Working 365 Days A Year with Christian McBride by Jim Nadel (Artistic & Executive Director, Stanford Jazz Workshop/Lecturer, Jazz Studies, Stanford University)
Several of us here at Stanford Jazz were in attendance at last month's Lively Arts presentation with bassist Christian McBride & pianist/saxophonist Loren Schoenberg (part of the "Kind of Blue" series described above). Prior to the public presentation, McBride led a master class for Jim Nadel's Stanford students. Here's a report-back written by Nadel (it contains a few terms that non-musicians may not necessarily understand; you may wish to refer to our glossary for clarification).
PHOTO COURTESY TONIBIRD PHOTOGRAPHY 2009

Last month SJW collaborated with Lively Arts at Stanford to present a Combo Workshop with bassist Christian McBride. It was an inspiring class and there were also a few moments that made me chuckle.  Christian was talking in his entertaining, no-nonsense way about the necessity of being able to play tunes in all keys. He recommended that bass players in particular learn tunes using numbers [Roman numerals] to keep track of chord progressions and be able to provide a solid foundation in whatever key the tune is called. “As a bass player, you have to know the changes. Because bass players don’t get to hit on two. Piano players and everyone else can wait and hear it (‘Oh yeah, that’s the chord’) and then come in on two, but a bass player’s got to hit the root on beat one. Guys that can do that work 365 days a year.”

He then called up a pianist, and asked him to play a duet on an F minor blues. “No head, start right in with the blowing.” The tempo was up and everyone was impressed that the young player in the spotlight was able to handle it all pretty well.  After about a dozen choruses, Christian stopped and asked the class if anyone noticed what he’d been doing on bass. No one had picked up on the fact that Christian had been playing major thirds in his walking line. “I was playing major 3 thirds in a minor blues, and none of you heard it. That’s why even bad bass players work!” He went on to admonish the class, “You’re not supposed to play major thirds in minor. It sounds bad! And if you’re a bass player and you do that, you’re only going to work 200 nights a year.” They then played a chorus of “Blue Bossa,” and to everyone’s amusement Christian hit the perfect fifth on all the mi7(b5) chords. The dissonance was particularly exposed this time because of the root-fifth Latin bass line figure.

Later on he invited some students up to play with him and while they were getting their instruments out, Christian started off “Cherokee” by playing the melody on his upright bass. “Cherokee” is well known among jazz players. It is always played fast, and it is always played in the key of Bb. The famous melody of course includes a lot of whole notes, so listening to the unaccompanied melody can give the impression of a comfortable and relaxed tempo, even though after the head, when all those whole notes become a bright quarter note pulse, the blowing tempo will be quite bright.

So while the braver students are quickly unpacking horns and putting reeds on mouthpieces, everyone in the room is calculating in their minds the upcoming 4/4 tempo and probably also thinking about the famous chord sequence of descending ii – V – I’s that will be soon be heard in the bridge. Charlie Parker claimed to have made his initial innovative harmonic breakthroughs while “crossing the bridge to ‘Cherokee’.” Playing the tune at a fast tempo has become a kind of rite of passage for up and coming bebop players.

As the students stepped onto the bandstand and began to join in, it started to become clear that something was not quite right. And at the end of the head, as Christian broke into a trickster’s grin and a fast quarter note walk, at least the first soloist and piano player were realizing that Christian had set it up in Db, a far cry from the normal key (Bb) which they had practiced in. To the students’ credit, by the end of the tune, everyone had adjusted to the new key and was able to make some music. Afterwards Christian reiterated his point about the value of being able to play in any key and praised the young players for their good ears.  He pointed out that most people can initially get through the A section of Cherokee by ear, and if you memorize that the first chord of the bridge is built on the flat 3 (biii) and have practiced your ii-V’s, “you’ll be all set no matter what key the singer calls it in."