Christian McBride’s magnum opus available on vinyl for the first time. The Movement Revisited: A Musical Portrait of Four Icons is culminating documentation of a richly inspired piece – lauding four key figures of the Civil Rights Movement: Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr., Malcolm X, Rosa Parks and Muhammad Ali. Marshaling his ever-sharpening skills as a composer, arranger, conductor, musician and lyricist, Christian McBride has created a historically and culturally illuminating five-part suite for an 18-piece big band, chorus and narrators that places the motivating forces as well as the goals of the Civil Rights Movement within a powerfully relevant artistic context. It is a one-from-the-heart project McBride was, apparently, destined to undertake. This recording of The Movement Revisited marks the addition of a fifth movement, “Apotheosis,” which acknowledges the election of Barack Obama as the first African American President of the United States.

Photo: Anna Webber

“What’s going on with our society right now is that we’re picking up the struggle over civil rights – human rights, really – where we left off at an earlier time in our culture, while also fighting some new battles. So, if The Movement Revisited can propel awareness of not just today’s issues, but our history, while pleasing people musically, then it has done its job.”

– Christian McBride