Speaker 1: How many things are different since we met, since before
Speaker 1: the pandemic, how my life has changed, and how a
Speaker 1: lot of people's lives and and how things that you
Speaker 1: didn't realize were so important are really the important things. Right.
Speaker 1: It's not just your career, and it's not just you
Speaker 1: know how you show up at work. It's just it's
Speaker 1: really the words that come out of your mouth and
Speaker 1: how you live your life. Bobby, who are we talking
Speaker 1: to you? For our last guest of the season. I'm
Speaker 1: so excited. Well, I cannot wait for you to meet
Speaker 1: my friend Christian McBride, who is like it's even too
Speaker 1: hard to even talk about his accolades. He is a
Speaker 1: jazz musician, he is a bass player, and mostly he's
Speaker 1: just the coolest, nicest guy. I can't even tell you
Speaker 1: his spirit. So I'm really looking forward for you to
Speaker 1: meet him. I can't wait. So here's our conversation with
Speaker 1: Christian McBride. Hey, friend, Hey, what's going on? What's going on?
Speaker 1: I haven't seen you since your birthday party? No right,
Speaker 1: thank you for being there. It was great to see.
Speaker 1: Oh my god, thank you for inviting me. First of all,
Speaker 1: I don't know if I should we should talk first
Speaker 1: about your mother, your father or Quest Love or any
Speaker 1: of those other people, but we'll save that for offline party. Yeah.
Speaker 1: But but first of all, meet my co host Angelie. Hello,
Speaker 1: so nice to meet you. What a thrill pleasures all mine.
Speaker 1: First of all, he went to high school with Quest Love.
Speaker 1: That's so cool. The two of you guys and boys
Speaker 1: Demand and Joey Di Francesco and Kurt Rosenko amazing. Oh
Speaker 1: my god, but you guys didn't know any of you
Speaker 1: guys were gonna be what you guys, are you right
Speaker 1: or did you know? Well, what's interesting is that if
Speaker 1: you could go back to you know nine, um, uh,
Speaker 1: Joey d Francesco was actually the one who had you know,
Speaker 1: he had he signed with Columbia Records when we were
Speaker 1: juniors in high school, and he joined Miles Davis's band
Speaker 1: uh just after, just right before our senior year of
Speaker 1: high school. So uh, smart money was on Joey at
Speaker 1: that time, so we knew he was going to be
Speaker 1: a big star. I mean, he already was a big
Speaker 1: star by the time we graduated. Um, and Kurt, you know,
Speaker 1: I didn't even really know guitar with his main instrument
Speaker 1: until like much later. Because he always played piano around
Speaker 1: school boys. Two men. We kind of had a feeling
Speaker 1: then we're going to be big um and Uh. I'm
Speaker 1: herror and and Uh and Tyreek also known as black thought.
Speaker 1: I had no idea they were going to become the
Speaker 1: world icons that they became. Yeah, I mean of those
Speaker 1: you guys listening a mirror is Quest Love, who started
Speaker 1: when he was twelve. I heard him saying his wonderful
Speaker 1: speech to you that he started as a kid playing
Speaker 1: with his parents. Well right, well, enough enough about quests.
Speaker 1: You know it's okay. I'm my nickname for myself as
Speaker 1: Ed McMahon, which is so not like. First of all,
Speaker 1: if you're of a certain age, you have no idea
Speaker 1: what the hell you're talking about? Ed? Yeah, people might
Speaker 1: not get Yeah, well you know most people know your name.
Speaker 1: You do win Grammys every freaking year. How many Grammys
Speaker 1: do you have? Eight? Eight? Yeah? You hesitated. I did
Speaker 1: the research. You do have eight Grammys, question, Bride, I
Speaker 1: can confirm very Google search eight. And you know this
Speaker 1: podcast is not to talk about all your accolades, but
Speaker 1: you know the good stuff you do and who you
Speaker 1: are and honestly how you do it Because you're on
Speaker 1: the road more than you're off the road, how do
Speaker 1: you do it? Like? What what? What do you pull
Speaker 1: out of your hat to keep you going? Um? Well,
Speaker 1: you know, during the pandemic, I had to be very
Speaker 1: careful with my words because wow, you know, we were
Speaker 1: all being pummeled with this horrible thing that went on
Speaker 1: around the world. It was actually I had mixed feelings
Speaker 1: because to be in lockdown in my in my home
Speaker 1: for two years was actually quite a blessing. I enjoyed
Speaker 1: not being able to travel and actually just kind of
Speaker 1: get in tune with myself and find out who I
Speaker 1: was and and uh not be on the road for
Speaker 1: a little while. But over the last I would say
Speaker 1: seven months, it's been all back to pretty much normal.
Speaker 1: I mean, I've I've been to Europe. I was there
Speaker 1: for most of the month of March, and uh I
Speaker 1: did a two week run at Disease in April, and
Speaker 1: uh I was on the West Coast for most of
Speaker 1: last month, and I'm going back again this month. So
Speaker 1: I you know, I don't know, I think, um, I
Speaker 1: think most working musicians are just groomed to be on
Speaker 1: the road and and do a lot of different projects. Um.
Speaker 1: You know, particularly as a bass player. Um, you know,
Speaker 1: I mean I think most rhythm section players, you know,
Speaker 1: piano players, guitar players, bass players, drummers. We're always going
Speaker 1: to play in more than one band, you know, I mean,
Speaker 1: unless you do get lucky and playing a band that
Speaker 1: becomes sort of like uh, you know, like the Rolling Stones,
Speaker 1: you know, like you know, they don't have to work
Speaker 1: with anyone other than each other for the rest of
Speaker 1: their lives. That's pretty much the you know yea, and
Speaker 1: calling yourself a bass player, you're only the world's greatest.
Speaker 1: You're one of the like it's been said, not not
Speaker 1: by me, but you Google you and it's been said
Speaker 1: you're the number one in the world. And it's like
Speaker 1: for anyone that you know, probably saying like why is
Speaker 1: Bobby have this, like you know, Jazz Superstar on her podcast.
Speaker 1: We've been friends for like, I don't know, a decade.
Speaker 1: Maybe I don't even remember the first time of night
Speaker 1: because yeah, uh, you know, Melissa and I have lived
Speaker 1: in Montclair for almost seventeen years now, so I feel like,
Speaker 1: you know, we met you not too long. You have
Speaker 1: to be moved to Mont Claire, so probably close to that. Yeah,
Speaker 1: and our friend Rose Calli's house, who now moved from
Speaker 1: my house to your, which is kind of funny. But
Speaker 1: we met at dinner and you had a very charming
Speaker 1: nickname for me, which you still call me sometimes because
Speaker 1: I told you, I guess seventeen years ago. I was
Speaker 1: so into flow right on exact and yeah, so you
Speaker 1: know I got a little with a new name for you. Yeah,
Speaker 1: probably b B Queen. We also my dad was with us,
Speaker 1: whose name happens to be James Brown, so leads me
Speaker 1: into like, go go talk to me about James Brown
Speaker 1: and working with him and meeting him and what he
Speaker 1: means to you. Oh man, Uh, definitely he's been my
Speaker 1: my mused. I first saw him when I was about
Speaker 1: six years old, six or seven years old, and I
Speaker 1: saw him on the h on the Midnight Special. That's
Speaker 1: that's another restaurance stepped out. Most people under thirty five
Speaker 1: probably won't get um. But when I saw him on
Speaker 1: the Midnight specially blew my mind. I've never seen anybody
Speaker 1: performed like that, you know, just screaming and falling on
Speaker 1: his knees and doing splits and you know, with with
Speaker 1: the hair flinging all over the place. And the band
Speaker 1: was perfectly choreographed, and he had two drummers, and I
Speaker 1: mean it was just like watching it was like watching
Speaker 1: a Martian, you know, the hair was like one member
Speaker 1: of the band. I feel like it was like and
Speaker 1: and from that point on, um, I just fell deep, deep,
Speaker 1: deep into a James Brown hole. My uncle, uh my
Speaker 1: mother's brother, was a promotions and advertising manager for w
Speaker 1: h A T radio in Philly, and uh so, I said, uncle,
Speaker 1: but you have any James Brown records? And he just
Speaker 1: like laughed, He's like, do I have any James Brown records?
Speaker 1: He's like, now, I've been collecting James Brown records since
Speaker 1: I was a boy. You know. So you know how
Speaker 1: the grateful dead have dead heads, Well, we became James
Speaker 1: Brown heads. And we were inseparable James Brown cronies throughout
Speaker 1: basically throughout the eighties. And then James Brown started having
Speaker 1: a out of a lot of issues, you know, going
Speaker 1: to jail, a lot showing up in the news. And
Speaker 1: uh so, by the time I moved to New York
Speaker 1: to start college, he was in jail. But I knew
Speaker 1: that at some point he would get out and he
Speaker 1: would reclaim his throne, which he which he did, and
Speaker 1: I met him for the well, I met him when
Speaker 1: I was a kid, but I don't really count that one.
Speaker 1: The first time I met him as a professional musician
Speaker 1: was backstage at the Apollo in and Uh. About four
Speaker 1: months later, my first album came out, and the title
Speaker 1: track of that album, which is called Getting to It,
Speaker 1: was based off of the James Brown tune called get
Speaker 1: It Together. So I sent that CD to Mr Brown
Speaker 1: and Uh. About six months later, I saw him in
Speaker 1: Europe at the Vienna Jazz Festival and we had a
Speaker 1: conversation and he actually listened to my CD, and and
Speaker 1: I really came this close to passing out. And U story,
Speaker 1: but didn't you play with him? I played with him
Speaker 1: at his UM sixty four birthday bash in Augusta, Georgia,
Speaker 1: and I produced what was one of his last shows
Speaker 1: in l a A at the Hollywood Bowl. Being friends
Speaker 1: with James Brown. Uh, definitely had Uh it's obligatory drama.
Speaker 1: But that's much too long in the story to tell now.
Speaker 1: But that's another show. Oh yeah, no, I am sure.
Speaker 1: So there's a couple of women I want to talk about. First.
Speaker 1: I want to talk about your mom because I never
Speaker 1: met her before. I couldn't believe number one, how young
Speaker 1: she was and how like spirited. And you know, I
Speaker 1: went to talk to her. Of course is from one
Speaker 1: mom to another, because she was talking about you know,
Speaker 1: how raising you. There was nothing she wouldn't do, like
Speaker 1: it was just the power of being your mom's and
Speaker 1: I and I asked her and I just said, how
Speaker 1: old are you? And she told me that she was
Speaker 1: like sixteen when she had you. She was a kid. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And so you guys grew up together. We did exactly right.
Speaker 1: You know. I always say that, you know, my my
Speaker 1: mother was the she was the navigator of the ship.
Speaker 1: You know, she she's not a musician, but she has
Speaker 1: got musician ears. Um. And I just remember, like anything
Speaker 1: I wanted to do, she always went uh to great
Speaker 1: lengths to make sure that I had a chance to
Speaker 1: really check it out. Like for example, you know, as
Speaker 1: as a kid, you you change occupations like weekly, Like
Speaker 1: one week, I wanted to be a fireman. Okay, so
Speaker 1: you know she would take me to the local firehouse
Speaker 1: to meet the fireman. You know, um, I said, in
Speaker 1: one week, I wanted to be a cop. You know,
Speaker 1: She's like, oh boy, but she was like, Okay, if
Speaker 1: you if you really want to, let's let's figure out
Speaker 1: how that could happen. And then that changed, and then
Speaker 1: I wanted to be a base a pro baseball player,
Speaker 1: and uh. She actually gathered some of the other moms
Speaker 1: in the neighborhood to see if we can start a
Speaker 1: little league team, but we couldn't sustain the momentum. And
Speaker 1: and then when I finally decided that, you know, I
Speaker 1: wanted to be a bass player, um, without flinching, my
Speaker 1: mother said, let's figure out a way to get you
Speaker 1: a base and uh and that one stuck, obviously. And
Speaker 1: then your dad too, was you know, a musician, right,
Speaker 1: he still is, he's uh, he's he's still uh plays,
Speaker 1: he's based in Philly still, but you know he's on
Speaker 1: the road now as much as he was back in
Speaker 1: the seventies and eighties. And uh, you know, he tells
Speaker 1: the story about when I saw him play with Michoel
Speaker 1: Santa Maria, and I decided that I wanted to try
Speaker 1: to give the base a shot too, and uh, and
Speaker 1: that's true. So I came home and told my mom
Speaker 1: and she said, let's make it happen. M It's amazing
Speaker 1: that your mom would be so supportive. She never said
Speaker 1: no to me. I'll never forget that. Yeah, it's kind
Speaker 1: of incredible. But I feel like my daughter. My daughter
Speaker 1: has a new idea every week and I indulge in like, yeah, sure,
Speaker 1: but I don't know that I would take her and
Speaker 1: buy the equipment and do all the things. And um,
Speaker 1: it's pretty awesome. And let's talk about the other woman
Speaker 1: in your life, the woman who is your wife named
Speaker 1: Melissa Walker, incredible singer, amazing, amazing. I mean a couple
Speaker 1: of things. How many years you married again? Coming up
Speaker 1: with seventeen? Wow? And and how do you how do
Speaker 1: you guys do it being apart from each other? Like
Speaker 1: how do you keep it together? Ah? Well, I've always
Speaker 1: heard like, like the couples that that we know have
Speaker 1: been together for a very very long time, spending a
Speaker 1: significant time apart seems to help them stay together a
Speaker 1: long time. But um, marre all little advice you won't
Speaker 1: hear everywhere, but it's true. I think it might be true. Yeah,
Speaker 1: you know what it makes you makes you miss the
Speaker 1: person you know? Um, and plus you know Melissa and
Speaker 1: I have both working musicians, you know, so we knew
Speaker 1: you know, our lives were similar, you know. Um. Obviously,
Speaker 1: since Jazz House Kids started to become bigger and bigger
Speaker 1: and game mormentum, she's game more momentum, she spent less
Speaker 1: and less time on the road. But when we first,
Speaker 1: uh started dating, almost twenty years ago, UM, I was
Speaker 1: in the middle of touring my latest album at that time,
Speaker 1: and so, I mean we we both realized that we
Speaker 1: had to figure out how to do something together because
Speaker 1: I had my own band, she had her own band
Speaker 1: at that time. Um. And then she had started this
Speaker 1: nonprofit organization called Jazz House Kids. And at that time,
Speaker 1: you know, that was just something that she was doing
Speaker 1: on the side, you know, like every now and then
Speaker 1: when she wasn't working as a singer, you know. Um.
Speaker 1: And then as time progressed, she started spending more and
Speaker 1: more time developing Jazz House Kids. And I decided that, uh,
Speaker 1: well let's do that one together, you know. And I'm
Speaker 1: very proud of what Jazz House Kids been able to
Speaker 1: do over the last uh. I mean, she she started
Speaker 1: Jazz House Kids before we met, but um, it didn't
Speaker 1: really become her main focus until I would say, like
Speaker 1: our second or third year of marriage. We'll tell everyone
Speaker 1: what Jazz House Kids is because it's pretty cool. Yeah,
Speaker 1: Jazz House Kids is a jazz educational foundation which is
Speaker 1: based in our town, Mount Clear, New Jersey. And it
Speaker 1: started out UM with h going into different schools, which
Speaker 1: we still are. You know, Basically, a lot of public
Speaker 1: schools in Essex County started losing their music programs and
Speaker 1: so Melissa knew a lot of UH principles and teachers
Speaker 1: in the school systems, so they would asked Melissa to
Speaker 1: put a group of instructors and jazz artists to come
Speaker 1: in and basically give different master classes and seminars and
Speaker 1: jazz to their students. And UH, one school led to another,
Speaker 1: one school led to another, and finally we were probably
Speaker 1: in about five and six schools throughout Newark and Irvington
Speaker 1: and the Oranges and UH in two thousand fourteen we
Speaker 1: opened our own building, UH, thank thanks to Mr Rob
Speaker 1: Brown and you know, UH since that time we've been
Speaker 1: able to see UM probably over a hundred thousand kids,
Speaker 1: which first started out only New Jersey, but now we
Speaker 1: have students coming as far as London and South America
Speaker 1: to our summer program. UH. And then after the summer program,
Speaker 1: we started the Moncla Jazz Festival. So Jazz House Kids
Speaker 1: has turned into quite the organization. Very proud of us
Speaker 1: and you guys together or you started the Montclair Jazz Festival.
Speaker 1: Oh no, you know what what happened? What the Monclad
Speaker 1: Jazz Festival. It was completely accidental. Um. We were trying
Speaker 1: to figure out what to do during the summertime because
Speaker 1: you know, we had we had staff. You know, we
Speaker 1: couldn't put staff. You know, hey guys, you know, uh,
Speaker 1: uh have a great summer, will pay you in September,
Speaker 1: you know, So we had to figure out how to
Speaker 1: keep it going. So we started a summer program two
Speaker 1: weeks summer intensive, uh course. Um. And at the end
Speaker 1: of those two weeks, we figured that we would start, um,
Speaker 1: you know, just have like a little end of the
Speaker 1: summer program concert for the kids. And so we had
Speaker 1: this free concert in niche Wane Park and uh, at
Speaker 1: that time, it was only the parents of the kids
Speaker 1: who came to the summer program, which at that time
Speaker 1: probably were I don't know, a hundred kids maybe, And
Speaker 1: the following year we wind up getting like a hundred
Speaker 1: and twenty five kids and more parents showed up in
Speaker 1: a couple more people from the neighborhood showed up. And
Speaker 1: then the third year, which I believe was two thousand
Speaker 1: eleven maybe or two thousand and twelve, I can't remember. Um,
Speaker 1: I can't remember what year was, we invited the great
Speaker 1: Monte Alexander to come and uh perform with us. And
Speaker 1: we didn't even have a piano. He played on like
Speaker 1: a little keyboard. And at some point we looked at
Speaker 1: each other with you know, let's invite another musician to
Speaker 1: come and play, get a bigger stage, and let's see
Speaker 1: what happens. And then next thing, you know, the mont
Speaker 1: clar Jazz Festival was born. Now this is an annual
Speaker 1: of in Montclair for yeah, and so when is it
Speaker 1: happening this summer? Well, it's it's going to be happening
Speaker 1: the weekend after Labor Day. Shame on me for not
Speaker 1: knowing the exact dates, but um, the second weekend of September.
Speaker 1: That's good, that's better than the summer. Yes, Well, do
Speaker 1: you do the Newport Jazz every year because you were
Speaker 1: the master of ceremonies or I know it's a bigger name.
Speaker 1: What is what is your you know Newport Jazz? Yes, yes,
Speaker 1: I've been artistic director of the Newport Jazz Yes, uh,
Speaker 1: since and the man who created the Newport Jazz Festival
Speaker 1: of the late George Ween. That man was an icon.
Speaker 1: First of all, he created the template for the music festival.
Speaker 1: So every every festival has ever happened from Monterey, both
Speaker 1: the jazz and the pop festival, Woodstock, the New Orleans
Speaker 1: Jazz and Heritage Festival, which he started, the Hampton Jazz Festival,
Speaker 1: the Old Cool Jazz Festival from the seventies and eighties, um,
Speaker 1: all the way up to festivals now like Coachella and
Speaker 1: Burning Man and Bonarum, all of these big music festivals.
Speaker 1: That template was started by George Ween in nineteen fifty four,
Speaker 1: and you know he became, uh, you know, literally one
Speaker 1: of the most important figures in the history of music.
Speaker 1: So uh, I knew George fairly well, not that well,
Speaker 1: but fairly well. And in he asked me to join
Speaker 1: him in Washington, d C. For a round table discussion
Speaker 1: on the history of the Newport Jazz Festival. And I
Speaker 1: was stumped because I thought, why is he calling me? Sure,
Speaker 1: there's a lot of other musicians who have a much
Speaker 1: longer history with the Newport Jazz festival than I do.
Speaker 1: And uh so I went down there and Dan Morgenstern,
Speaker 1: who used to run the uh um at at at
Speaker 1: Rutgers um he listened to the jazz studies. Uh, it
Speaker 1: was just the three of us on this panel, and
Speaker 1: and so that O'Brien was the moderator. And I'm just
Speaker 1: sitting there like, why am I here? I w I
Speaker 1: had no idea, So yeah, right exactly. So I suppose
Speaker 1: I did a good job on the panel. And uh
Speaker 1: the next year, George says, coming from my house for
Speaker 1: for lunch, and uh, I said okay, And Melissa says, well,
Speaker 1: what do you think he wants? I said, I don't know.
Speaker 1: He might ask me to be uh you know, artists
Speaker 1: and residents or something that at Newport next year. And
Speaker 1: she said, I don't know if he was going to
Speaker 1: ask you that. He could probably ask you that over
Speaker 1: the phone, you know. Uh So I went over to
Speaker 1: his apartment and I got there and he said, Christian,
Speaker 1: I'm glad you're here. Let's go into my office. And
Speaker 1: he told his assistant to shut the door. And I'm
Speaker 1: getting nervous, you know, like what does he want? And uh,
Speaker 1: he says, you know, Christian, I've been. Uh, I've been
Speaker 1: spying on you. You know, I've been. I've been. I've
Speaker 1: been checking you out from Afar for a long time.
Speaker 1: And you know, I've seen what you've been doing. You.
Speaker 1: I already know what you've been doing as a bass player.
Speaker 1: I've I've you know, I've been watching to do that
Speaker 1: since you were a teenager. But like, you know, the
Speaker 1: whole thing you were doing out of the Hollywood Bowl,
Speaker 1: what you've been doing in n j pack, what you've
Speaker 1: been doing with your wife and jazz I was kids,
Speaker 1: what you've been doing on NPR and all this all
Speaker 1: you know, serious sex, m and all this stuff. He said, Uh,
Speaker 1: I'm stepping down from the Newport Jazz Festival. I'm eighty
Speaker 1: nine years old, and it's about time, Um someone else
Speaker 1: runs the ship and me and the board decided that
Speaker 1: you'd be the person to run it. And uh, you
Speaker 1: could have knocked me over with the feathers, like are
Speaker 1: you kidding me? Really? And uh, he said, well, you know,
Speaker 1: I like the fact that you don't seem to have
Speaker 1: any particular musical biases, you know, it's I like the
Speaker 1: fact that you worked with so many different types of artists,
Speaker 1: and you seem at home with all of them. And
Speaker 1: that's the way I want my festival run after. I'm going.
Speaker 1: First of all, you've done so much I can't even
Speaker 1: like begin to list it. You got a couple of podcasts,
Speaker 1: you got radio, you got radio shows. What haven't you done? Like,
Speaker 1: what haven't you done that you think? Wow? Like, do
Speaker 1: you want a line of I don't know? Socks? I
Speaker 1: don't know. Is there any weird things? That's what's missing.
Speaker 1: I can see guys in jazz clubs wearing some really colorful,
Speaker 1: cool socks. Well, I'm going to listen to you guys
Speaker 1: on that one. So maybe, yeah, maybe I'll check out
Speaker 1: the socks. Uh. I don't know what if I always
Speaker 1: wanted to do? Um, Bobby, I'm glad you weren't around
Speaker 1: when this happened. But I'll tell you something that I
Speaker 1: did a little bucket list thing. Um. I went to Trend,
Speaker 1: our local coffee shop in Montclaire on a Monday night
Speaker 1: when they had opened Mica or comedy night. And so
Speaker 1: I did. I did stand up? Oh did phenomenal. I
Speaker 1: don't know if I was phenomenal, but I didn't get booed.
Speaker 1: We thought you did it. That's such a big deal.
Speaker 1: It is hard. I took a stand up class ones
Speaker 1: and I was like, never again. I mean it was
Speaker 1: I took it at the forcing of my manager, my
Speaker 1: old manager, Rich Nichols. You probably know because you know, yeah,
Speaker 1: Rich was my old manager. Yeah, yeah, yeah, I love
Speaker 1: I miss him so much. But yeah, he was my
Speaker 1: first manager when I was working at Google. It's a
Speaker 1: really weird, long story that will not make any sense
Speaker 1: in this podcast, but yeah, I'll tell you about that
Speaker 1: the other time. But yeah, he was. He was trying
Speaker 1: to get me to do this sort of stuff like
Speaker 1: interviews and stuff, and then he forced me. He said,
Speaker 1: you have to get out of your head because I
Speaker 1: would always have no cards and like prep. Bobby noses
Speaker 1: about me with like my prep for interviews. He's like,
Speaker 1: you need to take an improv class and you're taking
Speaker 1: a stand up class, like absolutely not not doing it.
Speaker 1: And I did both. And the improv was fun because
Speaker 1: you just like get out of your head and it's
Speaker 1: really good for like speaking. But the I mean, you're
Speaker 1: a jazz musician, you know about improv though bad. But
Speaker 1: the stand up I was like, this ship is hard,
Speaker 1: Like I love stand up and it was I was like,
Speaker 1: I am not funny, Like, I'm not not that kind
Speaker 1: of funny. It's really hard, but yeah, Rich Nichols is
Speaker 1: who I made me do. Incredible world. This world is
Speaker 1: always shrinking by the day. Yeah, I'm You're and Tarka
Speaker 1: old friends, James Poyser the whole like rude script. Yeh yeah.
Speaker 1: I went into Trend one day and the young lady
Speaker 1: behind the cash registers said, uh, she says, you know,
Speaker 1: I've heard your show on once here at Sexam. She said,
Speaker 1: I actually think you're funny. I said, well, thank you. Uh.
Speaker 1: She said you should come do open NC tonight. I
Speaker 1: was like, no, no, no, no, no, no, no, no,
Speaker 1: no way in hell I'm doing that. I am a musician.
Speaker 1: I love comedy behind that's that's different than going up
Speaker 1: on stage and and making a fool out of yourself.
Speaker 1: You know. She said, no, I'm gonna put your name
Speaker 1: on the list. I said no, no, no, don't do that.
Speaker 1: Please don't do that. And she's like, look, be here,
Speaker 1: seven thirty, I'm putting your name on the list. I
Speaker 1: was like, oh ship, So I called the list. I said, listen, uh,
Speaker 1: go home, get a couple of bags back because we
Speaker 1: might have to leave town around eighty. Can we catch
Speaker 1: this on YouTube anywhere? It's got no open my god, wait,
Speaker 1: I want to see Bobby do open Mike. I think
Speaker 1: we need to do like Couples Night. I could try.
Speaker 1: I could only do open mic night if I had
Speaker 1: the Christian McBride cocktail that I'm obsessed with. So can
Speaker 1: you tell us, Hollas more, what is in the cocktail?
Speaker 1: It's the best thing I ever tasted, which I had.
Speaker 1: I actually didn't know what was in it until I
Speaker 1: got there. I mean I didn't create that. I knew
Speaker 1: that was vodka in it. That's all I care about. Yeah,
Speaker 1: me too, I'm a vodka drinker. But it was so refreshing.
Speaker 1: There was a touch of soda, there was a touch
Speaker 1: of line, and there was a little um not. It's
Speaker 1: something that made it pink. Yes, it started with the
Speaker 1: a yes, yes, yeah. I never knew that apperall and
Speaker 1: vodka work together. So everything oh so Christian. You could
Speaker 1: add a little hot chili to the operall. Here's a
Speaker 1: hot tip. You put you stuff a bunch of like
Speaker 1: tai chilis into the apple. Use it. No, it's really good.
Speaker 1: And just infuse it and just like let it be.
Speaker 1: I have one that's been baking in my liquor cabinet
Speaker 1: for like a year, and it's gonna be solid like
Speaker 1: a little kick. Yeah. And and also I've won one
Speaker 1: very important question. What do you do for self care?
Speaker 1: Do you do? Self care? Is self care what you do?
Speaker 1: But do you pay it? I mean from traveling, it's like,
Speaker 1: how do you keep yourself healthy and feel good? I'll
Speaker 1: tell you what I have become an acupulture freak. Um.
Speaker 1: I used to think things like acupuncture and massages all man,
Speaker 1: you know, it's just some corny, hyhebrow stuff, but it
Speaker 1: is not. I really wish that was more standard in
Speaker 1: in American culture, you know, like I'm talking like serious,
Speaker 1: you know, like professional massus is and and acupulcture. I
Speaker 1: mean that really does wonders from me. And do you
Speaker 1: just get a strange person like you just get when
Speaker 1: you go into town or call my acupuncturists at home
Speaker 1: and I get her to give me a list of
Speaker 1: you know, like give me a network. Who should I
Speaker 1: call in Chicago? Who should I call in l A,
Speaker 1: Who should I call in San Francisco? Are you doing
Speaker 1: this first specific ailment, not to get into your business.
Speaker 1: But or is it like just general health and wellness
Speaker 1: or is it for like pain, just general health and wellness. Yeah,
Speaker 1: acupuncture is amazing. I'm a big fan. Yeah. About ten
Speaker 1: years ago, UM, I threw my back out and I
Speaker 1: never experienced serious back pain before. And so my friend,
Speaker 1: the great drummer Lewis Nash, she said, oh, man, you
Speaker 1: gotta you gotta do accupuncture. I was saying, hey man,
Speaker 1: that's that's when they stick all those needles in you
Speaker 1: man nine doing that. It's another way. You gotta do it.
Speaker 1: It's worth it. So Melissa and I went and we
Speaker 1: went to Chinatown and uh, and we had an accupuncture
Speaker 1: session together, and uh, I thought, you know, just say
Speaker 1: too bad. And eventually my back pain started going away.
Speaker 1: And obviously took a lot of stretching and things to
Speaker 1: go along with it, but I became hooked on it.
Speaker 1: I did it a lot when I was pregnant, like
Speaker 1: all through my pregnancy, and I'm convinced that's why I
Speaker 1: had a touch with largely uneventful pregnancy and like no
Speaker 1: pain it was. And I'm sure that the accupucture an Yeah,
Speaker 1: I'm sure like it kept me active the whole time.
Speaker 1: It was incredible. Trying to get my mother to do it.
Speaker 1: She's like, oh no, I know my mom would do
Speaker 1: it either. She's like all this kneat pain and like mom,
Speaker 1: trust us, and she's like I'm not sticking needles, Like
Speaker 1: just like trust us. Like we're Asian, we're Indians. It's
Speaker 1: gonna work. No, don't do it. S hard to break
Speaker 1: the role school. And how about food? Do you eat
Speaker 1: anything special? Or you eat everything? You've seen me? You
Speaker 1: see my sheep? Yeah, you go up and down, you
Speaker 1: go up and down. Yeah, I go up and down.
Speaker 1: Um I've yeah, I fall off the wagon pretty hard
Speaker 1: during COVID. I think you know um, but I don't
Speaker 1: have a particular I mean, I absolutely love, love, love,
Speaker 1: love love Indian food, but I don't think it loves
Speaker 1: me as much as I love Bere. There's a new
Speaker 1: place that just opened. I'm gonna give you a tip.
Speaker 1: It's called Basil. It's the best Indian food. It's Indian tie,
Speaker 1: but it's more Indian and in time as like intensely
Speaker 1: spicy as other Indian food. It's in watch On Plaza.
Speaker 1: So just f y I up and take out. You
Speaker 1: will call me up and say, wow, I've never had
Speaker 1: Indian tie. That sounds so young. Indian Chinese is like
Speaker 1: a thing that's a whole genre of food, and I'm
Speaker 1: obsessed with Indian Chinese. But I've never heard of Indian time.
Speaker 1: Indian time. Yeah, I think I have to use as
Speaker 1: in my in laws and Bobby and Christian McBride and
Speaker 1: Jersey and that the Indian type with Well, Mr McBride,
Speaker 1: thank you, thank you, thank you for joining us. Are
Speaker 1: you kidding? What an honor? Thank you for having me. Wait, Bobby,
Speaker 1: you have to ask your final question, right, I always
Speaker 1: ask everyone the same question. If people listening could hear
Speaker 1: the advice of Christian McBride, what is the one thing
Speaker 1: that they could do to change the course of their life?
Speaker 1: Stop taking themselves so seriously? Amen, You're really We're really important,
Speaker 1: but to an extent, we can be laughed at, at
Speaker 1: particularly bar at ourselves. Yeah. Well, I just my only
Speaker 1: regret in life is that I didn't see you on
Speaker 1: the stand up. So I'm going to have to see
Speaker 1: if somebody recorded on their phone, because I'm sure I'll
Speaker 1: do it again one of these days when when no
Speaker 1: one I hope you're all saying to do the movement
Speaker 1: revisited again because I want to see that. Thank you. Yes, um,
Speaker 1: I don't know when I'm playing. Actually, we just got
Speaker 1: an offer to do it up in Toronto, but I
Speaker 1: know there's talk of us trying to do it maybe
Speaker 1: at Carnegie Hall sometime. Okay, well that would be easier
Speaker 1: for me to get to. But Toronto has come up
Speaker 1: three times in the past twenty four hours, from not kidding,
Speaker 1: from three very different people of everybody telling me it's like,
Speaker 1: you have to go to Toronto. You're gonna have so
Speaker 1: much fun in Toronto. So I think if you can
Speaker 1: arrange it around my schedule, the company in Toronto, but
Speaker 1: I mean midtown's easier. I'm not gonna lie like about, sister.
Speaker 1: Toronto is definitely the New York of the North. Yeah,
Speaker 1: And can everyone find out where you are on your website?
Speaker 1: How do people Christian McBride dot com, Christian McBride dot com.
Speaker 1: Are you on Instagram and all that stuff? I'm on gram,
Speaker 1: I'm on the Facebook, Twitter, all that all that stuff.
Speaker 1: TikTok have you done? Have you done? TikTok? Have a
Speaker 1: TikTok account? I don't really use it. Yeah, well we'll
Speaker 1: save that for another day. Christian, I could sit here
Speaker 1: all day and talk. I just I just there's something
Speaker 1: about you. From the second I met you, I just
Speaker 1: love you, not because of what you do, because of
Speaker 1: who you are. You are just one of those special spirits.
Speaker 1: And you know, I'm just really feel grateful that you're
Speaker 1: my friends. So thanks for coming on. Oh Bobby, the
Speaker 1: feeling is more than mutual, you know that. And uh,
Speaker 1: it's an honor to speak with you, and Anjeli great
Speaker 1: to meet you too, and yeah, let's get together and
Speaker 1: talk about Rich Nichols and and all the Reeks crew
Speaker 1: one of these days. I cannot wait. Well, I'll see
Speaker 1: you at the next open mic, apparently be in line two.