Renowned Musician From Essex County Wins 11th Grammy Award

MONTCLAIR, NJ — A renowned jazz musician with deep Montclair roots added two more Grammy Awards to his mantle last weekend.

Bassist, composer and bandleader Christian McBride won a Grammy for his Big Band album “Without Further Ado, Vol 1” in the Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album category.

Released last year via Mack Avenue Records, the album features a star-studded list of guests, including Sting and Andy Summers, Samara Joy, Jeffery Osborne, Dianne Reeves, José James, Cécile McLorlin Salvant, and Antoinette Henry.

According to McBride, the inspiration and many of the arrangements for the album grew out of the annual NJPAC Gala in Essex County. The big band has served as its house musicians and McBride as musical director since 2012.

“We've always invited a bunch of great singers to come and perform at the gala,” McBride said.

“After so many years of writing big band charts for these incredible singers, I realized that I had stacks of music that had only been played once,” he said. “This has been a fantastic opportunity to finally record some of these arrangements and to play them with some of my favorite singers.”

McBride recently performed one of the tracks, “Back In Love Again,” with Osborne on Jimmy Kimmel Live!

McBride’s collaboration with Chick Corea and Brian Blade from Corea’s posthumous album, “Trilogy 3,” also won a Grammy Award for Best Jazz Performance.

The awards mark McBride’s 10th and 11th Grammy wins.

McBride serves as the artistic director at a local nonprofit in Montclair – Jazz House Kids – and got a big congratulations from them after his latest Grammy victory.

During his multi-decade career, McBride has appeared in hundreds of recordings and played alongside some of jazz's biggest names, including Sonny Rollins, Dave Brubeck, McCoy Tyner, Herbie Hancock, Pat Metheny and Freddy Hubbard, as well as pop stars ranging from James Brown to Sting and Carly Simon.

Watch McBride’s acceptance speech from last weekend’s award ceremony here, or view it below.

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