Bassist Christian McBride is happy to play a supporting role

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      Christian McBride’s forthright baritone is friendly and reassuring, his laugh is ready, and his wit is quick. Even over the phone, he sounds like someone you’d be glad to have on your side—and for the past 20 years he has, in fact, played a supporting role with some major figures in both jazz and pop. Pat Metheny, Diana Krall, Sting, Herbie Hancock, and James Brown have all enjoyed his services, perhaps because he’s one bass virtuoso who knows exactly what he’s supposed to do.

      “The bass is primarily a support instrument,” McBride explains from his New Jersey home. “Too many times, I think, a lot of the bass players play the bass, but they want to be a saxophone player or a trumpet player, and they don’t address the basic rules of what it means to play the bass, and that is to support everyone.

      “When it’s your time to shine and take a solo, then, yeah, you can go and do whatever you want to,” he adds. “But when it comes time to support the rest of the band, you’ve got to lay down that pocket. That’s what the great bass players get hired for.”

      McBride, who admits to being “a huge sports fan”, takes an athlete’s view of jazz. “There’s a number of sports analogies I like to make,” he says. “One is being an offensive lineman in pro football. It’s a very unglamorous position, but if you don’t have a good offensive line, your quarterback’s going to get sacked, your running back’s not going to get any yards, and then all of a sudden the offensive linemen are the bad guys. When they’re doing their job, though, you’re not supposed to notice them—and it’s the same exact thing, being a bass player.”

      When that bass player is also the bandleader, the position shifts slightly. With his Inside Straight quintet, McBride suggests that he functions more like a catcher in baseball. “I think in terms of controlling the field,” he says, laughing.

      That band—which also includes saxophonist Steve Wilson, pianist Peter Martin, vibraphone player Warren Wolf, and drummer Ulysses Owens—was a reaction of sorts to the versatile McBride’s being pigeonholed as a fusion player.

      “I just felt that it was time to play in a group that was all acoustic, that really kind of addressed more of the swinging side of things,” he says. “And I think I made the right call.”

      But McBride hasn’t abandoned electric music altogether. His other band, Situation, features blazing guitarist David Gilmore and turntable maven DJ Logic, and specializes in freeform exploration.

      “It’s completely different,” says the bassist. “But that way, both of my Gemini twins have somewhere to play.”

      Christian McBride and Inside Straight play the Vogue Theatre on Friday (July 1).

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