Savannah Music Festival LIVE 734 – Charles McPherson, Part Two



When one thinks of bebop, the first musician that comes to mind is usually Charlie Parker, the pioneering alto-saxophone player and composer. In this episode, we listen to an early disciple of Parker’s, alto sax player Charles McPherson, who was born in 1939 and raised in Detroit. Mr. McPherson grew up surrounded by a wealth of great jazz musicians in the motor city jazz scene, and first came to fame himself working with Charles Mingus in the 1960s and early 70s. It was his original sound and adherence to the stylistic innovations of Charlie Parker that made McPherson the obvious choice as the saxophonist for Clint Eastwood’s 1988 film “Bird,” about the life and times of Charlie Parker. This is the second part in a two-part series of performances given by Charles McPherson at the 2013 Savannah Music Festival.