Christian McBride/Edgar Meyer | But Who’s Gonna Play The Melody?

GRAMMY® Award-Winning Bassist/Composer Christian McBride Announces New Album with Edgar Meyer

But Who’s Gonna Play The Melody?
Out March 22 via Mack Avenue Music Group

Releases New Single “Barnyard Disturbance”

January 23, 2024: Today, 8-time GRAMMY® Award winner Christian McBride announced the upcoming release of But Who’s Gonna Play The Melody?, a new album recorded with renowned bassist and composer Edgar Meyer. The album explores the vast variety possible with the pairing of two limitless bassists, encompassing diverse original compositions, American Songbook standards, and familiar classics by jazz and bluegrass masters. The album will be released on March 22 via Mack Avenue Music Group, and is currently available for preorder here. On release day, the two will perform as a duo at Big Ears Festival in Knoxville, TN.

McBride has also released the track “Barnyard Disturbance.” Drawing on both blues and country influences, the track finds McBride and Meyer extracting the full range of sonic possibilities from their instruments.

“Edgar and I come from two different places,” McBride explains. “I come from the jazz and R&B worlds with a little bit of classical, and he comes from the bluegrass and classical worlds with a little bit of jazz. With this album we’re meeting each other in uncharted territory.”

McBride and Meyer were initially introduced by their mutual mentor, the legendary jazz bassist Ray Brown. It took nearly a decade before they shared a stage together in 2007 under the auspices of Jazz Aspen Snowmass, the Colorado-based non-profit jazz performance and education organization. The pair quickly discovered that the common ground between their disparate backgrounds was a firm foundation in the blues.

Hundreds of miles separate Meyer’s hometown of Oak Ridge, Tennessee, and McBride’s in Philadelphia, but their roots feel intertwined throughout But Who’s Gonna Play the Melody? “The center of our connection is in things that are earthy and funky and rooted in a blues dimension,” Meyer says. “Then it ranges out from there.”

Intimate and raucous, playful and exquisite, gritty and refined – But Who’s Gonna Play the Melody? reveals worlds of influence, experience and inspiration in just two basses. While Meyer is the first to profess that “the bass is a pretty limited instrument,” in his and McBride’s hands it sounds as close to limitless as it ever has.

Photo Credit: Anna Webber

Tracklist:
1. Green Slime
2. Barnyard Disturbance
3. Bebop, Of Course
4. Bass Duo #1
5. Solar
6. Canon
7. Philly Slop
8. Interlude #1
9. FRB 2DB
10. Bewitched, Bothered And Bewildered
11. Bass Duo #2
12. Lullaby For A Ladybug
13. Days Of Wine And Roses
14. Interlude #2
15. Tennessee Blues

Christian McBride Tour Dates:
02/02/24 – Chicago, IL – Symphony Center
02/08/24 – Newark, NJ – Prudential Hall (A Tribute in Song)
02/10/24 – Cleveland, OH – Milton and Tamar Maltz Performing Arts Center
02/15/24 – New York, NY – 92nd St Y (Christian McBride Big Band)
02/16/24 – Chapel Hill, NC – Memorial Hall
02/23/24 – Charlotte, NC – Belk Theater
03/06/24 – Durango, CO – Community Concert Hall
03/09/24 – Lone Tree, CO – Lone Tree Arts Center
03/22/24 – 03/24/24 – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival
04/06/24 – Homer, NY – Center for the Arts of Homer
04/07/24 – Arlington, MA – Arlington Jazz Festival
04/09/24 – Pittsburgh, PA – August Wilson African American Cultural Center
04/10/24 – Baltimore, MD – Keystone Korner
04/11/24 – Baltimore, MD – Keystone Korner (Early & Late show)
04/13/24 – Germantown, TN – Germantown Performing Arts Center
05/03/24 – Durham, NH – Paul Creative Arts Center (Christian McBride and Inside Straight)
05/07/24 – 05/12/24 – New York, NY – Blue Note Jazz Club (Early and Late Show)
05/22/24 – Roanoke, VA – Shaftman Performance Hall (Christian McBride and Inside Straight)
05/24/24 – St. Louis, MO – The Sheldon Concert Hall (Christian McBride and Inside Straight)
05/25/24 – 05/26/24 – Cincinnati, OH – Caffe Vivace (With Inside Straight)
07/05/24 – 07/07/24 – Glynde, UK – Glynde Place (Love Supreme Festival)