Noteworthy addition to the lineup
Grammy-winner Christian McBride talks about new role as festival's artistic director
Last October, jazz bassist Christian McBride got a call "out of the blue" from George Wein, the 90-year-old founding producer of the Newport Jazz Festival.
Wein said the Newport Festivals Foundation, which runs the jazz and folk festivals, was preparing for its future, McBride said. And they wanted McBride to become the next artistic director of the jazz festival, ultimately succeeding Wein.
"To say I was shocked would be an understatement," McBride said in a phone interview from Norway, where he is touring with Chick Corea. (McBride will be performing in a trio with Corea and drummer Brian Blade at this year's Newport Jazz Festival. Corea will perform Friday evening at the International Tennis Hall of Fame and Saturday at Fort Adams State Park.)
Wein swore McBride to secrecy, and for the next several months, Wein and McBride spoke about the past, present and future of the iconic festival, and McBride's new responsibilities. "I asked some real basic questions," McBride said. "What my role would be, what he expected me to be doing."
It wasn't until March that the Festivals Foundation made the official announcement.
It's part of a larger succession plan that has Jay Sweet, formerly producer of the Newport Folk Festival, promoted to executive producer, with responsibilities for both the folk and jazz festivals. At the same time, Danny Melnick moves from associate producer of the jazz festival to producer, working in partnership with McBride.
So where does this leave Wein, who started the Newport Jazz Festival at the behest of Elaine and Louis Lorillard back in 1954?
"George will oversee it all," said McBride. "As long as George is alive, he'll always be the boss. As long as he's alive, all roads lead through George."
Wein said McBride is the logical choice to help lead the festival into the future, thanks to his encyclopedic knowledge of jazz and the enormous respect he has earned within the jazz community. Wein added one more qualification: "He's a fantastic human being."
What's more, McBride is no stranger to the administrative side of the music world. From 2006 to 2010, he was creative chairman for jazz programming for the Los Angeles Philharmonic. He's served as artistic adviser for jazz programming at the New Jersey Performing Arts Center, and with his wife, jazz singer and educator Melissa Walker, he works with the educational program Jazz House Kids and helps run the Montclair Jazz Festival, both in his hometown of Montclair, New Jersey.
On radio, he hosts "The Lowdown: Conversations with Christian" on SiriusXM satellite radio and National Public Radio's weekly show "Jazz Night in America."
"George was very aware of the things I had been doing," McBride said. "He's kept a close eye on everything I did, although I didn't know that."
Mostly, however, McBride is a hugely accomplished musician, winner of five Grammy Awards.
He's a 44-year-old Philadelphia native who studied at The Juilliard School and joined sax player Bobby Watson's group when he was just 17. Since then, he's performed and recorded with a who's who of musicians: Herbie Hancock, Freddie Hubbard, Pat Metheny, Joe Henderson, Diana Krall, Wynton Marsalis, Joshua Redman, Sting, James Brown, Paul McCartney, Queen Latifah, The Roots, Renee Fleming.
McBride has been a sideman on more than 300 recordings. On his own, he's led ensembles ranging in size from a trio to a big band, and just about every configuration in between.
"He's incredibly knowledgeable, not just about jazz, but about soul, funk, R&B, rock, pop. It's scary, how much he knows," said Melnick. "I don't know how he does it, because he's working all the time."
Beyond performing, McBride said he doesn't have much input into programming this year's festival; the first one where he'll function as artistic director will be in 2017.
Melnick said he, Wein and McBride had a long meeting in May, when they talked about budgets, festival history and the "internal mandates" from the Festivals Foundation, such as supporting emerging artists, encouraging new work and educating young people about jazz.
The week after this year's jazz festival there's another meeting planned, where the three men will focus directly on the 2017 festival. Melnick said he hopes to leave that meeting with enough information to begin making offers to, say, 20 artists.
McBride said he's not looking to make any radical changes. "I think Newport is one of a small handful of jazz festivals in the world where the situation is 'If it ain't broke, don't fix it,'" he said,
Wein likes to say that the Newport Jazz Festival represents jazz "from J to Z," and McBride said he has no favorite style within the jazz universe. New Orleans, swing, bebop, fusion, avant-garde — there's a place for it all.
Although McBride, like Wein, is a jazz guy through-and-through, he said he remembers watching a memorable set by the rapper Mos Def performing with a New Orleans brass band at Newport, and said he could foresee more hip-hop/jazz collaborations at future festivals.
Everyone involved with the new production team for the jazz festival — McBride himself, Sweet, Melnick, and Wein — wants to ensure that McBride's new job does not interfere with his musical career. McBride will help choose the artists, for example, but the nitty-gritty of calling booking agents, making offers and scheduling will mostly be Melnick's responsibility.
"I hope Christian can be with us forever," Wein said. "But we have to allow him to be the renowned bassist that he is."
The Newport Jazz Festival runs from Friday, July 29, through Sunday, July 31, at Fort Adams State Park and Friday evening at the International Tennis Hall of Fame, 194 Bellevue Ave. For tickets and information, go to newportjazzfest.org, or call (401) 848-5055.
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