Jazz bassist does more than just make music

Of all the fine jazz musicians to emerge from Philadelphia in the last two decades, Christian McBride plays a uniquely multifaceted role, as a bassist but also a broadcaster, educator, curator, and jazz advocate. This year, he's been marking his 20th year in the business - and one way of doing that, knitting together the varied strands of his creative life, is with a show at the Kimmel Center tomorrow, billed as "Christian McBride and Friends."

"It seemed like the perfect time for a tip of the cap to my hometown," he said by phone from Montclair, N.J., where he lives.

The evening will include four sets: an all-star Philly ensemble with saxophonists Odean Pope, Joe Sudler, and Jaleel Shaw, along with drummer Byron Landham; a rare onstage encounter between McBride and fellow bassists Lee Smith (his father) and Howard Cooper (his great-uncle); a conversation and duo set with pianist Bruce Hornsby, modeled on McBride's satellite radio program; and a parting shot from the quintet Inside Straight, likely to draw on material from McBride's current CD, Kind of Brown.

McBride is a powerhouse on acoustic and electric bass. He cut his teeth in the '90s with the likes of Freddie Hubbard, Bobby Watson, and Roy Hargrove. More recently, he's played in trios with Pat Metheny and Sonny Rollins, and toured the world with Chick Corea and John McLaughlin's Five Peace Band. But the journey began humbly enough in Philly.

A 1989 graduate of the High School for the Creative and Performing Arts, McBride remembers furtively attending Tony Williams' jam sessions at Slim Cooper's in Mount Airy.

"I lived in West Philly but I went to school in South Philly," he recalls, "so I had to get all the way up there and be home in just enough time for my mother not to be suspicious. But she knew. Moms always know. The guys in the band knew we were sneaking up there, so they'd always let us sit in on the first tune. I'll always be indebted to them for that."

McBride grew up apart from his father, though he did see Smith play a number of times with Latin percussion innovator Mongo Santamaria.

"That made me really want to play the bass," he says. "I fell in love with the instrument and never put it down. From there my great-uncle took over. He brought me a big stack of records and turned me on to all the cats. He was really the one who got my love for jazz started."

His great-uncle made his name in the avant-garde alongside such figures as Marshall Allen of the Sun Ra Arkestra. And McBride's father, apart from his jazz playing, worked extensively in soul and R&B groups, including the Delfonics. "They're coming from such different places," says McBride, who plans to play two songs each with the "family basses" trio and the Philly quintet.

The players in the latter group span several generations. Shaw, a rising force on alto, will spar with Landham, a McBride peer, as well as formidable veterans Pope and Sudler. "Joe Sudler gave me my first steady work when I was 15 years old," McBride says of the man who nurtured other Philly contenders such as Uri Caine and John Swana. "That gig was serious education. Working with Joe was my introduction to professional life, and I'm very grateful."

The Lowdown: Conversations with Christian, McBride's show on Sirius/XM, highlights the bassist as host and pundit, and his Kimmel tete-a-tete with Bruce Hornsby will essentially follow the Lowdown format. (A CD of duos from McBride's similar iTunes podcast is expected early next year.)

Hornsby gained fame as a pop singer with the 1986 hit "The Way It Is," but he showed mettle as a jazz pianist in 2007 with Camp Meeting, featuring McBride and drummer Jack DeJohnette. "Bruce is a great musician and people love him," McBride says. "We actually played a duet gig in St. Louis, so we have a repertoire worked out."

McBride has worn other nonplaying hats as well, as codirector of the fledgling National Jazz Museum in Harlem; artistic director at Jazz Aspen Snowmass and the Dave Brubeck Institute; and, for one more season, creative chair for jazz with the Los Angeles Philharmonic, overseeing jazz programming at Walt Disney Hall and the Hollywood Bowl.

"Diversification is a lot of hard work, but it's fun," McBride says. "You get to communicate on different levels, not just on your instrument. There's a bad lack of sleep, but I'll get it eventually."

Few projects have showcased McBride's talent as a bandleader as compellingly as Inside Straight, with altoist Steve Wilson, vibraphonist Warren Wolf, pianist Peter Martin, and drummer Carl Allen. It is the successor to the Christian McBride Band, the quasi-electric, groove-oriented unit that served McBride from 2000 onward.

"I wanted to put together a band that was exclusively built to swing," McBride offers, and once he did, Inside Straight played a sold-out week at the Village Vanguard, recording Kind of Brown about a year later. They'll return to the Vanguard for another week next month.

Referring to swing, McBride says, "It really was time to come back home, musically speaking."