Bassist extraodinaire, composer, arranger, educator, curator and administrator, Christian McBride, has been one of the most important and most omnipresent figures in the jazz world for 20 years. Sometimes hard to believe considering this man is not yet 40. Joining Christian as a special guest will be jazz singer, educator and wife, Melissa Walker
Beginning in 1989, this Philadelphia-born bassist moved to New York City to further his classical studies at the Juilliard School, only to be snatched up by alto saxophonist, Bobby Watson. Since then, McBride's list of accomplishments have been nothing short of staggering. As a sideman in the jazz world alone, he's worked with the best of the very best - Freddie Hubbard, Sonny Rollins, J.J. Johnson, Ray Brown, Milt Jackson, McCoy Tyner, Roy Haynes, Chick Corea, Herbie Hancock and Pat Metheny. In the R&B world, he's not only played with, but also arranged for Isaac Hayes, Chaka Khan, Natalie Cole, Lalah Hathaway, and the one and only Godfather of Soul himself, James Brown. In the pop/rock world, he's extensively collaborated with Sting, Carly Simon, Don Henley, and Bruce Hornsby. In the hip-hop/neo-soul world, he's collaborated with the Roots, D'Angelo, and Queen Latifah. In many other specialty projects, he's worked closely with opera legend Kathleen Battle, bass virtuoso Edgar Meyer, the Shanghai Quartet and the Sonus Quartet.
Kenny White began his career in the 1970s touring extensively as the keyboard player for Jonathan Edwards and Livingston Taylor. He then became a fixture in the NY studio scene throughout the 1990s, producing and arranging literally hundreds of commercials for TV and radio, beginning with “The Unsinkable Taste of Cheerios,” and nearly seven years of Chevrolet’s “Heartbeat of America” campaign. Commercials enabled him to work with artists like Gladys Knight, Linda Ronstadt, Ricky Skaggs, Aaron Neville and even the London Symphony Orchestra. Kenny also worked on many film soundtracks as a contributing writer/musician, including Message in a Bottle, A Walk on the Moon, Where the Heart Is, and four films by John Sayles. He produced Shawn Colvin’s Grammy-nominated song, “I Don’t Know Why” and performed on Marc Cohn’s platinum debut record.