Jun 3, 2025 11:25 AM
In Memoriam: Al Foster, 1943–2025
Al Foster, a drummer regarded for his fluency across the bebop, post-bop and funk/fusion lineages of jazz, died May 28…
“There’s so much history right in Washington, D.C.,” Christian McBride said about bringing his music about the Civil Rights Movement to the nation’s capital.
(Photo: Anna Webber)Bassist Christian McBride is bringing his ambitious civil rights music, which was 20 years in the making, to The Kennedy Center on Friday, Feb. 4, at 8 p.m.
The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait Of Four Icons, an album released in 2020, serves as McBride’s masterpiece on “the struggle,” featuring impassioned speeches from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr., Rosa Parks, Malcolm X and Muhammad Ali. The project also includes a short tribute to President Barack Obama.
“It’s such an honor to bring The Movement Revisited to The Kennedy Center, and to be joined by the Howard Gospel Choir of Howard University,” said McBride. “There’s so much history right in Washington, D.C. — from Benjamin Banneker’s role in designing the city, to Martin Luther King Jr. speaking at the Lincoln Monument, and the launch of the Smithsonian’s National Museum of African American History and Culture. Washington, D.C., has always been an important place in the Black American legacy.”
McBride was not yet born when the world witnessed some of the greatest moments in the Civil Rights Movement during the 1960s. As a child in the ’70s, he learned the history in school, but found truth beyond the history books.
“When I was a kid, I used to spend hours looking at old copies of Ebony and Jet magazines that my grandmother saved,” he said. “To read contemporaneous writings by Black writers about events and people who were my history – our history – that was absolutely fascinating to me. It was the greatest gift my grandmother could have given to me.”
Those writings played a major role in the creation of The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait Of Four Icons. The work combines elements of jazz, gospel, big band, swing, symphony, theater and dramatic spoken word.
For more information, go to kennedy-center.org. DB
Foster was truly a drummer to the stars, including Miles Davis, Sonny Rollins and Joe Henderson.
Jun 3, 2025 11:25 AM
Al Foster, a drummer regarded for his fluency across the bebop, post-bop and funk/fusion lineages of jazz, died May 28…
“Branford’s playing has steadily improved,” says younger brother Wynton Marsalis. “He’s just gotten more and more serious.”
May 20, 2025 11:58 AM
Branford Marsalis was on the road again. Coffee cup in hand, the saxophonist — sporting a gray hoodie and a look of…
“What did I want more of when I was this age?” Sasha Berliner asks when she’s in her teaching mode.
May 13, 2025 12:39 PM
Part of the jazz vibraphone conversation since her late teens, Sasha Berliner has long come across as a fully formed…
Roscoe Mitchell will receive a Lifetime Achievement award at this year’s Vision Festival.
May 27, 2025 6:21 PM
Arts for Art has announced the full lineup for the 2025 Vision Festival, which will run June 2–7 at Roulette…
Benny Benack III and his quartet took the Midwest Jazz Collective’s route for a test run this spring.
Jun 3, 2025 10:31 AM
The time and labor required to tour is, for many musicians, daunting at best and prohibitive at worst. It’s hardly…
