Charles Harris

Legendary alto saxophonist Charles McPherson makes his Smoke Sessions debut with an inspired album, Reverence, dedicated to Barry Harris, captured in front of a live audience at Smoke Jazz Club and featuring his quintet of Terell Stafford, Jeb Patton, David Wong, and Billy Drummond.

There’s more to Shakespeare’s songs than a hey-nonny-nonny, and the depth of the bard’s texts has inspired composers from well beyond the cultural borders of the English language. Nearly half of the Phoenix Bach Choir’s “Shakespeare in Song” disc offers intriguing music by composers who are neither English nor American. Chief among these is Switzerland’s Frank Martin, whose Songs of Ariel constitute a modern choral classic. These are haunting, harmonically unsettled settings, and for an example of the skill and beauty the Phoenix Bach Choir brings to this program, just listen to the wonderful intonation on the last chord of “Before You Can Say ‘Come’ and ‘Go’.”

Charles McPherson is a singular bebop saxophonist. After playing with Charles Mingus for over a decade, McPherson has been traveling all over the world as a renowned leader and mentor. He remains one of the few musicians able to channel the classic bebop might of predecessors like Charlie Parker, but he also possesses a powerful style of his own as both a composer and soloist. Audiences will be able witness both sides of that incredible talent with this band.