Cecil McBee
Cecil McBee ( born May 19, 1935 in Tulsa / Oklahoma) is an American jazz bassist.
Life and work
McBee learned clarinet before the age of seventeen joined the bass and played in local nightclubs. He trained as a music teacher at the Ohio Central State University and spent two years a military band in the U.S. Army at Fort Knox. In 1959, he appeared with Dinah Washington. In 1962 he went to Detroit. There he became a member in 1963 by Paul Winters folk jazz group with which he moved the following year to New York City. There he worked with musicians like Andrew Hill, Sam Rivers, Jackie McLean (1964 ), Wayne Shorter (1965 /6), Grachan Moncur III and Keith Jarrett.
In 1966 he played with Jarrett in the successful quartet of saxophonist Charles Lloyd, but abandoned it after the first European tour. Next he took with Pharoah Sanders, Yusef Lateef (1967-1969), Alice Coltrane (1969-1972) and Charles Tolliver on. In the 1970s he joined inter alia, with Abdullah Ibrahim, Lonnie Liston Smith, Joanne Brackeen, Art Pepper, and Chico Freeman. In 1974, with Mutima his first album as a leader, others followed. Since the mid- 1980s he worked as a sideman, as in the All Star lineup The Leaders until 1996 own quintet founded. In 1989, he took with Anthony Braxton ( Eight ( 3) Tristano Compositions 1989: For Warne Marsh ).
2007/8, he toured with the hard bop band The Cookers in Germany.
McBee teaches at the New England Conservatory in Boston / Massachusetts.
Discography
- Mutima with George Adams, Billy Hart, Allan Gumbs Onaje, Tex Allen, Allen Braufman, Dee Dee Bridgewater, Thabo Michael Carvin, Jimmy Hopps, Lawrence Killian, Allen Nelson, Artie Webb, 1974
- Music from the Source with Chico Freeman, Steve McCall, Joe Gardner, Dennis Moorman, Famoudou Don Moye, 1977
- Alternate Spaces with Chico Freeman, Don Pullen, Don Moye Famoudou, Allen Nelson, Joe Gardner, 1977
- Flying out in 1982
- Heaven 's Dance with The Leaders Trio from McBee, Kirk Lightsey, Famoudou Don Moye, 1989
- Unspoken with James Zollar, David Berkman, Matt Wilson, 1997
- Blueprint Project, 2004