August 13, 2025 • 30 mins
On this week's In Service Of iconic jazz bassist and composer Christian McBride joins co-hosts Steve Baltin and Sage Bava to discuss his upcoming Christian's at Sea cruise and his long history with jazz cruises. He also talks his role as ambassador of the genre.
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Speaker 1 (00:05):
Today, I'm in service of with Thrill, to be joined
by the incredible Kush McBride, nine time Grammy winning bassist,
composer and bandleader. We talk about his newest project, World
at Sea, a week long jazz and comedy cruise launching
in January twenty twenty six, with really amazing artists like
Samara Joy, Hosey James, and comedians like Alonzo Bowden and
(00:25):
George Wallace. We dive into how Christian is creating a
floating community with world class music, laughter, connection, and of
course immense.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
So I've got to be the first person in the
history of the world to interview you. Willie Nelson, an
Empire of the Sun in the same day said do
(00:55):
you know either of them?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm sure you know Willie.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
I mean, you know, I don't have his number, but yes,
I've worked with him. I recorded with him on his
American Classic CD.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I mean, that's the thing when someone comes to you
and says really wants to talk. I mean you just
say okay, when where whatever? That'd be an interesting you
for your cruise.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Man, Man, this is this is a pretty incredible undertaking.
I've never had anyone to kind of you know, Bet
their career on my uh on, on my musical world,
so to speak.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
But I mean it's funny because I mean, do you
in a way you kind of have though, because I mean,
look at all the great people you played with. Every
time you're playing with someone you know, like Sting, it's funny.
Last night, Yeah, Martin invited me to the twentieth anniversary
of Charity Tree, and I know you got as are
tight and you know so, I mean just by playing
(02:04):
with you, they kind of are. But I mean it's
got to be a great compliment to that. Everybody wants
to be associated with you for this. I mean it's
in the same lineup.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Well, thank you very much. It's like I said, I'm
still trying to there's a combination of getting the business
done and making sure all of the things are put
into place, and then there's the other part of it, like, hey,
this is your own crews with your name on it,
(02:36):
with your musicians on there, and people who you've been
associated with. So it's sort of like a it's like
a small snapshot. It's like an an express snapshot of
my career. And that's a little bit of a scary
thing to see. But Ultimately, I think it's going to
(02:59):
be fun I.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Was gonna say it's interesting, though, and then let's say
it take over in a second. But you say it's funny,
it's you say it's scary. But I mean, at the
same time as I say, it's got to be a
huge compliment that all these people want to be associated
with you, and even to begin with that, you know
that they want to do the.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Cruise with you.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I mean, that's put in trust in and any way
you've been involved with It's funny because I know, Jay Smith,
you've been involved with Newport Jazz Fest for years, right.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Uh started in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yes, okay, So I mean weren't you involved in kind
of curating and helping pick.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
That as well?
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So, how is this, I mean it feels like there
would be some similarity.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Well, the difference is people will come to play the
Newport Jazz Fest well no matter who the artistic director is,
because of the history of the festival. But you know,
the Christian mcbrides World at Sea Cruise is a brand
new fait. You know. Now, granted, I do have most
(04:04):
of the musicians who come to both Newport and who
are coming to perform on the cruise I have personal
relationships with, so it does help. But until the McBride's
World at Sea cruise has a seventy one year run
like Newport, I won't take myself too seriously.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Wow, So who do you want to play year seventy?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Say what I said?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Who do you want to play year seventy at the cruise?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Man? Well, let me see, Well, next year is the
very first year of the cruise. So I mean by
the time that cruise is seventy one years old, I'll
be long out of here as I would win. Wow.
But when I turned seventy one, let's see, that'll be
(04:58):
eighteen years. Jesus Christ, that's actually not that far away.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Who knows? I don't know. Who knows what will be
going on in the world in eighteen years.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Who knows that this wife will even have a world in.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Eighteen Exactly right? It's stage stage Bible is going to
be too expensive for me to get on the cruise
in eighteen years. Oh no, No, she's gonna be like
she's gonna be like Mariah Carey, like, oh I'm sorry.
You have to talk to like five decks of people
(05:35):
before you get to me.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Oh please, you know that's not what it's about. I
shure you, yeah, I mean that's such a beautiful idea,
Like this world is so crazy, and to escape to
the sea with all of these incredible people that you've
known for decades, Like what are you most excited about
(05:58):
to like create in that kind of you know context
where and you have this little bit of your world
that you're creating at sea.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
You know, since the first time, I really have no expectations.
I'm just kind of curious to see how it all unfolds.
Everybody are you know, everybody at who I'm inviting, the
good friends, we've all worked together, and most of all,
they're all professionals. They've done many cruises before. They've done
the Jazz Cruise, they did the Old Blue No at
(06:31):
Sea Cruise, and so they're they're professional veterans who are
also my friends. So the only expectations that I have
is that there'll be a lot of a lot of
great music and a lot of great folks.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
With so many memories in between you and these amazing
other artists. Do you find that playing music together unlocks
like different memories for you because you're all.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
All the time, all the time. You know this, two
particular groups of mine that are going to be on
the cruise, the Remembering Ray Brown Trio with Benny Green
and Greg Hutchinson and my quintet Inside Straight. Everyone combined
(07:26):
in those two groups pretty much takes me back to
age fifteen. You know. I met Carl Allen and Peter
Martin in nineteen eighty seven, and I met Benny Green
in nineteen eighty nine. I met Benny Green and Greg
Hutchinson in nineteen eighty nine, and I met Steve Wilson
(07:49):
in nineteen ninety one. So playing with those particular groups,
I always, I want to go as far as to say,
I always feel like I'm fifteen, between fifteen and nineteen
years old. But it's like playing with family. They are family,
(08:11):
you know, And even though we're creating new memories every
time we play together, it's always fun to reminisce and
think of the you know, some might get offended by
saying the old days when I'm referring to the eighties,
(08:32):
but that they are the old days now, you know.
And then I have a new group like ursa Major
where almost no one in that band was born when
I moved to New York City or they were very young.
It's wonderful getting to create new memories with them and
to really kind of meet them where they are in
(08:53):
their development and just kind of feel them and listen
to them and pay attention to what they're doing in
their careers. So it's a I feel very fortunate to
have a a lot of different angles in which to
look at the jazz world. I think I have a
(09:15):
very privileged advantage point.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Well, it's interesting. Oh go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I was going to say something I so admire about
you and everyone that that's involved is you have such
an amazing tapped into tradition and also you're all innovators.
You're very much in the future. So when you're curating
the music for this, I know that there's a a
(09:44):
focus on paying tribute to Ray Brown and Benny Green
and Greg Hutchinson. How are you like thinking about the
music that you're curating, both old and new, et cetera.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Yeah, I mean there has to be room for both.
You know, there's a word, there's an African word. I
don't exactly know which language in Africa is, but the
word is sank Kofa and the word sant Kopha basically
just means looking toward the future by having a foot
(10:22):
in the past. And I think the only way to
really build for the future is you have to know
your history. You can't know where you're going if you
don't know where you've been. And so when it's time
to create a festival, a cruise or whatever it is,
(10:44):
I get great joy in investing in the future with
groups like or some major or working with people like
yourself or whoever it may be. But at the same time,
why not always consciously tip our cap to the people
who paved the way for us to be able to
(11:05):
do what we're doing now.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Well, I mean I think that's, you know, so important.
I mean, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I just did a big piece for the La Times
on the sixteenth anniversary We have a Love Supreme and
I spoke with God Robbie and Michelle Coltrane, you know,
about the Alice culture and Carnegie Hall concert they were doing,
and I mean, you know, it's so important to like
recognize that and it's amazing the number of people influenced.
But but it's interesting for you. I was talking with Oh,
(11:36):
I don't remember what I was talking about but I'm
curious because have you done a cruise before or you know,
And the reason I asked you it's funny because I've
talked to several people who've done cruises and I'm doing
a story right now for the La Times on the
opening of Blue Note in LA and you know, Blue Note,
of course, is you know, built on the residencies, and
it feels like there's a big similarity between the residencies
(11:57):
and the cruises in the sense of when you're doing
moremultiple gigs at a venue, you have a chance to
play around a bit. You're not really you know, you
have more room to you know, experiment because you know
you've got the same people coming multiple nights, so it's
like you get to do different shows every night.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
That's really well, I mean, that's not much different than
playing in it, you know, like you said, the similarities
even if it's not a residency, you know, I mean
just playing a week at the Village Vanguard, you know,
but certainly on a cruise, if you play with the
same group every night and the same group and basically
(12:39):
the same pool of people are coming to see you play,
you were forced to change up the show every night.
And I think that's a really cool thing. I like
the fact that I cannot repeat myself because I don't
want people to say, oh, I heard y'all play that
set last night, you know. And some bands will do that,
you know, they have a have a set list and
(13:01):
that's what they do. But I like the fact that
being on this cruise you got to change it up.
You ask if I've done cruises before. I'm a veteran
of cruises. I did my first Jazz cruise. I don't know,
maybe he was twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, I can't remember.
(13:22):
The gentleman who is the the executive director of all
of these cruises. His name is Michael Lazarov. He's been
running the Jazz Cruise for many, many years. And yeah,
I've done the Jazz Cruise and the Blue Noted Sea
Cruise on and off for over a decade. So yes,
(13:45):
I know how the cruise world runs. But also in
the nineties, George Ween tried to a Newport Jazz Festival cruise.
It didn't last I think, I only he only did
it for one or two years maybe, but I did
that too. That was in the nineties. Uh so, yeah,
the cruise circuit is a very uh uh, it's a
(14:10):
prolific place for musicians.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Well, you know, I imagine there's a lot of fun
with it. But it's interesting too.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I mean, you know, and I love the fact, you know,
neither of us, neither States nor I ever started the obvious,
but we haven't gone. So now that we haven't started
with it, we can go back to it. How did
the idea come about to do it with your name?
And what did you first say when they came to
you and said, hey, we want to literally put your
name on a cruise for a week. Did you look
at them and say, what the hell's wrong with you?
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Or were you saying flag exactly?
Speaker 4 (14:41):
I mean it was it was a lot of the
first to little of the second. Uh And and in fact,
I'm actually still saying that, you know. I think what
happened was, uh, after having done the Jazz Cruise for
so many years, I had, after maybe five years, be
come the official host of the Jazz Cruise. And there
(15:09):
there were three main cruises that would go back to
back to back, and it was the Jazz Cruise, the
Blue Note at Sea Cruise, and the Smooth Jazz Slash
Contemporary Jazz cruise, and the Jazz Cruise was pretty much
known as a pretty straight up and down right down
(15:30):
the middle acoustic, straight ahead cruise, you know. The Blue
Note Cruise was a combination of the Jazz Cruise and
the contemporary jazz crews because they the music and the
and the the artists that would play that Blue Note
Cruise were much younger. Robert Glasper would play that cruise.
(15:53):
Camassie Washington would play on that cruise, Laylah halfway through
that cruise, as well as somebody like you know, Joe
Lovano or myself, or Brad Melt, you know, Joshua Rednand
or somebody like that, you know so, and then the
(16:13):
contemporary jazz Cruise, which was all straight smooth jazz, the
Blue Note Cruise went away, and Michael said to me,
we really would like to have a cruise that musically
fits the template of what the Blue Note Cruise was.
(16:34):
You know, you get your straight ahead jazz, you get
your electric jazz, you get your contemporary jazz, you kind
of get everything all in, but it's still unmistakably a
jazz cruise. And we think having a McBride cruise would
be the way to do it. And I said, you
(16:55):
are out of your mind, and they said, look, we
feel that what you've done in your career is exactly
what we want. And so now the spear kicks in
or like this sort of disbelief of wow, someone's hanging there,
(17:16):
someone's hanging their business hat on my career. Oh boy, well,
I get this could be. It's scary.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's as much fly. But scary is good.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Scary at any point in your career is good because,
you know, as the Great David always said, you know,
if you get it, you have to get out of
your comfort zone. So I mean, it's really interesting, you know,
because first of all, there's a new endeavor and I'm
gonna let's say take back over in a second. By
the way, you were joking before about not being able
to afford sage in a few years. I always choose
her about the fact that, you know, in three years
she just won't.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Take my call. So you'll be in good company.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
You know.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I mean, you also do Jazz Night in America, and
do you feel like, in a way, you know, it's
a very cool thing that at this point you've kind
of become the ambassador for jazz as well, you know,
by doing that, you know, and doing like this type
of thing, it's like, are you become an ambassador for jazz?
You know, the kind of like you say, bridges the generations.
(18:27):
Because it's funny we in you'd heard me last year,
and I've become friends with Glassper and it's like you're
kind of writing that sweet spot between them.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Well, thank you very much. I am. I feel like
I'm in a good place right now. I really enjoy
investing and staying interested in what's going on in the
contemporary world and investing in the future. But I carry
(18:58):
Ray Brown with me everywhere I go. I carry Ron
Carter with me everywhere I go. I carry Bootsy with
me everywhere go. I carry jackoal Pastorius with me everywhere
I go. I am a product of all of these
great legends who allowed me to play with them and
make mistakes with them when I was eighteen, nineteen twenty
(19:20):
years old. So I'm never going to look at that
and say, well, just to a general principle, we have
to shed that skin and go toward the future. No,
you never shed that skin. It stays with you. It's
part of your DNA, it's part of your story. It's
in your blood, it's in your bone marrow, you know.
Say everybody thinks trying to consciously be like Miles Davis
(19:47):
is the way to go. Everybody can't be Miles Davis,
you know. In fact, I think one of the greatest
examples of sort of that bridging the gap is Herbie Hancock,
because while Herbie Handcock was setting a new standard in
the seventies with jazz funk, with dance music, in the
(20:09):
eighties with Rocket, he still never stopped playing straight ahead jazz,
you know. In fact, most of the performances he did
was straight ahead jazz. You know. So that's sort of
a tiplate that I think is very important for people
to look at.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Absolutely, yeah, go for it.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
As someone who's performed all over the globe, I imagine
being in different environments really inspires the music in unique ways.
And with stops now in Jamaica and different places on
the sea, do you find that being on water really
brings out a new side of your music, your improvisation,
(20:52):
your kind of creative ideas.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
That's a good question. I I've been a city boy
my whole life, you know, I was. I was born
and raised in Philly and then I moved to New
York City when I was seventeen, so I was not
really a beach kid, you know, And I think still
(21:19):
I'm not really a beach water sunshine guy. You know.
I'm from the asphalt jungle. I don't mind a rainy day,
you know. I don't mind hearing you know, loud arguing,
you know, And so sometimes being on the ship, I
(21:41):
have to adjust. It's kind of like, you know, like,
oh boy, okay, now, I guess now it's time for
me to relax and take it all in. You know.
That's a long way of saying. I don't know if
it affects the way I play. I think pragmatically. I
(22:02):
have never really had a lot of time to be
influenced by the surroundings, because you're on the schedule. You know,
you go play a set for two hours, and then
you get a two hour break, and then you gotta
go play again. And oftentimes when those when the cruise docks,
(22:24):
I might not even have time to get off, you know.
And then when you do get off, you get like
a mile of gift shops that all look the same
in every last dock, so you're not really giving a
chance to you know, get the vibe of these places
wherever you go. But on rare occasions, you know, my
(22:48):
wife Melissa and I will have a chance to get
off and do a tour or something like that. But yeah,
that's a good question. I don't know if it affects
my play. I'd be curious to hear I should make
a live album on the cruise and compare it to
the Vanguard.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah, I mean, you know, speaking of Herbia, he's the
king of course of you know, the tapping into the
energies around, So it would be interesting to see. But
comedians like the amazing George Wallace and Alonso Boden was
include those And how do you see music and comedy
(23:32):
like uplifting each other and yeah, having them both be apart.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
You know, comedy and jazz. I'm not sure a lot
of people realize just how much we share in common
in terms of the process. Great comedians can improv on
a particular subject, like jazz musicians can improv on a
(23:58):
set of court changes and the melodies. It's very much
the same thing. And once upon a time, before the
age of comedy clubs, clubs that exclusively have comedy, all
comedians got their start opening up the bands, you know,
mostly jazz groups. And I mean like every comedian in
(24:23):
the fifties and sixties, you know, George Carlin, Richard Pryor,
Flip Wilson, Cosby Moms, Madley, Red Fox, Godfrey Cambridge, Don Rickles,
Shecky Greene, Phyllis Diller. They all started their careers opening
(24:46):
up for big bands or you know, doing sets in
jazz clubs, bringing on the Cannibell Annelet group, or bringing
on the Miles Davids group, or bringing on the Coal
Trade group. You know. So, once upon a time, comedians
and jazz musicians were much much closer, and then of
course comedy took a turn where it got so big
(25:10):
on its own they just started creating comedy clubs and
thus kind of breaking that tradition of comedians and jazz
musicians working together. But George Wallace's old school. George Wallace
is one of the few comedians left who was around
when that was still going on. And Alonso Bolten is
(25:33):
kind of like, I don't want to call on the
official jazz comedian, but he's the one comedian I know
who he loves and knows all the jazz cats. You
know he follows the music, and he's a regular on
all the jazz cruises. He's been a regular on the
(25:54):
Jazz cruisers for years, the Jazz Cruise as well as
the Bluno Cruise and My Cruise and the Contemporary Jazz Cruise.
And you know, through the years, I've had a chance
to have some great relationships with people like Amy Schumer
excuse me, Amy's a dear friend. Cedric Entertainer as a
(26:16):
dear friend, and you know they they understand what jazz
is about. You send bad as a great uh friend
of the music. So yeah, I love comedy as much
as I love love music.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
You know, it's funny because I've talked to people about that,
because I've interviewed some comics as well. And by the way,
to the side, it's funny because you talked about comics
opening for musicians. But my favorite artists of all time
is Springsteen, who famously opened for Cheech and Tong in
the seventies.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
So goes both.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Ways, right, but right here is for you now.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
You know, I got to ask, because I'm a big
comedy fan as well, who's the comic who most influenced
your style?
Speaker 4 (27:02):
The first comedian who I fell in love with who
I used to copy, and therefore I think he sticks
with me is Flip Wilson. Now it's funny because I
didn't become a flipped through his TV show for his records,
(27:23):
because we had almost his records in the house. So
you know, like you devil, you cowboys and colored people,
the devil made me by this dress live at the
village gate we had all those records.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Nice, all right.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
My last question, I'm let's sage for the shut off
and mean they have like six minutes left on the zoom,
so very quickly one word answer or two word answer?
What musician what comic would you most want to have
on the cruise in the future besides age Bob.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Of course, that's right, the musician and comic one of each, yeah,
one of each. Uh m hmm. One is hard. Uh
hopefully I can get Herbie Hancock on the cruise one
of these years. And uh comic, who's who? Man? That's oh,
(28:21):
that's a that's a rough one. Uh oh, I can't wait, man,
I gotta look at what's there's a comic. I just discovered.
He's an old guy and his his entire brand of
comedy is based on being an elderly person. M h oh,
(28:41):
this dude is so wait a minute, I gotta look
him up. I want to get him on the cruise.
He would be a total knockout. Wait a minute, Andy Huggins.
Look up Andy Huggins.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
He is a hilarious, amazing So my last question, I'd
love to know where the name of the cruise came from.
I know it's kind of basic, but I love I
love how big it is. And then anything you want
to add that we didn't ask you.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
The name of the cruise came from my old Twitter handle.
My Twitter handle was well is McBride's world, and so
everyone seemed to collectively like that. Mmm mm hmmm. I'm
a little paranoying about it because you know, I'm always
(29:39):
sensitive to what to how people like to twist things,
you know, so somebody might put their hands on their
hip and be like, what does he mean McBride's world?
This is just not his world, you know. But everybody's like, relax,
stop thinking about stuff like that. Yeah, well, it's just
(30:01):
nice to talk to you too again.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Yeah, I know, it's great to see you anytime. You have,
you know, stuff going on, but you have stuff going
on every day.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Just urge, just urge people to buy a ticket. I'm
sorry to reserve a cabin.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
No, it's an amazing lineup. It looks like a lot
of fun, so yeah, we certainly will. And you know,
when Joe Linn presented, I was like, oh hell yeah, yeah,
so uh do. Great to see you.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
It's great to see you too, Sage. Please take care
of yourself and congratulations on all the great stuff you're doing.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Thank you very much. So lovely to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Solid cool man.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Have a good one. Thanks so much, See you guys,
you too, Bike take care
Today, I'm in service of with Thrill, to be joined
by the incredible Kush McBride, nine time Grammy winning bassist,
composer and bandleader. We talk about his newest project, World
at Sea, a week long jazz and comedy cruise launching
in January twenty twenty six, with really amazing artists like
Samara Joy, Hosey James, and comedians like Alonzo Bowden and
(00:25):
George Wallace. We dive into how Christian is creating a
floating community with world class music, laughter, connection, and of
course immense.
Speaker 2 (00:34):
So I've got to be the first person in the
history of the world to interview you. Willie Nelson, an
Empire of the Sun in the same day said do
(00:55):
you know either of them?
Speaker 3 (00:56):
I'm sure you know Willie.
Speaker 4 (00:59):
I mean, you know, I don't have his number, but yes,
I've worked with him. I recorded with him on his
American Classic CD.
Speaker 2 (01:10):
I mean, that's the thing when someone comes to you
and says really wants to talk. I mean you just
say okay, when where whatever? That'd be an interesting you
for your cruise.
Speaker 4 (01:21):
Man, Man, this is this is a pretty incredible undertaking.
I've never had anyone to kind of you know, Bet
their career on my uh on, on my musical world,
so to speak.
Speaker 3 (01:43):
Interesting.
Speaker 2 (01:43):
But I mean it's funny because I mean, do you
in a way you kind of have though, because I mean,
look at all the great people you played with. Every
time you're playing with someone you know, like Sting, it's funny.
Last night, Yeah, Martin invited me to the twentieth anniversary
of Charity Tree, and I know you got as are
tight and you know so, I mean just by playing
(02:04):
with you, they kind of are. But I mean it's
got to be a great compliment to that. Everybody wants
to be associated with you for this. I mean it's
in the same lineup.
Speaker 4 (02:13):
Well, thank you very much. It's like I said, I'm
still trying to there's a combination of getting the business
done and making sure all of the things are put
into place, and then there's the other part of it, like, hey,
this is your own crews with your name on it,
(02:36):
with your musicians on there, and people who you've been
associated with. So it's sort of like a it's like
a small snapshot. It's like an an express snapshot of
my career. And that's a little bit of a scary
thing to see. But Ultimately, I think it's going to
(02:59):
be fun I.
Speaker 2 (03:01):
Was gonna say it's interesting, though, and then let's say
it take over in a second. But you say it's funny,
it's you say it's scary. But I mean, at the
same time as I say, it's got to be a
huge compliment that all these people want to be associated
with you, and even to begin with that, you know
that they want to do the.
Speaker 3 (03:16):
Cruise with you.
Speaker 2 (03:17):
I mean, that's put in trust in and any way
you've been involved with It's funny because I know, Jay Smith,
you've been involved with Newport Jazz Fest for years, right.
Speaker 4 (03:26):
Uh started in twenty sixteen.
Speaker 2 (03:28):
Yes, okay, So I mean weren't you involved in kind
of curating and helping pick.
Speaker 3 (03:33):
That as well?
Speaker 4 (03:35):
Absolutely?
Speaker 3 (03:36):
So, how is this, I mean it feels like there
would be some similarity.
Speaker 4 (03:40):
Well, the difference is people will come to play the
Newport Jazz Fest well no matter who the artistic director is,
because of the history of the festival. But you know,
the Christian mcbrides World at Sea Cruise is a brand
new fait. You know. Now, granted, I do have most
(04:04):
of the musicians who come to both Newport and who
are coming to perform on the cruise I have personal
relationships with, so it does help. But until the McBride's
World at Sea cruise has a seventy one year run
like Newport, I won't take myself too seriously.
Speaker 3 (04:29):
Wow, So who do you want to play year seventy?
Speaker 4 (04:32):
Say what I said?
Speaker 3 (04:34):
Who do you want to play year seventy at the cruise?
Speaker 4 (04:35):
Man? Well, let me see, Well, next year is the
very first year of the cruise. So I mean by
the time that cruise is seventy one years old, I'll
be long out of here as I would win. Wow.
But when I turned seventy one, let's see, that'll be
(04:58):
eighteen years. Jesus Christ, that's actually not that far away.
Speaker 1 (05:05):
Uh.
Speaker 4 (05:06):
Who knows? I don't know. Who knows what will be
going on in the world in eighteen years.
Speaker 3 (05:12):
Who knows that this wife will even have a world in.
Speaker 4 (05:14):
Eighteen Exactly right? It's stage stage Bible is going to
be too expensive for me to get on the cruise
in eighteen years. Oh no, No, she's gonna be like
she's gonna be like Mariah Carey, like, oh I'm sorry.
You have to talk to like five decks of people
(05:35):
before you get to me.
Speaker 1 (05:37):
Oh please, you know that's not what it's about. I
shure you, yeah, I mean that's such a beautiful idea,
Like this world is so crazy, and to escape to
the sea with all of these incredible people that you've
known for decades, Like what are you most excited about
(05:58):
to like create in that kind of you know context
where and you have this little bit of your world
that you're creating at sea.
Speaker 4 (06:07):
You know, since the first time, I really have no expectations.
I'm just kind of curious to see how it all unfolds.
Everybody are you know, everybody at who I'm inviting, the
good friends, we've all worked together, and most of all,
they're all professionals. They've done many cruises before. They've done
the Jazz Cruise, they did the Old Blue No at
(06:31):
Sea Cruise, and so they're they're professional veterans who are
also my friends. So the only expectations that I have
is that there'll be a lot of a lot of
great music and a lot of great folks.
Speaker 1 (06:46):
With so many memories in between you and these amazing
other artists. Do you find that playing music together unlocks
like different memories for you because you're all.
Speaker 4 (07:00):
All the time, all the time. You know this, two
particular groups of mine that are going to be on
the cruise, the Remembering Ray Brown Trio with Benny Green
and Greg Hutchinson and my quintet Inside Straight. Everyone combined
(07:26):
in those two groups pretty much takes me back to
age fifteen. You know. I met Carl Allen and Peter
Martin in nineteen eighty seven, and I met Benny Green
in nineteen eighty nine. I met Benny Green and Greg
Hutchinson in nineteen eighty nine, and I met Steve Wilson
(07:49):
in nineteen ninety one. So playing with those particular groups,
I always, I want to go as far as to say,
I always feel like I'm fifteen, between fifteen and nineteen
years old. But it's like playing with family. They are family,
(08:11):
you know, And even though we're creating new memories every
time we play together, it's always fun to reminisce and
think of the you know, some might get offended by
saying the old days when I'm referring to the eighties,
(08:32):
but that they are the old days now, you know.
And then I have a new group like ursa Major
where almost no one in that band was born when
I moved to New York City or they were very young.
It's wonderful getting to create new memories with them and
to really kind of meet them where they are in
(08:53):
their development and just kind of feel them and listen
to them and pay attention to what they're doing in
their careers. So it's a I feel very fortunate to
have a a lot of different angles in which to
look at the jazz world. I think I have a
(09:15):
very privileged advantage point.
Speaker 3 (09:21):
Well, it's interesting. Oh go ahead, I'm sorry.
Speaker 1 (09:23):
I was going to say something I so admire about
you and everyone that that's involved is you have such
an amazing tapped into tradition and also you're all innovators.
You're very much in the future. So when you're curating
the music for this, I know that there's a a
(09:44):
focus on paying tribute to Ray Brown and Benny Green
and Greg Hutchinson. How are you like thinking about the
music that you're curating, both old and new, et cetera.
Speaker 4 (09:59):
Yeah, I mean there has to be room for both.
You know, there's a word, there's an African word. I
don't exactly know which language in Africa is, but the
word is sank Kofa and the word sant Kopha basically
just means looking toward the future by having a foot
(10:22):
in the past. And I think the only way to
really build for the future is you have to know
your history. You can't know where you're going if you
don't know where you've been. And so when it's time
to create a festival, a cruise or whatever it is,
(10:44):
I get great joy in investing in the future with
groups like or some major or working with people like
yourself or whoever it may be. But at the same time,
why not always consciously tip our cap to the people
who paved the way for us to be able to
(11:05):
do what we're doing now.
Speaker 3 (11:09):
Well, I mean I think that's, you know, so important.
I mean, you know, it's funny.
Speaker 2 (11:13):
I just did a big piece for the La Times
on the sixteenth anniversary We have a Love Supreme and
I spoke with God Robbie and Michelle Coltrane, you know,
about the Alice culture and Carnegie Hall concert they were doing,
and I mean, you know, it's so important to like
recognize that and it's amazing the number of people influenced.
But but it's interesting for you. I was talking with Oh,
(11:36):
I don't remember what I was talking about but I'm
curious because have you done a cruise before or you know,
And the reason I asked you it's funny because I've
talked to several people who've done cruises and I'm doing
a story right now for the La Times on the
opening of Blue Note in LA and you know, Blue Note,
of course, is you know, built on the residencies, and
it feels like there's a big similarity between the residencies
(11:57):
and the cruises in the sense of when you're doing
moremultiple gigs at a venue, you have a chance to
play around a bit. You're not really you know, you
have more room to you know, experiment because you know
you've got the same people coming multiple nights, so it's
like you get to do different shows every night.
Speaker 4 (12:15):
That's really well, I mean, that's not much different than
playing in it, you know, like you said, the similarities
even if it's not a residency, you know, I mean
just playing a week at the Village Vanguard, you know,
but certainly on a cruise, if you play with the
same group every night and the same group and basically
(12:39):
the same pool of people are coming to see you play,
you were forced to change up the show every night.
And I think that's a really cool thing. I like
the fact that I cannot repeat myself because I don't
want people to say, oh, I heard y'all play that
set last night, you know. And some bands will do that,
you know, they have a have a set list and
(13:01):
that's what they do. But I like the fact that
being on this cruise you got to change it up.
You ask if I've done cruises before. I'm a veteran
of cruises. I did my first Jazz cruise. I don't know,
maybe he was twenty fourteen, twenty fifteen, I can't remember.
(13:22):
The gentleman who is the the executive director of all
of these cruises. His name is Michael Lazarov. He's been
running the Jazz Cruise for many, many years. And yeah,
I've done the Jazz Cruise and the Blue Noted Sea
Cruise on and off for over a decade. So yes,
(13:45):
I know how the cruise world runs. But also in
the nineties, George Ween tried to a Newport Jazz Festival cruise.
It didn't last I think, I only he only did
it for one or two years maybe, but I did
that too. That was in the nineties. Uh so, yeah,
the cruise circuit is a very uh uh, it's a
(14:10):
prolific place for musicians.
Speaker 3 (14:13):
Well, you know, I imagine there's a lot of fun
with it. But it's interesting too.
Speaker 2 (14:17):
I mean, you know, and I love the fact, you know,
neither of us, neither States nor I ever started the obvious,
but we haven't gone. So now that we haven't started
with it, we can go back to it. How did
the idea come about to do it with your name?
And what did you first say when they came to
you and said, hey, we want to literally put your
name on a cruise for a week. Did you look
at them and say, what the hell's wrong with you?
Speaker 3 (14:37):
Or were you saying flag exactly?
Speaker 4 (14:41):
I mean it was it was a lot of the
first to little of the second. Uh And and in fact,
I'm actually still saying that, you know. I think what
happened was, uh, after having done the Jazz Cruise for
so many years, I had, after maybe five years, be
come the official host of the Jazz Cruise. And there
(15:09):
there were three main cruises that would go back to
back to back, and it was the Jazz Cruise, the
Blue Note at Sea Cruise, and the Smooth Jazz Slash
Contemporary Jazz cruise, and the Jazz Cruise was pretty much
known as a pretty straight up and down right down
(15:30):
the middle acoustic, straight ahead cruise, you know. The Blue
Note Cruise was a combination of the Jazz Cruise and
the contemporary jazz crews because they the music and the
and the the artists that would play that Blue Note
Cruise were much younger. Robert Glasper would play that cruise.
(15:53):
Camassie Washington would play on that cruise, Laylah halfway through
that cruise, as well as somebody like you know, Joe
Lovano or myself, or Brad Melt, you know, Joshua Rednand
or somebody like that, you know so, and then the
(16:13):
contemporary jazz Cruise, which was all straight smooth jazz, the
Blue Note Cruise went away, and Michael said to me,
we really would like to have a cruise that musically
fits the template of what the Blue Note Cruise was.
(16:34):
You know, you get your straight ahead jazz, you get
your electric jazz, you get your contemporary jazz, you kind
of get everything all in, but it's still unmistakably a
jazz cruise. And we think having a McBride cruise would
be the way to do it. And I said, you
(16:55):
are out of your mind, and they said, look, we
feel that what you've done in your career is exactly
what we want. And so now the spear kicks in
or like this sort of disbelief of wow, someone's hanging there,
(17:16):
someone's hanging their business hat on my career. Oh boy, well,
I get this could be. It's scary.
Speaker 3 (17:38):
It's as much fly. But scary is good.
Speaker 2 (17:40):
Scary at any point in your career is good because,
you know, as the Great David always said, you know,
if you get it, you have to get out of
your comfort zone. So I mean, it's really interesting, you know,
because first of all, there's a new endeavor and I'm
gonna let's say take back over in a second. By
the way, you were joking before about not being able
to afford sage in a few years. I always choose
her about the fact that, you know, in three years
she just won't.
Speaker 3 (18:00):
Take my call. So you'll be in good company.
Speaker 1 (18:03):
You know.
Speaker 3 (18:04):
It's funny.
Speaker 2 (18:05):
I mean, you also do Jazz Night in America, and
do you feel like, in a way, you know, it's
a very cool thing that at this point you've kind
of become the ambassador for jazz as well, you know,
by doing that, you know, and doing like this type
of thing, it's like, are you become an ambassador for jazz?
You know, the kind of like you say, bridges the generations.
(18:27):
Because it's funny we in you'd heard me last year,
and I've become friends with Glassper and it's like you're
kind of writing that sweet spot between them.
Speaker 4 (18:37):
Well, thank you very much. I am. I feel like
I'm in a good place right now. I really enjoy
investing and staying interested in what's going on in the
contemporary world and investing in the future. But I carry
(18:58):
Ray Brown with me everywhere I go. I carry Ron
Carter with me everywhere I go. I carry Bootsy with
me everywhere go. I carry jackoal Pastorius with me everywhere
I go. I am a product of all of these
great legends who allowed me to play with them and
make mistakes with them when I was eighteen, nineteen twenty
(19:20):
years old. So I'm never going to look at that
and say, well, just to a general principle, we have
to shed that skin and go toward the future. No,
you never shed that skin. It stays with you. It's
part of your DNA, it's part of your story. It's
in your blood, it's in your bone marrow, you know.
Say everybody thinks trying to consciously be like Miles Davis
(19:47):
is the way to go. Everybody can't be Miles Davis,
you know. In fact, I think one of the greatest
examples of sort of that bridging the gap is Herbie Hancock,
because while Herbie Handcock was setting a new standard in
the seventies with jazz funk, with dance music, in the
(20:09):
eighties with Rocket, he still never stopped playing straight ahead jazz,
you know. In fact, most of the performances he did
was straight ahead jazz. You know. So that's sort of
a tiplate that I think is very important for people
to look at.
Speaker 3 (20:29):
Absolutely, yeah, go for it.
Speaker 1 (20:32):
As someone who's performed all over the globe, I imagine
being in different environments really inspires the music in unique ways.
And with stops now in Jamaica and different places on
the sea, do you find that being on water really
brings out a new side of your music, your improvisation,
(20:52):
your kind of creative ideas.
Speaker 4 (20:57):
That's a good question. I I've been a city boy
my whole life, you know, I was. I was born
and raised in Philly and then I moved to New
York City when I was seventeen, so I was not
really a beach kid, you know, And I think still
(21:19):
I'm not really a beach water sunshine guy. You know.
I'm from the asphalt jungle. I don't mind a rainy day,
you know. I don't mind hearing you know, loud arguing,
you know, And so sometimes being on the ship, I
(21:41):
have to adjust. It's kind of like, you know, like,
oh boy, okay, now, I guess now it's time for
me to relax and take it all in. You know.
That's a long way of saying. I don't know if
it affects the way I play. I think pragmatically. I
(22:02):
have never really had a lot of time to be
influenced by the surroundings, because you're on the schedule. You know,
you go play a set for two hours, and then
you get a two hour break, and then you gotta
go play again. And oftentimes when those when the cruise docks,
(22:24):
I might not even have time to get off, you know.
And then when you do get off, you get like
a mile of gift shops that all look the same
in every last dock, so you're not really giving a
chance to you know, get the vibe of these places
wherever you go. But on rare occasions, you know, my
(22:48):
wife Melissa and I will have a chance to get
off and do a tour or something like that. But yeah,
that's a good question. I don't know if it affects
my play. I'd be curious to hear I should make
a live album on the cruise and compare it to
the Vanguard.
Speaker 1 (23:08):
Yeah, I mean, you know, speaking of Herbia, he's the
king of course of you know, the tapping into the
energies around, So it would be interesting to see. But
comedians like the amazing George Wallace and Alonso Boden was
include those And how do you see music and comedy
(23:32):
like uplifting each other and yeah, having them both be apart.
Speaker 4 (23:38):
You know, comedy and jazz. I'm not sure a lot
of people realize just how much we share in common
in terms of the process. Great comedians can improv on
a particular subject, like jazz musicians can improv on a
(23:58):
set of court changes and the melodies. It's very much
the same thing. And once upon a time, before the
age of comedy clubs, clubs that exclusively have comedy, all
comedians got their start opening up the bands, you know,
mostly jazz groups. And I mean like every comedian in
(24:23):
the fifties and sixties, you know, George Carlin, Richard Pryor,
Flip Wilson, Cosby Moms, Madley, Red Fox, Godfrey Cambridge, Don Rickles,
Shecky Greene, Phyllis Diller. They all started their careers opening
(24:46):
up for big bands or you know, doing sets in
jazz clubs, bringing on the Cannibell Annelet group, or bringing
on the Miles Davids group, or bringing on the Coal
Trade group. You know. So, once upon a time, comedians
and jazz musicians were much much closer, and then of
course comedy took a turn where it got so big
(25:10):
on its own they just started creating comedy clubs and
thus kind of breaking that tradition of comedians and jazz
musicians working together. But George Wallace's old school. George Wallace
is one of the few comedians left who was around
when that was still going on. And Alonso Bolten is
(25:33):
kind of like, I don't want to call on the
official jazz comedian, but he's the one comedian I know
who he loves and knows all the jazz cats. You
know he follows the music, and he's a regular on
all the jazz cruises. He's been a regular on the
(25:54):
Jazz cruisers for years, the Jazz Cruise as well as
the Bluno Cruise and My Cruise and the Contemporary Jazz Cruise.
And you know, through the years, I've had a chance
to have some great relationships with people like Amy Schumer
excuse me, Amy's a dear friend. Cedric Entertainer as a
(26:16):
dear friend, and you know they they understand what jazz
is about. You send bad as a great uh friend
of the music. So yeah, I love comedy as much
as I love love music.
Speaker 2 (26:35):
You know, it's funny because I've talked to people about that,
because I've interviewed some comics as well. And by the way,
to the side, it's funny because you talked about comics
opening for musicians. But my favorite artists of all time
is Springsteen, who famously opened for Cheech and Tong in
the seventies.
Speaker 3 (26:48):
So goes both.
Speaker 4 (26:49):
Ways, right, but right here is for you now.
Speaker 2 (26:53):
You know, I got to ask, because I'm a big
comedy fan as well, who's the comic who most influenced
your style?
Speaker 4 (27:02):
The first comedian who I fell in love with who
I used to copy, and therefore I think he sticks
with me is Flip Wilson. Now it's funny because I
didn't become a flipped through his TV show for his records,
(27:23):
because we had almost his records in the house. So
you know, like you devil, you cowboys and colored people,
the devil made me by this dress live at the
village gate we had all those records.
Speaker 3 (27:36):
Nice, all right.
Speaker 2 (27:37):
My last question, I'm let's sage for the shut off
and mean they have like six minutes left on the zoom,
so very quickly one word answer or two word answer?
What musician what comic would you most want to have
on the cruise in the future besides age Bob.
Speaker 4 (27:49):
Of course, that's right, the musician and comic one of each, yeah,
one of each. Uh m hmm. One is hard. Uh
hopefully I can get Herbie Hancock on the cruise one
of these years. And uh comic, who's who? Man? That's oh,
(28:21):
that's a that's a rough one. Uh oh, I can't wait, man,
I gotta look at what's there's a comic. I just discovered.
He's an old guy and his his entire brand of
comedy is based on being an elderly person. M h oh,
(28:41):
this dude is so wait a minute, I gotta look
him up. I want to get him on the cruise.
He would be a total knockout. Wait a minute, Andy Huggins.
Look up Andy Huggins.
Speaker 1 (28:59):
He is a hilarious, amazing So my last question, I'd
love to know where the name of the cruise came from.
I know it's kind of basic, but I love I
love how big it is. And then anything you want
to add that we didn't ask you.
Speaker 4 (29:17):
The name of the cruise came from my old Twitter handle.
My Twitter handle was well is McBride's world, and so
everyone seemed to collectively like that. Mmm mm hmmm. I'm
a little paranoying about it because you know, I'm always
(29:39):
sensitive to what to how people like to twist things,
you know, so somebody might put their hands on their
hip and be like, what does he mean McBride's world?
This is just not his world, you know. But everybody's like, relax,
stop thinking about stuff like that. Yeah, well, it's just
(30:01):
nice to talk to you too again.
Speaker 3 (30:03):
Yeah, I know, it's great to see you anytime. You have,
you know, stuff going on, but you have stuff going
on every day.
Speaker 4 (30:10):
Just urge, just urge people to buy a ticket. I'm
sorry to reserve a cabin.
Speaker 3 (30:16):
No, it's an amazing lineup. It looks like a lot
of fun, so yeah, we certainly will. And you know,
when Joe Linn presented, I was like, oh hell yeah, yeah,
so uh do. Great to see you.
Speaker 4 (30:27):
It's great to see you too, Sage. Please take care
of yourself and congratulations on all the great stuff you're doing.
Speaker 1 (30:35):
Thank you very much. So lovely to talk to you.
Speaker 4 (30:39):
Solid cool man.
Speaker 3 (30:40):
Have a good one. Thanks so much, See you guys,
you too, Bike take care
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Elvis Duran
Garrett
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