Cecil McBee

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Cecil McBee
Born May 19, 1935 (age 79)
Origin Tulsa, OK, United States
Genres Jazz
Occupations Musician
Instruments Double bass
Associated
acts
Dinah Washington, Paul Winter,Miles Davis, Andrew
Hill, Sam Rivers, Jackie McLean, Wayne Shorter, Charles
Lloyd, Yusef Lateef, Keith Jarrett, Freddie
Hubbard, Woody Shaw, Alice Coltrane
Cecil McBee (born May 19, 1935) is an American post-bop jazz bassist, one of the most
influential in the history of jazz.
[1][2]
McBee has recorded as a leader only a handful of times since
the 1970s, but has contributed as a sideman to a number of jazz albums.
Contents
[hide]
1 Biography
o 1.1 Early life and career
o 1.2 New York
o 1.3 Later career
2 Awards
o 2.1 Grammys
3 Discography
o 3.1 As leader
o 3.2 As sideman
4 References
5 External links
Biography[edit]
Early life and career[edit]
McBee was born in Tulsa, Oklahoma, on May 19, 1935. He studied clarinet at school, but
switched to bass at the age of 17, and began playing in local nightclubs. After gaining a music
degree from Ohio Central State University, he spent two years in the army, during which time he
conducted the band at Fort Knox. In 1959 he played with Dinah Washington, and in 1962 he
moved to Detroit, where he worked with Paul Winter's folk-rock ensemble in 1963-64.
New York[edit]
His jazz career began to take off in the mid-1960s, after he moved to New York, when he began
playing and recording with a number of significant musicians including Miles Davis, Andrew
Hill,Sam Rivers, Jackie McLean (1964), Wayne Shorter (196566), Charles Lloyd (1966), Yusef
Lateef (196769), Keith Jarrett, Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw (1986), and Alice
Coltrane(196972).
Later career[edit]
In the 2000s, McBee unsuccessfully sued a Japanese company that opened a chain of stores
under his name.
[3]

He was an artist in residence at Harvard from 2010 to 2011.
[4]
He teaches at the New England
Conservatory in Boston, Massachusetts.
Awards[edit]
1991 he was inducted into the Oklahoma Jazz Hall of Fame.
Grammys[edit]
Blues for Coltrane: A Tribute to John Coltrane (MCA, 1987), Pharoah Sanders/David
Murray/McCoy Tyner/Cecil McBee/Roy Haynes - Winner, Best instrumental performance,
individual or group, Grammy Awards, 1988.
Discography[edit]
As leader[edit]
1975: Mutima (Strata-East Records)
1977: Music from the Source (Enja Records)
1977: Compassion (Enja)
1979: Alternate Spaces (India Navigation)
1982: Flying Out (India Navigation)
1986: Roots of Blue (RPR) - duets with Muhal Richard Abrams
1997: Unpsoken (Palmetto Records)
As sideman[edit]
With the Ray Anderson
Old Bottles New Wine (1985)
With the Bob Thiele Collective
Sunrise Sunset (1990)
With Kenny Barron
What If? (Enja, 1986)
With Joanne Brackeen
Snooze (Choice, 1975)
With Dollar Brand
African Space Program (Enja, 1973)
With Anthony Braxton
Eight (+3) Tristano Compositions, 1989: For Warne Marsh (hatArt, 1989)
With Roy Brooks
The Free Slave (Muse, 1970 [1972])
With Alice Coltrane
Journey in Satchidananda (Impulse!, 1970)
With Chico Freeman
Morning Prayer (India Navigation, 1976)
Chico (India Navigation, 1977)
The Outside Within (India Navigation, 1978)
Spirit Sensitive (India Navigation, 1979)
Destiny's Dance (Contemporary, 1981)
With Johnny Griffin
Birds and Ballads (1978)
With Andrew Hill
Compulsion! (Blue Note, 1965)
With Freddie Hubbard and Woody Shaw
Double Take (Blue Note, 1986)
With Elvin Jones
Power Trio (Novus, 1990) - with John Hicks
When I Was at Aso-Mountain (Enja, 1990)
Elvin Jones Jazz Machine (Trio, 1997)
It Don't Mean a Thing (Enja, 1993)
With Clifford Jordan
Two Tenor Winner (Criss Cross Jazz, 1984)
With John Klemmer
Magic and Movement (Impulse!, 1974)
With Yusef Lateef
The Complete Yusef Lateef (Atlantic, 1967)
The Blue Yusef Lateef (Atlantic, 1968)
Yusef Lateef's Detroit (Atlantic, 1969)
The Diverse Yusef Lateef (Atlantic, 1970)
With The Leaders
Mudfoot (Black Hawk, 1986)
Out Here Like This (Black Saint, 1987)
Unforeseen Blessings (Black Saint, 1988)
Heaven Dance (Sunnyside, 1988) - The Leaders Trio with pianist Kirk Lightsey and drummer
Don Moye
Spirits Alike (Double Moon, 2007)
With Dave Liebman
The Seasons (Soul Note, 1992)
John Coltrane's 'Meditations' (Arkadia Jazz, 1998)
With Charles Lloyd
Dream Weaver (1966, Atlantic)
Forest Flower (1966, Atlantic)
The Flowering (1966, Atlantic)
Charles Lloyd in Europe (1966, Atlantic)
With Raphe Malik
Storyline (Boxholder, 1999) - with Cody Moffett
With Jackie McLean
It's Time! (Blue Note, 1964)
Action Action Action (Blue Note, 1964)
With Lloyd McNeill
Treasures (1976)
With Charles McPherson
New Horizons (Xanadu, 1977)
With Grachan Moncur III
Some Other Stuff (Blue Note, 1964)
With Amina Claudine Myers
Salutes Bessie Smith (Leo, 1980)
With Almanac
Almanac (Improvising Artists, 1967)
With Art Pepper
Winter Moon (Galaxy, 1980)
With Dannie Richmond
"In" Jazz for the Culture Set (Impulse!, 1965)
With Sam Rivers
Dimensions & Extensions (Blue Note, 1967)
Streams (Impulse!, 1973)
Hues (Impulse!, 1973)
With Buddy Tate and Dollar Brand
Buddy Tate Meets Dollar Brand (Chiaroscuro Records, 1977)
With Pharoah Sanders
Jewels of Thought (Impulse!, 1969)
Thembi (Impulse!, 1970)
Black Unity (Impulse!, 1971)
Live at the East (Impulse!, 1972)
Village of the Pharoahs (Impulse!, 1973)
Love in Us All (Impulse!, 1973)
With Saxophone Summit
Gathering of Spirits (Telarc, 2004)
With Zbigniew Seifert
Man of the Light (Promising Music, 2010)
With Woody Shaw
The Moontrane (Muse, 1974)
Love Dance (Muse, 1975)
The Iron Men with Anthony Braxton (Muse, 1977 [1980])
With Archie Shepp
Lady Bird (Denon, 1978)
With Wayne Shorter
Et Cetera (Blue Note, 1965)
Odyssey of Iska (Blue Note, 1970)
With Lonnie Liston Smith
Expansions (1974)
With Leon Thomas
Spirits Known and Unknown (1969)
With Horace Tapscott
The Dark Tree, Vol. 1 & 2 (hatOLOGY, 1989)
With Mickey Tucker
Sojourn (Xanadu, 1977)
Mister Mysterious (Muse, 1978)
With McCoy Tyner
Quartets 4 X 4 (Milestone, 1980)
Blues for Coltrane (1987)
With James "Blood" Ulmer
Revealing (1977)
With Mal Waldron
What It Is (Enja, 1981)
With Michael White
The Land of Spirit and Light (Impulse!, 1973)
With Paul Winter
Jazz Meets the Folk-Song (1963)
With Ysuke Yamashita
Sakura (Verve, 1990)
Kurdish Dance (Verve, 1993)
Dazzling Days (Verve, 1993)
Fragments 1999 (Verve, 1999)
Spider (Verve, 1996)
Delightful Contrast (Universal, 2011)