McBee, Cecil

McBee, Cecil , jazz bassist, composer; b. Tulsa, Okla., May 19, 1935. His first instrument was clarinet on which he performed in marching bands and in duets with his sister. He took up the bass at 17, and later began playing in local nightclubs. McBee attended Central State Univ. (Wilberforce, Ohio) at various times during the 1950s and 1960s, eventually earning a B.S. in clarinet/music education. He worked with Dinah Washington in 1959, and spent a two-year stretch in the army from 1959 to 1961; there he played in a trio with Kirk Lightsey and Rudy Johnson and conducted the Fort Knox (Ky.) band. McBee moved to Detroit in 1962, where he played with the Paul Winter Sextet, then moved to N.Y. in 1964 where he gained attention through touring with Charles Lloyd and Pharaoh Sanders. In the 1960s, he also performed or recorded with Graham Moncur III, Jackie McLean, Wayne Shorter, Charles Tolliver, Yusef Lateef, Sam Rivers, and Alice Coltrane. He went on to perform around the world with Elvin Jones, McCoy Tyner, Miles Davis, Bobby Hutcherson, Freddie Hubbard, and Joe Henderson. During the 1970s, McBee had extended stints with Abdullah Ibrahim, in combo and large band settings, and Chico Freeman that lasted into the 1980s; he also worked in the 1970s with Sanders, Coltrane, Sonny Rollins, and Art Pepper. When McBee began recording as a leader in the mid-1970s, he usually included Freeman in his band. The recipient of two NEA composition grants, his works have been recorded by Jones, Tyner, Sanders, and Tolliver.

Discography

Mutima (1974); Music from the Source (1977); Alternate Spaces (1979); Flying Out (1982).

—Lewis Porter