Jesse McBride was raised in Houston, where his mother was a band director and his aunt a violinist and conductor. He started the violin at four, winning numerous competitions, and took up the piano while attending the Houston High School for the Performing and Visual Arts — alongside classmate Robert Glasper. In 1998 he moved to New Orleans to study at the University of New Orleans, where he earned both a BA and a Master of Music studying jazz piano with Ellis Marsalis.
At UNO, McBride developed a life-changing relationship with the legendary producer, performer, and educator Harold Battiste. “Mr. Batt” encouraged McBride to develop his own sound and to continue the tradition of helping younger musicians find their personal voices — and McBride took up Battiste’s Next Generation project, the band the elder statesman founded to bring rising young musicians into the fold, often compared to Art Blakey’s Jazz Messengers. He has carried the torch ever since Battiste’s death in 2015.
The Next Generation’s mission is the music of what Alvin Batiste called the “second 50 years” of New Orleans jazz: the modern compositions of Battiste, drummer James Black, Ellis Marsalis, saxophonist Alvin Batiste, and trumpeter Clyde Kerr Jr. McBride has released Next Generation records on Battiste’s revived AFO Records — beginning with Jesse McBride Presents the Next Generation (2007) — and the band held a steady Tuesday-night residency at Snug Harbor on Frenchmen Street from 2006 to 2009.
