PHOTO-CAP
CHRISTIAN MCBRIDE’S RESIDENCY

September 28, 2016 | by Ross Eustis

Christian McBride at the SFJAZZ Center (Photo by Ronald Davis)

After a whirlwind week with Resident Artistic Director Christian Mcbride, here's a photo-cap of all the happenings: five different bands, an insightful Listening Party for SFJAZZ Members, and a live streamed Family Matinee, all at the SFJAZZ Center from September 20-25, 2016.

Photo by Grason Littles

“Well, it looks like we have a Christian McBride situation.” Named after an actual predicament at the 2007 Monterey Jazz Festival, when members of the McBride's scheduled group had to cancel and the bassist created a new group on the spot, McBride's "Situation" welcomed keyboardist-vocalist Patrice Rushen, turntablists DJ Logic and Jahi Sundance, saxophonist Ron Blake and vocalist Alyson Williams to the Center on Thursday to kick off the residency. As you'd expect with two DJs, the "Situation" got Miner Auditorium up on its feet.

Photo by Ronald Davis

What's a "Jawn"? It's Philly slang for "joint," or a person, place or thing. McBride's "New Jawn" – or newest band – is a fierce piano-less quartet fronted by trumpeter Josh Evans and saxophonist Marcus Strickland, who flew high while drummer Nasheet Waits anchored the beat and McBride took on the challenge of repping both the changes and low end.

Before "New Jawn" took the stage Friday night, McBride sat down with us on camera to talk through his residency. As the day would've marked John Coltrane's 90th birthday, we slipped in a question about the saxophone great.

Saturday got started early. McBride assembled a Quartet with SFJAZZ Collective's Edward Simon, "Situation" saxophonist Ron Blake and drummer Quincy Phillips (who also held it down in McBride's Big Band later that evening) for a Family Matinee. Although the audience was comprised largely of kids and parents, jazz fans from all over the world enjoyed it via live stream from SFJAZZ.org.

Photo by Rick Swig

McBride returned to the stage that evening with his GRAMMY-winning Big Band, which swung the roof off the Center. That's SFJAZZ Collective trumpeter Sean Jones up in the trumpet section, who took some spirited solos.

Photos by Scott Chernis

Christian closed out his residency on Sunday with his "partner-in-crime" Dee Dee Bridgewater. From JazzSet to Jazz Night In America, the two musicians have been the voice of jazz on NPR. So it wasn't a surprise that the animated duet performance came complete with some great stories and hilarious banter between the two masters.

Photo by Ronald Davis

If you missed McBride this time around, or want more like us, the Resident Artistic Director will be back for round two in the 2017-18 Season. Until then, keep tabs on upcoming programming from fellow RADs Vijay Iyer, Mary Stallings and Rosanne Cash coming in 2017!

LISTEN to our curated Christian McBride Playlist