Charles McPherson (center) stopped by KSDS studios on Mon., Oct. 21, 2024 to chat with Ron Dhanifu (left) and Matt Silver (right) on the “Afternoon Drive.”
THIS SUNDAY EVENING, KSDS is presenting a jazz concert. We do this regularly; we’re pretty good at it. And, yes, they’re all special. We love all our children the same (yeah, yeah, yeah). BUT THIS…this concert really is one that we’re going to cherish a little bit more, and a little bit longer, than the rest. Because these musicians playing this music together is the embodiment of our mission here at KSDS; it represents the quintessential expression of modern jazz’s lineage, as presented by a multi-generational group of ardent flame-keepers.
Leading the band are alto saxophonist Charles McPherson and trumpeter Jon Faddis. If you were to make a list of the greatest musicians of the 20th century AND a list of the greatest musicians of the 21st century, Faddis and McPherson would be on BOTH — and high up there. Faddis is Gillespie’s most celebrated living protégé. No one has come closer to replicating both the essence AND the mechanics of Dizzy’s technique, from his blindingly fast improvisational lines to his uncanny ability to push the trumpet’s sonic range to its very limits.
Maestro Charles McPherson is San Diego’s resident Jazz Master, but his renown stretches well across jazz’s native country and has circumnavigated the globe many times over. His musicality was forged in Detroit, where Barry Harris was his mentor and trumpeter and fellow-Mingus alum Lonnie Hillyer was his contemporary. Around the corner from his boyhood home on Detroit’s West Side was the Blue Bird Inn, one of those landmark urban incubators of bop, where the houseband comprised Harris on piano, Pepper Adams on bari sax, Paul Chambers on bass, and Elvin Jones on drums. This was not Birdland or the Village Vanguard, but a neighborhood spot in 1950s Detroit that just so happened to feature nightly a group of the greatest musicians to ever pick up their respective axes.
McPherson stopped by KSDS studios this week to chat with Ron Dhanifu and Matt Silver about a wide range of things. LISTEN HERE!
Charles (left) touched on a variety of topics, from upcoming projects with Brian Lynch and Samara Joy, to growing up surrounded by jazz greatness in Detroit, to the depth of Dizzy Gillespie's intellectual curiosity and his surprising choice of reading material on the road, to his initial impressions of a young Jon Faddis on Charles Mingus's bandstand.
The Maestro touched on his childhood in that hyper-musical Detroit neighborhood and the influence of those early apprenticeships with the legendary musicians referenced above; he spoke about touring abroad on the same bill as Dizzy Gillespie and confirmed that Diz, while a prolific jokester, was also a man of intense intellectual curiosity, a voracious reader deeply interested in history and politics, whose choice of reading material on the road might surprise you; he recalled his initial impressions of a 19-year-old Jon Faddis in the early 1970s, when both played with, and most importantly for, Charles Mingus, the legendarily brilliant and notoriously irascible bassist, composer, and bandleader. (Side note: You might be surprised at the young Faddis’s early method of bonding with, or maybe just irritating, his new bandmates. If you guessed magic tricks, you’d be wrong, but not that far off). Finally, he delighted us by reporting that his passion for playing is greater than ever, especially with exciting new partnerships with trumpeter Brian Lynch and young vocal sensation Samara Joy in the offing.
McPherson (right) explained the subtle distinctions between Bird and Diz’s individual strengths as musicians and talked about what he means when comparing a good note to the best note.
Of McPherson, Wynton Marsalis once said this: “Charles is the very definition of excellence in our music. He’s the definitive master of his instrument.”
To hear McPherson recount his experiences playing jazz over a lifetime isn’t just engrossing, edifying radio; it informs and, thus, enhances the way you approach the music as a listener.
So LISTEN HERE to Maestro Charles McPherson on the air this week with Ron Dhanifu and Matt Silver on KSDS’s “Afternoon Drive.” Because just listening to Charles speak so evocatively about the music is an intoxicant that you’ll want to carry with you into Sunday night’s concert at the Handlery. Heck, I plan to listen to it again 30 minutes before Sunday night’s show just to get myself in the right frame of mind.
And if you haven’t yet secured your seats, allow me to paraphrase Burgess Meredith’s immortal exhortation from Rocky: What are you waiting for?!
For tickets: jazz88.org/tickets | 619-388-3000.
And if that’s not enough motivation to join us this Sunday evening, October 27, consider this: Faddis and McPherson are the Diz and Bird of the time we presently occupy. Clint Eastwood certainly thought so. When old recordings of Bird and Diz proved to be of insufficient audio quality for use in the 1988 Charlie Parker biopic, Bird, Eastwood brought in the two musicians who could most closely replicate the parts played by Bird and Diz on their classic recordings: McPherson and Faddis. Eastwood’s Bird isn’t flawless, but this choice was.
So join us — join Faddis and McPherson, the Diz and Bird of our lifetimes — in celebrating the 60th anniversary of Dizzy Gillespie’s kinda-sorta, half-serious, tongue-in-very–puffed-out-cheek run for the 1964 presidency.
Eager to learn more about the flash, the splash, and the genuine substance undergirding Gillespie’s campaign? I strongly recommend listening to Ken Poston’s gloriously in-depth on-air retrospective. As always, it’s meticulously researched, providing listeners with unmatched insight into Gillespie’s motivations for running, what he truly hoped to accomplish, and, of course, the far from insignificant role the music itself played in all of this.
Motivating yourself to leave the house on a Sunday night takes effort, but, in this case, it will be worth it. It’s like getting up off your ass to hit that exercise class; it’s never something you regret. You only regret not going.
Live artistic performances like this simply don’t come around often enough. So don’t miss this, folks. As Bird said, er, played: “Now’s the Time.” There may not be a next time.
Looking forward to seeing you all this Sunday evening on the Convention Floor, otherwise known as the courtyard at the Handlery.
Be Bop, and Vote Dizzy! For tickets: jazz88.org/tickets | 619-388-3000
-Matt Silver and the KSDS Membership Team
