"Charles McPherson's Post-Bird Bop"

[ghost of miles]

In honor of Charles McPherson's 70th birthday today, here's this week's Night Lights program, devoted to his 1960s and early-1970s recordings (including one side with Mingus):

Charles McPherson's Post-Bird Bop

Next week: "Live at Cafe Bohemia."

Edited July 11, 2014 by ghost of miles

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

Next week: "Live at Cafe Bohemia."

Select Wallington, Dorham, Blakey, Mingus, Tristano tracks.....plus ??

[ghost of miles]

Next week: "Live at Cafe Bohemia."

Select Wallington, Dorham, Blakey, Mingus, Tristano tracks.....plus ??

No Tristano, but everybody else you mention, plus Miles/Trane and Randy Weston. If I'd had more room in the show and more time to put it together, I would've tried to run down airshots of Oscar Pettiford, since he was pretty much the house band there for awhile.

Edited July 24, 2009 by ghost of miles

[AllenLowe]

not to send you on too many sidetracks, but Jackie McClean told me he used to play a lot at the Bohemia with Dave Schildkraut - which is probably where Dave met Pettiford, as Dave is on one of his Bethlehem albums -

[ghost of miles]

not to send you on too many sidetracks, but Jackie McClean told me he used to play a lot at the Bohemia with Dave Schildkraut - which is probably where Dave met Pettiford, as Dave is on one of his Bethlehem albums -

McLean is in the show, on the Wallington recording.

[AllenLowe]

if that's the one with Art Taylor, note how radically the tempo changes after the drum solo - the guy had a lot of problems that way-

[clifford_thornton]

I'm like the only one here who digs A.T.

[ghost of miles]

We re-aired Charles McPherson’s Post-Bird Bop last week and it is archived for online listening.

Edited July 24, 2019 by ghost of miles

[ValerieB]

Happy Birthday wishes to one of my favorite horn players. i literally used to sit at his feet at the Five Spot in NY when he was playing with Mingus. that's when both of us were in our 20's!!!

[Pete C]

Happy Birthday wishes to one of my favorite horn players. i literally used to sit at his feet at the Five Spot in NY when he was playing with Mingus. that's when both of us were in our 20's!!!

He seems like the kind of guy who'd have clean shoes.

[ghost of miles]

Up for Mr. McPherson's birthday today:

http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/charles-mcphersons-postbird-bop/

[Larry Kart]

Years ago, maybe in the late 1970s, I heard McPherson at a Sunday afternoon jam session in San Diego, where I believe he was living at the time. What he played that day was not as Parker-like as usual and very beautiful. Perhaps he was stimulated by the presence of another San Diego-area altoist whose name I can't recall -- he had an Italian-American name, was about the same age as McPherson, had worked for years in Vegas show bands, and sounded like a descendent of Joe Maini with latter-day Trane-ish trimmings. Bought a privately produced album that guy had on sale, but if I still have it, I don't know where it is on the shelves because I don't recall his name. In any case, he and McPherson certainly stimulated each other to give of their best. Lots of fun for me, too. In town to interview Sammy Davis Jr., I didn't expect to find music this good in San Diego at all, let alone on a Sunday afternoon.

[ValerieB]

birthday blessings to my dear old friend, Charles McPherson. i'm aghast after all these years to discover/remember that you're younger than I am!!! you're the best!

[AllenLowe]

Larry - I've always respected McPherson but found his playing lacking edge - but going through Spotify recently I found some live shots in which he had an unusual intensity - though on other things it was back to his normal (if excellent) playing. Sometimes it seems he needs to get away from that circle of Detroit bebop schooling. And it's always to his benefit when he does.

[JSngry]

Never underestimate Charles McPherson, that's what I've learned.

[ghost of miles]

Up for re-broadcast this week on Night Lights and still archived for online listening:

http://indianapublicmedia.org/nightlights/charles-mcphersons-postbird-bop/

[johnblitweiler]

Years ago, maybe in the late 1970s, I heard McPherson at a Sunday afternoon jam session in San Diego, where I believe he was living at the time. What he played that day was not as Parker-like as usual and very beautiful. Perhaps he was stimulated by the presence of another San Diego-area altoist whose name I can't recall -- he had an Italian-American name, was about the same age as McPherson, had worked for years in Vegas show bands, and sounded like a descendent of Joe Maini with latter-day Trane-ish trimmings. Bought a privately produced album that guy had on sale, but if I still have it, I don't know where it is on the shelves because I don't recall his name. In any case, he and McPherson certainly stimulated each other to give of their best. Lots of fun for me, too. In town to interview Sammy Davis Jr., I didn't expect to find music this good in San Diego at all, let alone on a Sunday afternoon.

Anthony Ortega is surely the other San Diegan you heard. Yes, he and McPherson are both wonderful. Anthony is surely in his 80s now and I hope he's still playing.

[clifford_thornton]

Ortega is great!

[AllenLowe]

I talked to Ortega about a year ago; nice, nice man; said he still plays.

[Larry Kart]

Years ago, maybe in the late 1970s, I heard McPherson at a Sunday afternoon jam session in San Diego, where I believe he was living at the time. What he played that day was not as Parker-like as usual and very beautiful. Perhaps he was stimulated by the presence of another San Diego-area altoist whose name I can't recall -- he had an Italian-American name, was about the same age as McPherson, had worked for years in Vegas show bands, and sounded like a descendent of Joe Maini with latter-day Trane-ish trimmings. Bought a privately produced album that guy had on sale, but if I still have it, I don't know where it is on the shelves because I don't recall his name. In any case, he and McPherson certainly stimulated each other to give of their best. Lots of fun for me, too. In town to interview Sammy Davis Jr., I didn't expect to find music this good in San Diego at all, let alone on a Sunday afternoon.

Anthony Ortega is surely the other San Diegan you heard. Yes, he and McPherson are both wonderful. Anthony is surely in his 80s now and I hope he's still playing.

No -- it wasn't Ortega. I would have know who he was from previous encounters with his recorded work, dating back to the mid-1950s. The guy's first name, I'm pretty sure, began with "J" (probably "Joe"), and I'd never heard of him before, again because he'd been working in Vegas show bands for a good while. I bought a privately produced album of his that he was selling but sadly my copy was ruined several years later in a basement flood.

Vegas show bands as a finanically stable refuge for good players is is a potentially interesting topic. One guy of many who ended up there was composer-tenor saxophonist Jack Montrose, originally from Detroit and a West Coast mainstay in the mid-1950s (he wrote the charts for Clifford Brown's Pacific Jazz album and led a band with the late baritone saxophonist Bob Gordon). Another was trumpeter and talented arranger Herbie Phillips,

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Herbie_Phillips

now deceased, whose work appears on a Carl Saunders big band CD:

http://www.allmusic.com/album/be-bop-big-band-mw0000229638

I believe Carl Fontana spend a fair amount of time in Vegas, but of course he'd made a name for himself before that and then emerged to make some notable later recordings. I wonder, though, about the Vegas-based guys, like that San Diego altoist, who were known only to a few as the talented, distinctive players they were and who left little or no recorded evidence behind.

[Simon8]

I'm like the only one here who digs A.T.

You're not alone ! I, too, very much dig A.T. and can't hear what supposedly wrong with him. I guess my (sincere) question would be: if A.T. was such an unreliable drummer (tempo-wise), why was he such in demand? Why did he play again and again with anybody that's anybody ? Did Coltrane and Miles and Red and Dexter and Jackie McLean (amongst others), have bad judgement when they hired him?

[Michael Weiss]

I have a tape of us playing Countdown from 1991 that is mind boggling in its virtuosity - physical and mental. He plays a long solo that's so free and liberated in his phrasing all the while not missing one chord change. Imagine Bird playing on Countdown like he did on Move on the Birdland 1950.

[AllenLowe]

I assume you mean McPherson, not A.T.

I agree - at McPherson's best I have heard a wonderful, free and boppish approach that hits great intensity. The first I heard him was on the Xanadu LPs, which put me off a little and which I now realize were not his best work. There is some great stuff from live Mingus sessions that really show what he can do.

Interestingly, Don Schiliten complained to me once how badly the McPhereson Xanadus sold, but I really think it may have had to do with how held-back he sounds on those.

as for A.T. - I think he had moments of greatness. But radically adjusting the tempo - as I have heard him do on at least 2 recorded pieces, one with Wallington, another with Trane - is really a near-fatal flaw for me when it comes to drummers.

Edited July 13, 2014 by AllenLowe

[marcello]

Years ago, maybe in the late 1970s, I heard McPherson at a Sunday afternoon jam session in San Diego, where I believe he was living at the time. What he played that day was not as Parker-like as usual and very beautiful. Perhaps he was stimulated by the presence of another San Diego-area altoist whose name I can't recall -- he had an Italian-American name, was about the same age as McPherson, had worked for years in Vegas show bands, and sounded like a descendent of Joe Maini with latter-day Trane-ish trimmings. Bought a privately produced album that guy had on sale, but if I still have it, I don't know where it is on the shelves because I don't recall his name. In any case, he and McPherson certainly stimulated each other to give of their best. Lots of fun for me, too. In town to interview Sammy Davis Jr., I didn't expect to find music this good in San Diego at all, let alone on a Sunday afternoon.

Joe Romano sure got around and was in and out of Vegas around that time, and certainly So. California also. I'm not sure about San Diego, though.

[Larry Kart]

Years ago, maybe in the late 1970s, I heard McPherson at a Sunday afternoon jam session in San Diego, where I believe he was living at the time. What he played that day was not as Parker-like as usual and very beautiful. Perhaps he was stimulated by the presence of another San Diego-area altoist whose name I can't recall -- he had an Italian-American name, was about the same age as McPherson, had worked for years in Vegas show bands, and sounded like a descendent of Joe Maini with latter-day Trane-ish trimmings. Bought a privately produced album that guy had on sale, but if I still have it, I don't know where it is on the shelves because I don't recall his name. In any case, he and McPherson certainly stimulated each other to give of their best. Lots of fun for me, too. In town to interview Sammy Davis Jr., I didn't expect to find music this good in San Diego at all, let alone on a Sunday afternoon.

Joe Romano sure got around and was in and out of Vegas around that time, and certainly So. California also. I'm not sure about San Diego, though.

No, not Romano. I would have known who he was.