Christian McBride Announces “The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons” Vinyl Release

A sweeping four-part suite celebrating the civil rights movement, the album features arrangements for big jazz band, small jazz group, and gospel choir

Christian McBride Announces “The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons” Vinyl Release

A sweeping four-part suite celebrating the civil rights movement, the album features arrangements for big jazz band, small jazz group, and gospel choir

8-time GRAMMY® Award winner Christian McBride has announced that his seminal The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons will be available on vinyl for the first time on January 13th, via Mack Avenue Records. A sweeping four-part suite celebrating the civil rights movement, the album features arrangements for big jazz band, small jazz group, and gospel choir as well as four narrators who convey the pain, pathos, and ultimately hope of the struggle through the words and writings of four iconic figures: the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. The album is currently available for vinyl pre-order here.

This week McBride received his 16th GRAMMY® nomination for the album LongGone, along with co-writers Joshua Redman, Brad Mehldau and Brian Blade in the Best Jazz Instrumental Album category.

Beginning on November 28th, McBride will begin a new two-week residency at the Village Vanguard in New York City. See below for a full list of tour dates.

Originally released in 2020, The Movement Revisited is the culmination of a 20-year-long, continuously evolving project. In 1998, a musical commission from the Portland (Maine) Arts Society set in motion what would eventually become a major part of McBride’s life’s work. The only stipulation for the commission was that it had to include a choir. “At that time, I called it a musical portrait of the Civil Rights Movement,” Christian says. “I thought about those times and decided that rather than try to write a history of the movement, I wanted to evoke its spirit and feeling.”

Written for just a quartet and gospel choir, that original version of The Movement Revisited gave only a hint of what the piece would eventually become. In 2008, the L.A. Philharmonic asked if he would like to remake it as a far bigger version for their upcoming season, and the Detroit Jazz Festival asked him to expand the suite to include the words of newly-elected President Obama, which led to the creation of a fifth and final section of the suite, “Apotheosis, November 4th, 2008,” in which the icons quote Obama’s victory speech.

Born in Philadelphia, McBride was a gifted musical prodigy who soaked up influences from every direction. At the age of 17 he was recruited by saxophonist Bobby Watson to join his group, Horizon. During the 1990s, he proceeded to work with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Pat Metheny, Wynton Marsalis, Freddie Hubbard and Chick Corea, as well as major pop and rock stars like Sting, Paul McCartney, James Brown and Celine Dion. His abilities were also coveted by the classical music world, including opera legends Kathleen Battle and Renee Fleming.

The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons Tracklist:

01. Overture / The Movement Revisited

02. Sister Rosa – Prologue

03. Sister Rosa

04. Rosa Introduces Malcolm

05. Brother Malcolm – Prologue

06. Brother Malcolm

07. Malcolm Introduces Ali

08. Ali Speaks

09. Rumble in the Jungle

10. Rosa Introduces MLK

11. Soldiers (I Have a Dream)

12. A View from the Mountaintop

13. Apotheosis: November 4th, 2008

Christian McBride tour dates:

11/29 through 12/04 – New York, NY – Village Vanguard

12/06 through 12/11 – New York, NY – Village Vanguard

01/06 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – The Jazz Cruise 2023

01/13 – Fort Lauderdale, FL – Blue Note at Sea

02/02 – Northridge, CA – Valley Performing Arts Center

02/03 – Scottsdale, AZ – Scottsdale Center for the Performing Arts

02/11 – St. Augustine, FL – Fort Mose Historic State Park

02/17 – Toronto, ON – Meridian Hall

02/24 – Fort Collins, CO – The Lincoln Center

02/25 – Salt Lake City – UT – Capitol Theatre

02/26 – Boulder, CO – Boulder Theater

03/03 – Houston, TX – Wortham Theater Center

03/04 – San Antonio, TX – Tobin Center for the Performing Arts

03/21 – Minneapolis, MN – Dakota

03/22 – Minneapolis, MN – Dakota

03/23 – Chicago, IL – Constellation

03/24 – Detroit, MI – Orchestra Hall

03/28 – Geneva, NY – Smith Center for the Arts

03/30 – Knoxville, TN – Big Ears Festival 2023

03/30 – Wilmington, DE – Arden Gild Hall

03/31 – Richmond, VA – Modlin Center for the Arts

04/29 – Irvine, CA – Irvine Barclay Theatre

Bass Magazine   By: Bass Magazine