'Bird Lives' at Bay Street's Music Mondays, with Charles McPherson Quartet
It’s only fitting that jazz is on the agenda for this summer’s final Music Monday show at Sag Harbor’s Bay Street Theater. Having inspired artists in virtually every genre of popular music today, jazz remains classic yet ever-relevant. Headlined by acclaimed sax virtuoso Charles McPherson, the show is in honor and celebration of jazz legend Charlie Parker on the eve of his birthday.
McPherson’s career as an alto saxophonist has spanned six decades, having performed internationally, and recorded, with a host of jazz greats, from Wynton Marsalis to Dizzy Gillespie.
He also played sax in the film about Charlie Parker, Bird, directed by Clint Eastwood.
McPherson is also an accomplished composer, having been named Resident Composer at the San Diego Ballet. He is also a well-regarded music educator and has been a clinician in schools around the world, such as the Amsterdam Conservatory, UCLA, and the New School.
Of course, he continues to perform around the world and will bring his talents to Bay Street for the Hamptons Jazz Fest 2023.
Joined by Grammy Award-winning trumpeter Randy Brecker, the Charles McPherson Quartet consists of McPherson on sax, Tommy Campbell on drums, Randy Porter on piano, and Santi Debriano on bass. McPherson says it’ll be a reunion of sorts since he has not played with several of the other musicians in many years.
“It’ll be interesting,” says McPherson. “Everybody is very much the professional, so you know it’s just like doing Hamlet or something you know, you know the repertoire and pull it off,” he says, adding, “The little magic thing called symbiosis can occur even if people haven’t been playing with each other. Sparks can happen that way with people.”
Though the show is titled Bird Lives, in celebration of founding Bebop legend Charlie Parker, McPherson says they’ll also mix in a few American Songbook standards and some other things. Still, concertgoers should expect a heavy dose of Parker, and of course, a whole lot of jazz.
“It is part of the global music fabric of the planet Earth,” says McPherson of jazz. “I don’t think it’ll ever be digested by the majority or masses, but I think it will always be. No matter how esoteric or removed it is from the bigger society, there’ll always be some young kids who are going to hear a record and go, ‘What is that right there? I wanna know how to do that.’”
McPherson plays a role in teaching that lesson, too. He does the “zen part,” he says, to lead students to get lost in what he calls “the genius zone.”
“The genius zone, is super-relaxed, not trying to prove or do a damn thing, that brings about the best improvisation, it’s the act of non-doing, it brings about the best performance,” he says, calling it “deep” and “zen,” when a musician is lost in inspiration. “Getting lost means you’re not really caring about anything, including about what people think. They have nothing to do with it, it’s just you and pure consciousness. That’s easily said but it’s not that easily done. It’s so simple, it’s elusive.”
Rest assured, with five jazz masters on the stage Monday night, the “genius zone” surely won’t be elusive. McPherson says he wants audiences to feel “the full spectrum of the human condition,” promising a journey through emotions.
“I’m going to express joy, but then I want to express deep, darker things of the human spirit – like unrequited love,” he explains, “That’s where the artistry really is: how to portray sadness, deep feelings… heartbreak. The feeling of not being satisfied. That’s part of the menu.”
“By the end of the evening, I want them to leave feeling uplifted,” McPherson says, confidently. “If I play a ballad, I want to make them cry. And then if the next tune is dealing with joy or ecstasy, I want them jumping up feeling bright and elated.”
“When I’m feeling good, I can do all that. I don’t want to be one dimensional, as an artist, I want to cover all the bases,” he says, still humbly striving for greatness, 60 years into his career.
For a multidimensional jazz experience, catch the Charles McPherson Quartet featuring Randy Brecker at Bay Street Theater on Monday, August 28, at 8 p.m.
Tickets are available for purchase at the box office by phone 631-725-9500 or emailing [email protected], or online at baystreet.org, starting at $70