Thanks to my colleague Ron Scott, this paper’s jazz and music columnist, I was taken on a trip down memory lane recently. Ron informed me that my homeboy alto saxophonist Charles McPherson was performing at Smoke, and invited me to join him.
It was an invitation that came as a surprise because I had no idea Charles was in town, and hadn’t seen him in seven years. I was seated at the table when Charles came over to greet us.
At 88, I am a year older than Charles, but when he picked up his horn, that youthful zest I first heard when we were in high school together in Detroit was just as strong and bebopish as ever.
Accompanied by pianist Jeb Patton, trumpeter Terell Stafford, bassist David Wong, and drummer Billy Drummond, Charles wasted no time on diving into Oscar Levant’s “Blame It on My Youth.” His sax set a lovely melodic pace that was quickly burnished by Stafford’s entry as they traded lyrical lines, taking me back to those days of yore when his silky Bird-like phrasing, as in Charlie Parker, made him a teenage wonder.
As we sat in the club during this last set on Saturday night, I was transported back to Northwestern High School, glad that the morning sing back then, getting us warmed up for study, was being replaced by Charles and the jazz quintet. That feeling was intensified when he and Stafford practically mimicked a Bird and Dizzy duo, with Charles taking the song’s coda back to Kansas City.
The final tune, “Reflections on an Election,” was possibly a nod to the recent blue wave, and a perfect opportunity for a bluesy commentary by the ensemble. On Charles’s solo, there was a relaxed, introspective tone as if he were delivering a sweet soliloquy, and then a cheerful burst from his horn that brought the rest of his cohort back to the finality.
After the performance, I chatted with him briefly while others waited to congratulate him. I reminded him that he had lost none of the fervor, none of the beauty of articulation.
“Well, I am doing my best, and thanks for coming out for me,” he said.
For those who were unable to attend the engagement, Charles and the same crew have a new release, “Reverence,” on the Smoke label. It will soon be added to my collection of jazz memorabilia, much of it abundantly supplied by McPherson’s magic.
