Born into the jazz-rich culture of Philadelphia, Christian McBride studied bass at Juilliard School before apprenticing with a series of heavyweight mentors, including Freddie Hubbard, Milt Jackson and J.J. Johnson. At the same time, McBride thrived on partnerships with jazz virtuosos of his own generation, including Roy Hargrove and Joshua Redman. His bass playing is insistently inventive, but he never forgets to swing. You'll rarely hear an instrumentalist so at home in the complex choreography of his music.