Here we are! Friday March 14, 2008, at 21.15, Theatre of the Sea of Riccione. The event can not be missed, it is better you postpone any other appointment. Within Bravo Jazz festival, Charles McPherson Quartet is about to give birth to one of the most longed for concerts of the season of Riccione: “Bird, in a spirit of Charlie Parker”.
Charles McPherson is one of the great of jazz.
Vibrating alto sax, at the same time faithful and original follower of Charlie Parker, he is considered to be his heir.
He is defined by the New York Times “a singular voice that has never sacrificed the fluidity of its melody and is held in high consideration by the young musicians”.
Behind a long forty years career, he has a curriculum that gives the shudders, just like the poetry of his music.
He was born in Joplin, Missouri, but he grew up in Detroit where he took his first steps into music as a young student of the renowned pianist Barry Harris. After a brilliant debut, at 19 years old, he moved to New York in 1960 and met Charles Mingus: it began a mythical artistic companionship, which lasted, exciting, until 1972.
At the same period he gave life to his historic formation, composed by Barry Harris at the piano, Lonnie Hillyer on trumpet, and George Coleman to tenor sax. With them, but also alone engaged by the major jazz musicians of the time, he made long tours in the United States, Europe, Japan, South America and Africa. Collaborations for recordings are also important: we only mention those with the Carnegie Hall Jazz Orchestra, the Lincoln Center Jazz Orchestra, and his most recent and beloved “Manhattan Nocturne”. For Clint Eastwood he gave voice to the alto sax of Charlie Parker in the film “Bird”.
After the success achieved in the past few days in Parma, the Charles McPherson Quartet is ready to climb on the stage of Riccione.
The talented young formation is composed by the legendary alto sax, his son Chuk on drums, Michael Weiss to the piano, Rubin Rogers at the double bass. Here they are, with their tribute to Bird Charlie Parker, ready to vibrate, with infinite passion and skill, their instruments and the hearts of all those present in the hall.