Music
Charles McPherson
born 1939 · jazz alto saxophonist, composer
Detroit-raised alto saxophonist, a student of Barry Harris, who spent much of 1960–1974 with Charles Mingus and played Charlie Parker's music for Clint Eastwood's film Bird.
- Born
Joplin, Missouri
age 87- Detroit years
- 1940s–1959
- Field
- Music
01 / The Detroit story
The Detroit story
Born in Joplin, Missouri, McPherson grew up in Detroit, where he and his friend, trumpeter Lonnie Hillyer, came under the wing of pianist Barry Harris, whose home lessons turned a generation of teenagers into fluent beboppers. Steeped in Charlie Parker, McPherson moved to New York around 1959 and in 1960 joined Charles Mingus, with whom he worked on and off until 1974, recording Mingus at Monterey, Let My Children Hear Music and the Town Hall concerts. In 1966 he and Hillyer formed a quintet together, and from 1965 he recorded a string of albums for Prestige, beginning with Bebop Revisited!, often with Harris on piano. When Clint Eastwood made his Parker film Bird in 1988, McPherson was commissioned to help recreate Parker's ensemble sound for the soundtrack. Now based in San Diego, he has continued to perform and record into his eighties: in 2020 JazzTimes readers named him Artist of the Year for Jazz Dance Suites.
Highlights
- Studied with Barry Harris in Detroit alongside Lonnie Hillyer
- With Charles Mingus intermittently from 1960 to 1974
- Prestige albums from 1965, beginning with Bebop Revisited!
- Played on the soundtrack of Clint Eastwood's Bird (1988)
- JazzTimes readers' Artist of the Year (2020)