Singer, actress and rap star Queen Latifah is preparing to release her new album of jazz-inflected standards, Trav'lin Light. The new set features a wealth of jazz talent, including accomplished bassist Christian McBride, who also performed material from the album with Latifah on a couple of warm-up dates this summer.

Those concerts turned out so well that McBride says that Latifah asked him to serve as musical director for her upcoming fall tour, which put him in a bind. He explained: "She was planning her fall tour, which actually starts in a couple of weeks, and she asked if I could be her musical director again and, you know, you have no idea, this was one of the worst positions I've been in my entire life because I was already booked to be on tour with Pat Metheny this fall."

McBride has toured as part of guitarist Pat Metheny's trio for the past four years.

Queen Latifah's Trav'lin Light is due September 25th on Verve. The new set features versions of "I Love Being Here With You," "Poetry Man," "I'm Not In Love," "How Long (Betcha Got A Chick On The Side)," "Quiet Nights Of Quiet Stars" and more.




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