Christian McBride has spent more than three decades proving that the bass can be both an anchor and a launchpad. Across acoustic jazz, funk, soul, hip-hop and pop, the 11-time GRAMMY® winner has continually built bands that refuse to settle into a single definition. Now, with Ursa Major, McBride is embracing that restless spirit through a new generation of musicians — and a band designed to keep every possibility open.
The ensemble’s debut album, Points of Light, arrives October 30 via Mack Avenue Records, produced by multi-instrumentalist and genre-blurring visionary Terrace Martin. Alongside the announcement, the group has released its take on George Duke’s “No Rhyme, No Reason,” featuring Martin’s atmospheric production and vocoder work.
Ursa Major brings together saxophonist Nicole Glover, guitarist Ely Perlman, pianist Mike King and drummer Savannah Harris, four musicians McBride chose for their individuality, flexibility and willingness to move freely between musical languages. The result is a quintet built less around a fixed stylistic identity than around the chemistry that emerges when five musicians are willing to follow an idea wherever it leads.
That openness was the point from the beginning.
McBride has already led a remarkably diverse collection of ensembles. Inside Straight explored vintage acoustic jazz with a modern sensibility; the Christian McBride Big Band brought expansive arrangements and exuberant swing; the Christian McBride Trio focused on the conversational power of a classic rhythm section; and New Jawn pushed toward something more experimental. His large-scale The Movement Revisited meanwhile transformed the history of the Civil Rights movement into a sweeping musical statement.
But there was something McBride still wanted: a band capable of carrying all of those influences into the same room.
“I had been itching to put together a new band, what I like to call a ‘hybrid band,’ for some time,” McBride explains. “I didn't know at first what form that band would take, but I knew that it had to be a young band.”
In 2022, that idea began taking shape as Ursa Major. Harris, Glover, Perlman and King each arrived through a different route, but all four shared the qualities McBride was searching for.
Harris came recommended by several colleagues as a drummer capable of moving comfortably between swing, funk and freedom. Glover emerged through the musicians’ grapevine as one of the most heralded young voices in jazz. Perlman first caught McBride’s attention at the Jazz Aspen Snowmass summer program, where McBride serves as Artistic Director. And when it came time to find a pianist, Harris and Glover independently pointed McBride toward King.
The chemistry was there. So was the sense that the group could become something larger than the sum of its individual players.
The title Points of Light reflects McBride’s view of his young collaborators. “I have four young stars here,” he recalls thinking. Rather than building the album around his own established identity, McBride allows each member of Ursa Major to contribute original material, making the record a collective statement as much as a showcase for its leader.
To shape the album’s sound, McBride turned to Terrace Martin, whose work across jazz, hip-hop, R&B and contemporary music made him a natural fit for the project. Martin has worked with artists ranging from Kendrick Lamar and Snoop Dogg to Stevie Wonder and Herbie Hancock, and his production gives Points of Light an expanded sonic vocabulary without overwhelming the band’s organic chemistry.
Martin first captured Ursa Major’s live feel in the studio. From there, he and GRAMMY-winning producer and multi-instrumentalist Quintin Gulledge added layers of synths, keyboards and vocoder. The production creates additional space around the quintet while preserving the energy that had developed through years of playing together.
That balance is especially apparent on “No Rhyme, No Reason,” the album’s sole cover. The George Duke composition, originally released as a 1992 single, was not part of some predetermined blueprint. Instead, it emerged organically from conversations in the control room — another example of a project whose best ideas seem to arrive when nobody is trying to force them.
The rest of Points of Light consists of original compositions from members of the band, further emphasizing the collective character of the project. McBride’s bass remains at the center, but Ursa Major is clearly not built around a single dominant voice. Glover’s saxophone, Perlman’s guitar, King’s piano and Harris’ drums each contribute to an ensemble sound that can shift from groove-driven passages to open-ended exploration without losing its identity.
For McBride, that freedom is not simply a musical concept. It is the reason the band exists.
“This album is basically an extension of what we've been doing live for the last four years,” he says. “It's been fun to watch a band develop and grow and progress when everything is so wide open. They don't say no to anything, which is a wonderful thing.”
That philosophy now moves from the studio back to the stage with an international tour spanning North America, Asia and Europe.
Christian McBride & Ursa Major begin September 12-13 at SFJAZZ’s Miner Auditorium in San Francisco, followed by three nights at Blue Note Tokyo from September 16-18. The Japanese leg continues September 19 at Takasaki City Theatre, September 21 at the Kanazawa Jazz Street Festival at Akabana Concert Hall, September 22 at the Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum’s Art Hall in Noto, and September 24 at Billboard Live Osaka.
The European portion begins September 28-29 at Gazarte in Athens, followed by September 30 at AKM İstanbul in Turkey. London’s Ronnie Scott’s hosts the group October 1-2, with subsequent appearances October 4 at TivoliVredenburg in Utrecht, October 5 at the Enjoy Jazz Festival in Heidelberg, October 6 at Moods in Zurich and October 7 at Nancy Jazz Pulsations in France. These dates are reflected on McBride’s official performance calendar.
After the European dates, Ursa Major returns to the United States for the album-release stretch of the tour. The schedule includes October 21 at Berklee Performance Center in Boston, October 22 at Bowker Auditorium at UMass Amherst, October 23-25 at the Modlin Jazz Fest in Richmond, October 26 at UNCG School of Music in Greensboro, October 27 at Duke’s Reynolds Industries Theater in Durham, October 29 at Hodgson Concert Hall at the University of Georgia in Athens, and October 30 at Glazer Hall in Palm Beach, Florida. Current venue listings confirm the Boston, Durham, Athens and Palm Beach performances.
The complete announced tour schedule is:
Christian McBride & Ursa Major — 2026
- Sept. 12-13 — San Francisco, CA — SFJAZZ, Miner Auditorium
- Sept. 16-18 — Tokyo, Japan — Blue Note Tokyo
- Sept. 19 — Takasaki, Japan — Takasaki City Theatre
- Sept. 21 — Kanazawa, Japan — Kanazawa Jazz Street Festival @ Akabana Concert Hall
- Sept. 22 — Noto, Japan — Ishikawa Nanao Art Museum, Art Hall
- Sept. 24 — Osaka, Japan — Billboard Live
- Sept. 28-29 — Athens, Greece — Gazarte
- Sept. 30 — Istanbul, Turkey — AKM İstanbul
- Oct. 1-2 — London, UK — Ronnie Scott’s
- Oct. 4 — Utrecht, Netherlands — TivoliVredenburg
- Oct. 5 — Heidelberg, Germany — Enjoy Jazz Festival
- Oct. 6 — Zurich, Switzerland — Moods
- Oct. 7 — Nancy, France — Nancy Jazz Pulsations
- Oct. 21 — Boston, MA — Berklee Performance Center
- Oct. 22 — Amherst, MA — Bowker Auditorium @ UMass
- Oct. 23-25 — Richmond, VA — Modlin Jazz Fest
- Oct. 26 — Greensboro, NC — UNCG School of Music
- Oct. 27 — Durham, NC — Duke Reynolds Industries Theater
- Oct. 29 — Athens, GA — UGA, Hodgson Concert Hall
- Oct. 30 — Palm Beach, FL — Glazer Hall
The tour schedule in the original announcement listed Greensboro on October 26 and Athens on October 29, while current venue listings additionally identify the October 27 Durham performance.
McBride’s résumé is vast. In addition to his work as a bandleader and composer, he has collaborated with Sting, Billie Eilish, James Brown, Paul McCartney and countless others. He serves as Artistic Director of the New Jersey Performing Arts Center’s TD James Moody Festival and the National Jazz Museum in Harlem, while also working as Artistic Director of JAZZ HOUSE KiDS and the Jazz Aspen Snowmass Summer Sessions. He hosts NPR’s Jazz Night in America and SiriusXM’s The Lowdown: Conversations With Christian.
His most recent release, Without Further Ado, Vol. 1, earned a GRAMMY® and featured his Big Band alongside guests including Sting and Andy Summers, Samara Joy, Jeffrey Osborne, Dianne Reeves, José James, Cécile McLorin Salvant and Antoinette Henry. McBride also brought the album’s “Back In Love Again” to Jimmy Kimmel Live! with Jeffrey Osborne.
Yet Ursa Major represents something different. Rather than looking back across an already remarkable career, McBride is deliberately surrounding himself with younger musicians and giving them room to shape the future with him.
Points of Light is the document of that experiment — an album built on trust, curiosity and the belief that the most exciting music can emerge when nobody in the room is afraid to say yes.
And with Ursa Major, McBride seems intent on keeping the possibilities wide open.
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