Charles McPherson ”Bebop Revisited!”

Charles McPherson

”Bebop Revisited!”
( LP Prestige Records, 1964 )
Catalog # PR 7359

Tracklisting:
Hot House
Nostalgia
Wail
Si Si
Variations On A Blues By Bud
Embraceable You

Personnel & Notes:
Carmell Jones (tp)
Charles McPherson (as)
Barry Harris (p)
Nelson Boyd (b)
Albert “Tootie” Heath (d)
Recorded in NYC, November 20, 1964
Also issued on Fantasy OJCCD 710-2

Review:
Bebop is the thing on this excellent outing as altoist Charles McPherson and pianist Barry Harris do their interpretations of Charlie Parker and Bud Powell. With trumpeter Carmell Jones, bassist Nelson Boyd and drummer Al “Tootie” Heath completing the quintet, the band romps through such bop classics as “Hot House,” “Nostalgia,” “Wail” and “Si Si” along with an original blues and “Embraceable You.” A previously unissued “If I Love You” is added to the reissue. McPherson and Jones make for a potent frontline on these spirited performances, easily recommended to fans of straightahead jazz.
By Scott Yanow (AMG)

Biography:
A Charlie Parker disciple who brings his own lyricism to the bebop language, Charles McPherson has been a reliable figure in modern mainstream jazz for more than 35 years. He played in the Detroit jazz scene of the mid-’50s, moved to New York in 1959, and within a year was working with Charles Mingus. McPherson and his friend Lonnie Hillyer succeeded Eric Dolphy and Ted Curson as regular members of Mingus’ band in 1961 and he worked with the bassist off and on up until 1972. Although he and Hillyer had a short-lived quintet in 1966, McPherson was not a full-time leader until 1972. In 1978, he moved to San Diego, which has been his home ever since and sometimes he uses his son, Chuck McPherson, on drums. Charles McPherson, who helped out on the film Bird by playing some of the parts not taken from Charlie Parker records, has led dates through the years for Prestige (1964-1969), Mainstream, Xanadu, Discovery, and Arabesque.
By Scott Yanow (AMG)

By Pier