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Jazz Articles about Charles McPherson
Charles Mingus: The Lost Album from Ronnie Scott's
by Mark Corroto
Professionally recorded for Columbia Records, but never released, this live concert from London's Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club is seeing the light of day some fifty years later, as well as marking the centennial celebration of Charles Mingus' birth. The music was never released, not because it was unworthy (it is indeed worthy), but because Mingus along with Duke Ellington, Thelonious Monk, Keith Jarrett and Ornette Coleman were let go by the label's chief, Clive Davis. Only Miles Davis survived the ...
Continue ReadingCharles Mingus: Mingus At Carnegie Hall (Deluxe Edition)
by Chris May
This 2-CD set takes the 1974 album Mingus At Carnegie Hall (Atlantic) and adds seventy minutes of previously unissued material recorded at the same concert. It is as worthwhile an addition to Charles Mingus' recorded legacy as 2020's previously unissued 2-CD set Charles Mingus @ Bremen 1964 & 1975 (Sunnyside). Why it has taken so long for either set to be released is anybody's guess. But at least we have them now. Mingus led many great bands ...
Continue ReadingCharles McPherson: Jazz Dance Suites
by Jerome Wilson
Alto saxophonist Charles McPherson has a reputation as one of the last true followers of the bebop tradition but this release shows that his talents stretch beyond that. The music consists of scores he wrote for the San Diego Ballet where his daughter Camille is a solo dancer. It encompasses two full suites and an excerpt from another. “Song Of Songs" is a set of compositions based on impressions about love drawn from the Song Of Solomon. The ...
Continue ReadingCharles McPherson: The Art Of Teaching
by Jim Trageser
Charles McPherson will always be known for his alto sax playing. A favorite of Hollywood director Clint Eastwood, McPherson first gained a national reputation playing in Charles Mingus' combo in the late 1950s. By 1964 he was recording as a leader (although he'd continue to perform with Mingus for another half-decade), and later re-created Charlie Parker's playing for the 1988 Eastwood film Bird. Still busy into his ninth decade, the 81-year-old McPherson has recently added another role to ...
Continue ReadingBebop in 60s - Howard McGhee, Charles McPherson, Barry Harris, Sonny Stitt (1961 - 1971)
by Russell Perry
Bebop was a revolutionary new music in the late 1930s, dominated jazz in the 1940s, and powerfully influenced all jazz that followed. By the 1960s it still had its adherents who were producing compelling music thirty years later. In this hour of Jazz at 100, we will hear bebop from trumpeter Howard McGhee, saxophonists Charles McPherson and Sonny Stitt, and pianist Barry Harris. Playlist Host Intro 0:00 Howard McGhee Quartet “Demon Chase" from Maggie's Back in Town (Contemporary) ...
Continue ReadingCharles McPherson Quartet Live at BIMHUIS Amsterdam
by BIMHUIS
No one else alive today has mastered the musical language of Charlie Parker like Charles McPherson. The alto saxophonist, who played with, among others, Charles Mingus from 1960 to 1972, keeps bebop alive with his own music. Critics praise his powerful, confident playing on his most recent album The Journey. Personnel -Charles McPherson: alto saxophone; Alberto Palau: piano; Joris Teepe: bass; Stephen Keogh: drums. Playlist BIMHUIS Radio Intro -00:00 Live Concert @ BIMHUIS First Set: ...
Continue ReadingCharles McPherson: The Man and His Muse
by Joan Gannij
Acclaimed alto saxophone wizard Charles McPherson has a new muse: his 25-year-old daughter Camille, a premier dancer with the San Diego Ballet, where he also serves as composer-in-residence these days. McPherson was a young father in his twenties, with three children from a first marriage. Thirty years up the road, after marrying the lovely Lynn, a classical piano teacher in San Diego, he became the father of a daughter once again. “Thirty years, that's a big difference," he says, with ...
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