ABSTRACT
Bassist Christian McBride, born May 31, 1972, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, came from a musical family and grew up with childhood friends Joey DeFrancesco and Ahmir Thompson, better known in the hip-hop world as Questlove. McBride eventually moved to New York City to study at the Juilliard School. He was always surrounded by music as a kid. His father and great uncle are still professional musicians who play locally in Philadelphia. His dad, up until the time he was six or seven, was primarily an electric bass player, playing in many of the legendary Philly soul groups like Blue Magic, the Delfonics, Billy Paul, Major Harris. He was just listening to the radio and to his mother's R&B, soul and rock records and just picked up all the bass lines he heard. Later on, he discovered that picking out bass lines off records was great for his ear training.
