past and present together.
Butler, a musician well-versed in the history of piano music and the New Orleans style of playing, released his debut recording, Fivin’ Around, in 1986. The professional relationship between Bernstein and Butler developed in 1998 after the trumpeter hired the pianist to be part of his touring band. The two reunited in 2011 when Butler per- formed as a special guest in Bernstein’s nine-piece Millennial Territory Orchestra. When Butler rejoined Bernstein’s Orchestra the following year, the two decided to explore what they could develop together musically, giving way to the evolution of the Hot 9. The group released Viper’s Drag in 2014, the album’s title a nod to acclaimed stride pianist Thomas “Fats” Waller.
Though he was born blind, Butler is also an avid photographer. His work was included in an exhibition titled Sight Unseen: International Photography by Blind Artists.
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