Charles McPherson
alto saxophone
Charles McPherson, an alto saxophonist who grew up in Detroit, began studying with Barry at about 15 and became one of his best-known students; the two later worked and recorded together in New York.
- mentions
- 17
- recordings
- 8
- Barry speaking
- 4
What Barry says
Barry says McPherson was about 15 when he started with him. Barry insisted he get all A’s and would not let him go to jam sessions until his homework was done; McPherson might be angry, but did exactly what Barry said, and graduated with all A’s.
When John Coltrane came to Barry’s house to hear what he was teaching, Barry let him hear two young players, Charles McPherson and Lonnie Hillyer, who both could play.
The last train to Monk: an interview8:58
Barry names McPherson first among the young Detroit players he ‘made play good’, with Lonnie Hillyer, Harry Whitaker and Donald Walden, and among the young ones who got to play alongside older musicians.
In the oral history Barry lists Charles and Lonnie Hillyer among the young players who came through him, then struggles to recall the pianist who grew up with them, Harry Whitaker, who he says is part of him too.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶129Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶141Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶233
A Detroit concert was planned around McPherson’s Billie Holiday album, with ten members of the Detroit Symphony, but Ernie Wilkins, who had written the music, was in Europe with it. Barry wrote ten string arrangements in a few days, his first, and a string player told him she had never played anything more beautiful.
Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes2:48Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶313Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶314
Barry’s long partnership with the drummer Leroy Williams began when McPherson told him he had to hear this drummer, because he thought Barry would like him.
In New York Barry worked with Charles and Lonnie at the new Five Spot on St. Marks Place.
In a Detroit TV programme, a speaker who is almost certainly Barry (his account of the music society, its 5,000 members and Kenny Burrell as first president, matches his WKCR telling) says its weekly concerts gave young players such as McPherson and Lonnie Hillyer the chance to play every week.
Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future37:2938:02Barry Harris on WKCR-FM ¶67
In his own words
Charles McPherson, he was about, he might have been fifteen when he started with me.
when he graduated from high school, he graduated with all A’s because I insisted that, “you’re gonna get all A’s.”
I’d let him hear two little young cats Charles McPherson and Lonnie [Hillyer] ... and they both could play
I had some young cats and I made them play good. Charles McPherson, Lonnie [Hillyer] ... Harry Whitaker, Donald Walden
Well, Charles McPherson said to me, “Barry, you’ve got to hear this drummer; I think you’ll like him.”
Every mention
17 moments in the recordings, 4 of them Barry speaking. Each says who is talking.
The last train to Monk: an interview
- 8:58
Barry let visiting Coltrane hear his young students Charles McPherson and Lonnie Hillyer.
Interview: Detroit and after
Jazz theory, part 4: borrowing diminished notes
- 2:48
A Detroit concert of McPherson’s Billie Holiday music led Barry to write his first string arrangements.
Detroit Jazz: Ancient to the Future
- 38:02
Speaker unclear
Probably Barry: young players like McPherson got to play weekly at the music society’s concerts.
Ep. 20 | Charles McPherson: Meeting Charlie Parker, Studying with Barry Harris, and the Art of Bebop
- 7:54
A student
McPherson met Barry around when he met Bird; Barry lived two minutes away.
- 9:36
A student
McPherson and Lonnie Hillyer went to Barry’s house in the afternoons, when Barry practised all day.
- 10:09
A student
Barry heard McPherson and Lonnie sit in at the Bluebird and offered to show them things.
- 10:44
A student
At Barry’s house McPherson learned about chords and how harmonic movement works.
- 0:00
Interviewer
A podcast host’s introduction: McPherson grew up in Detroit’s scene alongside Barry, Lonnie Hillyer and others.
Barry Harris, Red Rodney, Charles McPherson, Ray Drummond, Ben Riley - 1992-08-29, Riverside Park
- 22:28
Someone else
A radio announcer: Barry first saw McPherson walking in Detroit with Lonnie; they later recorded Embraceable You together.
- 23:02
Someone else
The announcer says McPherson and Lonnie became Barry’s most dedicated students.
- 0:32
- 0:00
Someone else
The announcer introduces McPherson on alto at a 1992 concert for Bird’s birthday.
- 13:56
Someone else
The bandleader, probably Red Rodney, introduces McPherson’s feature on Embraceable You.
12-15-18 “Mr. Barry Harris aka The Man Who Walks on Notes” - Star Eyes
- 3:45
Someone else
A concert introduction names McPherson among Detroiters Barry worked with in the 1960s and 70s.
JAZZ NOTES 026 | Jazz Biography | Jazz From Detroit Pt 2 | Jazz Radio
- 21:22
Someone else
A radio host plays McPherson in a Detroit jazz series; Barry is not mentioned here.
In the interviews and notes
Barry says McPherson was about 15 when he started with him; Barry made him do his homework before any jam session and insisted on all A’s, which McPherson got.
When Ernie Wilkins was abroad with the music for a Detroit concert of McPherson’s Billie Holiday album, Barry wrote ten string arrangements himself, finishing the last on the plane, and found he could write for strings.
Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶313Barry Harris, Smithsonian Jazz Oral History Program ¶314
Asked what made Leroy Williams so well suited to him from the start, Barry says it began when McPherson told him he had to hear this drummer.
McPherson met Barry at about 15, listening outside the Bluebird, where Barry was house pianist. After hearing him and a friend sit in, Barry told them they needed to learn their scales, theory and harmony, and they started coming to his house.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶188Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶190
McPherson describes Barry’s teaching as a method for looking at chord changes, thinking about them and using them, which he likens to the Suzuki method; it was about improvisation and dominant sevenths rather than bebop as such.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶194Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶196
Barry was fatherly, McPherson says, though only about 25, more like a big brother. His house was a hub: he practised all day before his night gig, McPherson was there almost daily, and travelling musicians such as Coltrane knew to come by.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶200
Besides harmony, theory and scales, McPherson says Barry gave him taste and musical discretion: be musically honest, join emotion to analysis, and treat technique as a means to an end, never as display.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶224
Seeing McPherson’s average report card, Barry told him his heroes, Charlie Parker above all, were anything but average. McPherson turned into an honours student and a reader of books, and took from it that knowing more gives you more to play about.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶225Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶228Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶231Mark Stryker (Detroit Free Press), Professor of Bebop at 70: Native Detroiter Barry Harris Shares the Secrets of the Jazz Tradition with Students in New York ¶26
After McPherson joined Mingus in 1960 the two did little together, until in the mid to late 1960s they worked together again with George Coleman, Lonnie Hillyer and Peck Morrison, at Minton’s, Boomer’s and Brooklyn’s Blue Coronet.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶214Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶216
Flanagan says Barry always leaned toward teaching, and that of his young prospects McPherson and Lonnie Hillyer were the two most outstanding.
Ted Panken (interviewer); Tommy Flanagan, Tommy Flanagan ¶22
Recordings that name them
Barry’s performances and records in the archive that credit or name them.
- Barry Harris Quintet Live at Jazzclub Ostertor, Bremen, Germany - 1976 (audio only)2026, 39 min YouTube
- Barry Harris - “I Didn’t Know What Time It Was”2025, 4 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Quintet with Charles McPherson - Epistrophy2023, 14 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Quintet with Charles McPherson - I Didn’t Know What Time It Was2023, 13 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Quintet with Charles McPherson - Oscar For Treadwell2023, 12 min YouTube
- The Barry Harris Trio - Complete Live in Tokyo + Bonus Tracks (1976)Tokyo, 1976, 1.8 h YouTube
- Barry Harris, Red Rodney, Charles McPherson, Ray Drummond, Ben Riley - 1992-08-29, Riverside ParkNew York City, 1992, 35 min YouTube
- 04/06/1968 - Pepper Adams & Barry Harris2022, 33 min YouTube
- 12-15-18 “Mr. Barry Harris aka The Man Who Walks on Notes” - Star Eyes2018, 15 min YouTube
- Barry Harris, Kenny Barron, Charles McPherson, Red Rodney Live in NYC 1992 [BOOTLEG]2017, 44 min YouTube
- “Bird Feathers” - Charles McPherson2016, 5 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Quintet - Nighingale2016, 5 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Quintet - Mucho Dinero2016, 4 min YouTube
- Barry Harris Quintet - Easy to Love2014, 5 min YouTube
- Charles McPherson - For Heaven’s Sake2012, 5 min YouTube
- Barry Harris - “Newer Than New” - I Didn’t Know What Time It Was (Hart, Rodgers).wmv2012, 4 min YouTube
- Barengo - The Barry Harris Sextet2012, 7 min YouTube
- Charles McPherson - Tokyo Blue2011, 7 min YouTube
- Charles McPherson - Bouncing With Bud2011, 6 min YouTube
- Charles McPherson - East of the Sun2011, 6 min YouTube
- Charles McPherson With Carmell Jones And Barry Harris - Bebop Revisited! (Full Album)46 min YouTube
Method ideas nearby
Ideas of the method taught in the classes where they come up, with how many mentions fall in each.