Biography
Cecil McBee ranks among post-bop’s most sophisticated and flexible bassists, having accompanied a vast array of musicians while proving equally adept whether leading solo or ensemble improvisations or supplying carefully inventive accompaniment. Born in Tulsa on May 19, 1935, he took up clarinet during high school before turning to bass at seventeen. After training as a music educator and directing a military band for two years, he accompanied Dinah Washington in 1959. In 1962 he relocated to Detroit, seeking entry into that city’s expanding jazz community. The following year he entered Paul Winter’s folk-jazz group, moving with the ensemble to New York in 1964. Opportunities quickly multiplied; he recorded and performed with Andrew Hill, Sam Rivers, Jackie McLean, Wayne Shorter, and Keith Jarrett. During saxophonist Charles Lloyd’s breakthrough year of 1966 McBee was a regular collaborator, and later in the decade he appeared on sessions led by Pharoah Sanders, Yusef Lateef, Alice Coltrane, and Charles Tolliver. Throughout the 1970s he sustained many of those associations while also working with Abdullah Ibrahim, Lonnie Liston Smith, Joanne Brackeen, Art Pepper, and Chico Freeman. His debut as a leader came in 1974 with the Strata East album Mutima. Two further live recordings from 1977, both featuring Freeman and issued on independent labels, were titled Music From the Source and Alternate Spaces. On his next date, 1982’s Flying Out, McBee explored string-driven chamber jazz. Following Compassion in 1983 he largely withdrew from leadership duties for an extended period, resuming his established role as a sideman. In 1996 he assembled a quintet and launched European tours; the group’s performances were captured on the 1997 release Unspoken.
Albums
