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Christian McBride is shepherding the next generation of jazz musicians

XPN | By Stephen Kallao,
Kimberly Junod
Published October 6, 2025 at 2:02 PM PDT

Bassist, composer and Jazz Night in America host Christian McBride's latest album sees the bandleader get his Grammy Award-winning big band back together to breathe new life into some classics.

Without Further Ado, Vol 1 is his fourth album with his big band, with guest appearances from Sting, Samara Joy, Andy Summers and more.

Today, McBride talks about the new album, why he prefers arranging for larger groups over smaller ones, plus we'll get the scoop on his new project, Ursa Major, featuring rising stars in the world of jazz. Joining McBride is Ursa Major saxophonist Nicole Glover. Together, they treat us to some fantastic live performances, recording in studio.

This episode of World Cafe was produced and edited by Kimberly Junod.  Our digital producer is Miguel Perez. World Cafe's engineer is Chris Williams. Our programming and booking coordinator is Chelsea Johnson and our line producer is Will Loftus.

Copyright 2025 XPN
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NPR World CafeNPR Music
Stephen Kallao
[Copyright 2024 XPN]
Kimberly Junod
World Cafe senior producer Kimberly Junod has been a part of the World Cafe team since 2001, when she started as the show's first line producer. In 2011 Kimberly launched (and continues to helm) World Cafe's Sense of Place series that includes social media, broadcast and video elements to take listeners across the U.S. and abroad with an intimate look at local music scenes. She was thrilled to be part of the team that received the 2006 ASCAP Deems Taylor Radio Broadcast Award for excellence in music programming. In the time she has spent at World Cafe, Kimberly has produced and edited thousands of interviews and recorded several hundred bands for the program, as well as supervised the show's production staff. She has also taught sound to young women (at Girl's Rock Philly) and adults (as an "Ask an Engineer" at WYNC's Werk It! Women's Podcast Festival).
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