A Friday item, in which we feature a playlist suggested by one of our critics—or by a friendly guest.

Christian McBride has laid down records with so many jazz icons that to list them here would be sort of obnoxious. (It would also require us to discuss the latter-day work of Sting.) Suffice it to say that whatever jazz greats were alive in the ’90s, McBride played with them—and made their records a better place to spend some time.

Mike West, City Paper’s jazz guy-in-chief, calls McBride “the most revered bass player of his generation.”

More important, perhaps, is McBride’s statesmanlike work as a bandleader and composer. McBride’s new band, Inside Straight, which backs him on this year’s Kind of Brown, represents a return to a traddier brand of music (what the bassist describes as “right down the pike, straight-ahead, swinging jazz”) after the forward-leaning funk of the Christian McBride Band. Not to say that the dude’s playing it safe or anything…but if John McLaughlin wanders into Blues Alley this weekend, he’s not gonna hear anything to turn his hair unwhite.

Still! A man’s allowed his guilty pleasures. In anticipation of his four sets this weekend, I phoned McBride to solicit a playlist of his favorite non-jazz songs. Predictably, they’re heavy on the low end. (Hey, a bassist has to look out for his own.) Also predictably, one of the songs is by Sting.

Playlist & videos below the interview.

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Dear Arts Desk readers,

As approximately 62 of you know, I’ve been spinning a Friday Soul mix via the old Twitter account. Man is it groovy! I’m even linking to videos. The playlist so far:

1. Otis Redding, “Shake” (live at Monterey Pop, 1967)
2. Raphael Saadiq, “Let’s Take a Walk”
3. Laura Nyro, “And When I Die”
4. James Brown, “Super Bad”
5. Buddy Guy, “Feels Like Rain”
6. Mofro, “Ho Cake”
7. James Cotton, Muddy Waters, Johnny Winter, “Got My Mojo Workin’” (hey, we’re branching out)
8. The Impressions, “Long Long Winter”
9. Rod Stewart, “(Your Love Keeps Lifting Me) Higher and Higher”
10. Bettye LaVette, “You Don’t Know Me At All”
11. Van Morrison, “I’ve Been Working”
12. Curtis Mayfield, “People Get Ready” (some live version from, I think, 1974)

Eclectic, see, yet accessible. But it ain’t over ’til the fat lady sings! (No Aretha jokes, if ye please.) Just point the browser of your choice in this direction, make like a lemming, and follow along. Suggestions are appreciated. As are witty remarks concerning my inclusion of Rod Stewart…or the fact that a number of these tracks don’t necessarily qualify as soul.

Below the jump: the remainder of the mix, updated incrementally.

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