Charles McPherson was born in Joplin, Missouri, in 1939 and moved to Detroit at the age of nine. While growing up in Detroit, he studied with the renowned pianist Barry Harris. McPherson began playing professionally at nineteen and, compelled by a desire to be in the heart of the jazz scene, moved to New York City in 1959. He soon joined bassist Charles Mingus’s band in 1960 and stayed with the group until 1972. During his twelve years working with Mingus, McPherson collaborated frequently with Barry Harris, Lonnie Hillyer, George Coleman and others.
McPherson has performed at concerts and festivals around the world with an array of musical groups, consisting of quartets, quintets and full orchestras. He has toured the U.S., Europe, Japan, Africa, South America and Canada with his own group, as well as with jazz greats Barry Harris, Billy Eckstine, Lionel Hampton, Nat Adderly, Jay McShann, Phil Woods, Wynton Marsalis, Tom Harrell, Randy Brecker, James Moody, Dizzy Gillespie and others. Sixteen years ago, McPherson was featured at Lincoln Center in a showcase of his original compositions, and he once again joined Wynton Marsalis and the Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra in April, 2019, in a celebration of McPherson’s eightieth birthday. The evening’s performance included new arrangements of seven of Charles’s iconic original compositions.
McPherson has recorded as a guest artist with Charlie Mingus, Barry Harris, Art Farmer, Kenny Drew, Toshiko Akiyoshi, the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, and Wynton Marsalis’s Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra. He is currently signed with Smoke Sessions and has recorded as a leader on record labels including Prestige, Fantasy, Mainstream, Discovery, Xanadu, Arabesque, Capri and several smaller labels in Europe and Japan. Additionally, McPherson was the featured alto saxophonist in the Clint Eastwood film Bird, a biopic about Charlie Parker. McPherson’s latest project–a recording that serves as a tribute to his influence on jazz music–is a collaboration with GRAMMY winners Samara Joy and Brian Lynch.
McPherson has received numerous awards, including the prestigious Don Redman Lifetime Achievement Award and the Detroit Jazz Festival Robert E. McCabe Guardian of Jazz Award. He holds an Honorary Doctor of Fine Arts from California State University San Marcos.
Widely recognized as a prolific composer, McPherson was Resident Composer for the San Diego Ballet, composing for the company three original suites plus two chamber music arrangements. His 2020 Jazz Dance Suites is a compilation of two multiple-movement suites, Sweet Synergy Suite and Song of Songs, plus a movement from the string chamber work Reflection, Turmoil & Hope. DownBeat Magazine recognized Jazz Dance Suites as one of the best jazz recordings of the year. The album also won first place in DownBeat Magazine’s reader’s poll and fourth place in the JazzTimes reader’s poll, the latter of which recognized
McPherson as Artist of the Year.
Just like the praise Mingus, Harris and others gave McPherson early on in his writing career, McPherson’s compositions have not gone unnoticed by his peers today. Bobby Watson calls Jazz Dance Suites “a masterpiece.” John Beasley and Don Sickler each remark that McPherson is “a great writer.” The opportunity to write for ballet expanded McPherson’s style. In the summer of 2019, Dr. Donnie Norton began compiling an entire book of McPherson’s compositions for publication. McPherson’s most recent live quintet recording, Reverence (a tribute to the late Barry Harris), is another highly regarded jazz album. NEA Jazz Master Todd Barkan remarks that The Charles McPherson Quintet (including trumpetist Terell Stafford, pianist Jeb Patton, bassist David Wong and percussionist Billy Drummond) is “one of the best working bands on the scene today.”
Even the COVID-19 pandemic didn’t slow McPherson down. During quarantine, McPherson was prolifically active online, participating in programs, concerts and festivals all over the world, including the esteemed Global Music Foundation, Detroit Symphony Programs, John Beasley’s GRAMMY winning recording from Germany (in which McPherson was a featured soloist) and many additional jazz festivals. He was also an online Artists in Residence at Michigan State University and Arizona State University.
McPherson remains a strong, viable force on the jazz scene today. For more than sixty-five years, McPherson’s artistic ingenuity has been integral to the jazz landscape. He has not merely remained true to his bebop origins but has expanded on them. NEA Jazz Master Stanley Crouch writes in The New York Times, “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.” Wynton Marsalis, a longtime admirer says, “Charles is the very definition of excellence in our music. He’s the definitive master on this instrument. He plays with exceptional harmonic accuracy and sophistication. He performs free-flowing, melodic and thematically developed solos with unbelievable fire and an unparalleled depth of soul.” Jazz at Lincoln Center Orchestra saxophonist Sherman Irby writes, “The bebop master is a true alto saxophonist. He plays the instrument with fire, passion and precision. He can pull your heartstrings with one note, and dazzle you with virtuosity and imagination. There is only one Bird, one Stitt, one Cannonball—and one Charles McPherson.”
McPherson is a frequent guest at universities all over the world and teaches privately both virtually and in person. Many of his former students have gone on to have careers of their own, some even landing positions as the heads of jazz departments of major college programs. McPherson’s students have been accepted into schools including The Juilliard School, the University of Michigan, University of Colorado Boulder and Purchase College, and many have earned National Jazz Student Awards and full-ride scholarships. McPherson had the honor of being the subject of then PhD candidate Dr. Donnie Norton’s doctoral dissertation, “The Jazz Saxophone Style of Charles McPherson: An Analysis through Biographical Examination and Solo Transcription.” McPherson is currently being extensively interviewed by Dr. Michael Caldwell for a memoir about McPherson’s life and philosophies.