Charles McPherson

Event Has Passed

Last Show: Saturday 18 th February 2017

PizzaExpress Jazz Club (Soho)

Charles McPherson is an authentic jazz legend and one of the greatest alto saxophonists in the history of the music. He returns to London to play two nights of stellar music full of passion, fire, tenderness, sophistication and the blues. 


Read more ...

"He is a singular voice who has never sacrificed the fluidity of his melody making, and is held in high esteem by musicians both long seasoned and young."

Charles Stanley Crouch, New York Times

McPherson grew up in Detroit, where he met renowned pianist Barry Harris and started playing jazz professionally at age 19. He moved to New York in 1959 and performed with Charles Mingus from 1960 to 1972. He has toured the US, Europe, Japan, Africa and South America with his own group, as well as with jazz greats Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton, Nat Adderly, Jay McShann and others. McPherson has a long list of recordings as a guest artist with Charlie Mingus, Barry Harris, Art Farmer, Kenny Drew, Toshiko Akiyoshi, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, and the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra with Wynton Marsalis. He has recorded as leader on Prestige, Fantasy, Mainstream, Discovery, Xanadu, and most recently Arabesque and Quadrant.

 

Charles was also the featured alto saxophonist in the Clint Eastwood film "Bird," a biography about Charlie Parker.

Band Lineup

Charles McPherson (alto saxophone)

Albert Palau (piano)

Daryll Hall (bass)

Stephen Keogh (drums)