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Eric Dolphy: “When you hear music, after it’s over, it’s gone, in the air, you can never capture it again.”

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Saturday, 20 March 2010

McBride, Payton & Whitfield Trio reunite at the Jazz Standard, September 3-7

Written by Ronaldo Oregano

Sunday, 31 August 2008

Christian McBride

A thrilling threesome that is sure to make the most, melodically and rhythmically, of its unusual drum-less configuration. Bassist Christian McBride, trumpeter Nicholas Payton and guitarist Mark Whitfield are all acclaimed recording artists in their own right, and all have appeared as bandleaders on our stage in years past. Just over a decade ago, in 1997, the trio released Fingerpainting: The Music Of Herbie Hancock – “an underrated gem” (AllMusic.com) and a thrilling exploration of the Hancock catalogue from “Speak Like a Child” to “Chameleon.” Don’t miss this rare reunion of three of the brightest lights on the American jazz scene today on Wednesday, September 3rd trhough Sunday, September 7th at the Jazz Standard, 116 East 27th Street in New York.

Christian McBride, born May 31, 1972 in Philadelphia, has become arguably the most acclaimed acoustic and electric bassist to emerge from jazz in the 1990s. Upon graduating from Philadelphia’s High School for the Creative and Performing Arts in 1989, he was awarded a partial scholarship to The Juilliard School. That summer, before moving to New York, McBride got his first taste of the touring life going to Europe with the Philadelphia Youth Orchestra, and also touring the US with the ‘80s fusion group Free Flight. McBride was already so in- demand that he never had a chance to settle into his Juilliard studies. Very quickly he joined Bobby Watson’s band, Horizon. He also started working around New York at clubs such as Bradley’s and the Village Gate with artists such as John Hicks, Kenny Barron, and Gary Bartz. McBride was named Rolling Stone’s Hot Jazz Artist of 1992. The next year he became a member of guitarist Pat Metheny’s Special Quartet, which included Billy Higgins and the then-up-and- coming Joshua Redman. While recording and touring with Redman the following year, McBride signed with Verve Records, recording his first CD as a leader, Gettin’ To It — one of the biggest selling jazz records of 1995.

For McBride, jazz education has always been a prime concern. He conducts workshops and clinics at universities all over the country, and in 2000 was named artistic director of the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Program. In 2001 he was named artistic director of the University of Richmond’s summer jazz program as well as of the Dave Brubeck Institute at the University of the Pacific in Stockton, California.

Nocholas Payton © Andrea Canter

Nocholas Payton was born into a musical family (he remembers sitting under the piano while his father rehearsed with his band) and mentored by two Crescent City jazz masters (Clyde Kerr Jr. at the New Orleans Center for Creative Arts and Ellis Marsalis at the University of New Orleans), Payton was well-prepared to leap into the jazz fray when he emerged on the New York in the early 1990s. He impressed fellow New Orleans native and Jazz at Lincoln Center Artistic Director, Wynton Marsalis and was a regular in the early years of programming at the institution. Payton went on to put his own spin on Louis Armstrong-associated music on his sophomore CD, the appropriately-titled 1995 disc Gumbo Nouveau. In 1996, the late, legendary trumpeter Adolphus "Doc" Cheatham, who subbed for Armstrong in a Chicago theatre orchestra in the 1920s and collaborated with Payton on a Grammy-winning recording, remarked, "Nicholas is the greatest of the New Orleans-style trumpet players that I've ever heard ... I haven't heard anybody like him since Louis." Similarly, New Orleans drummer Herlin Riley told Jazziz magazine, "I think the spirit of Louis Armstrong, Buddy Bolden, and those kind of people lives in Nicholas more than any other trumpet player from New Orleans. Nicholas was raised into a tradition. The sound of New Orleans traditional jazz was part of his upbringing. It wasn't something he had to reach back for; he took his roots and extended beyond." In 2003 he shocked the jazz world with his adventurous CD Sonic Trance, an exhilarating plugged-in outing infused with elements of hip-hop, electronica, and effects-driven trumpeting.

Mark Whitfield by Bill Morgan/Wikimedia.org

Mark Whitfield graduated from Berklee College of Music, the world's foremost institute for the study of Jazz and modern American music, in the Spring of 1987 having studied composition and arranging as well as all styles of guitar performance. Upon graduation, he returned to his native New York to embark on a career as a jazz guitarist that afforded him the opportunity to collaborate with many legendary artists including Dizzy Gillespie, Art Blakey, Clark Terry, Jimmy Smith, Carmen McCrae, Herbie Hancock, Quincy Jones, Jack McDuff, Betty Carter, Shirley Horn, Ray Charles, Gladys Knight, Burt Bacharach, Joe Williams, Wynton Marsalis, Bradford Marsalis, Stanley Turrentine and his greatest teacher and mentor George Benson. In September of 2005, Mark Whitfield accepted the invitation to join the faculty at his alma mater, teaming up with Joe Lovano, Ralph Peterson, Danilo Perez, and Terry Lynn Carrington as "Artists in Residence" at the Berklee School. While maintaining a teaching schedule that requires his presence on campus 1 day a week for 14 weeks/per semester, and a touring schedule that includes at least 100 concert dates/per year with trumpeter Chris Botti, Whitfield still manages to remain active as a solo artist and 2008-2009 will see the release of his latest solo effort; a Stevie Wonder tribute entitled "Songs Of Wonder".

Jazz Standard is located at 116 East 27th Street in New York. For more information visit www.jazzstandard.net or call 212-576-2232.

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