{"title":"Fraser Macpherson","description":"Raised in Victoria, BC, John Fraser MacPherson played clarinet and piano during his formative years. Later he took up the alto and tenor, establishing himself first in Vancouver as an altoist in the bebop tradition before learning to appreciate the subtleties of Johnny Hodges. He stuck to the tenor from the early 1970s on, earning an international reputation, largely influenced by Lester Young, whom he revered.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMacPherson moved to Vancouver in 1948. In 1956-57 he studied in New York with Vincent James Abato (saxophone) and Henry Zlotnick (flute). He worked for 20 years in local nightclubs, among them the Palomar (1950-4, with the bands of Chuck Barber, Bob Reid, and Lance Harrison) and the Cave (1961-3 with Chris Gage, 1964-70 leading his own band), where he played with such visiting luminaries as Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Hines, Tony Bennett and Duke Ellington. Concurrently he was a first-call studio musician (saxophone, flute, and clarinet) and occasionally played saxophone with the Vancouver Symphony Orchestra.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eFor many years MacPherson pursued his jazz career largely on CBC radio and TV, initially as a member of the Ray Norris Quintet (circa 1951) and later as a featured sideman with Doug Parker and trombonist Dave Robbins on such shows as 'Jazz Workshop,' as well as fronting his own groups, including a quintet in the early 1960s featuring Carse Sneddon on trumpet and valve trombone, and Gage on piano. Those musicians were later replaced by Ian MacDougall on trombone and Parker on piano. He was heard on alto saxophone as the leader of a nonet in the so-called West Coast style on 'Jazz Workshop' and 1963-4 with a string orchestra in a CBC series of his own called 'The Pretty Sounds of Jazz' (later 'The Sounds of the Sixties').\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eIn 1978, under the aegis of Overture Concerts, he made the first of an unprecedented four tours in the USSR -- his was the first North American jazz group to be invited back behind the former Iron Curtain. Other tours followed in 1981, 1984, and 1986. MacPherson performed under Radio Canada International sponsorship in Europe (Montreux, The Hague) in 1979. In Canada he has made several national tours and performed at most of the major festivals -- eg, the Montreal Jazz Festival in 1982 and 1984, the Edmonton Jazz Festival in 1984 and 1986, and regularly at the Vancouver Jazz Festival. He also has appeared on occasion in the USA (Concord and the Kool Jazz Festival in Detroit with Rosemary Clooney) and in 1986 performed in Australia.\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMacPherson has remained a favourite on CBC radio jazz shows, among them 'Jazz Radio-Canada' and 'Jazz Beat,' and was host in the summer of 1977 for the former program's series devoted to the history of jazz in Canada. MacPherson was nominated for two Juno Awards, winning 'Best Jazz Album' in 1983 for his duo recording with Gannon (I Didn't Know about You). Besides work under his own name, MacPherson can be heard on recordings by Anita O'Day, Oliver Jones, Charles Mountford, Eiji Kitamura, Dave McMurdo and the Canadian Jazz All-Stars (featuring Jones, Ed Bickert, Jim Galloway, Terry Clarke and Dave Young).\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eMacPherson was made a Member of the Order of Canada in 1987 and won the Oscar Peterson Trophy shortly before his death in 1993.","products":[{"product_id":"encore-2","title":"Encore","description":"","brand":"Fraser Macpherson","offers":[{"title":"Digital Download","offer_id":39512958632096,"sku":"0068944842056","price":9.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39513759350944,"sku":"","price":15.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0537\/8477\/2768\/products\/590a8475-ec36-46d9-bfd6-5e99bbd2220116350438456097339641-LARGE_6d648302-141d-4797-9c5a-b7e4ebac4f2e.jpg?v=1616128833"},{"product_id":"honey-spice","title":"Honey \u0026 Spice","description":"Although recorded in Montreal, Canada, this album features the same quartet (with guitarist Oliver Gannon, bassist Steve Wallace and drummer John Sumner) that tenor saxophonist Fraser MacPherson used during his notable tours of the Soviet Union. All eight of the selections are veteran songs (Cole Porter's mid-'50s \"I Love You Samantha\" is the most recent), and the emphasis is on relaxed, slow to medium tempos. MacPherson's cool tone sounds as beautiful as ever and works well with Gannon's quiet guitar. ~ Scott Yanow\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003e\u003cbr data-mce-fragment=\"1\"\u003eRecording information: Studio Victor, Montreal, Canada (03\/1987).","brand":"Fraser Macpherson","offers":[{"title":"Digital Download","offer_id":39512968134816,"sku":"0068944002351","price":9.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0537\/8477\/2768\/products\/9a5c2acc-fb5a-4745-a122-fc3b9437401d16382816404690686399-LARGE_7e7af779-90fb-4156-89b3-fc5fca0a6821.jpg?v=1616128975"},{"product_id":"our-blues-2","title":"Our Blues","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"Our Blues\" is music from a vigorous, swinging player in his thirties. Fraser always, always swung hard, but he's close to working the gate right off it's hinges here. This is tough, virile stuff, every bit the equal of any of the 'West Coast' records coming out around that time from people like Art Pepper, Jack Montrose or Bill Perkins. Fraser's sound is much more tight and controlled than it became in later years, almost alto-ish. In fact, that's who he reminds me of most here, Art Pepper, with a healthy dash of Bill Perkins.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThis is determinedly 'West Coast\" stuff, proving once again that jazz was once a regional music. These tracks could easily have been recorded in LA, and bear little stylistic relation to contemporaneous 'Canadian' jazz musicians recording in Toronto or Montreal at that same time. The comparisons of pianist Chris Gage to Oscar Peterson seem a stretch to me. I think he's much closer to Russ Freeman, Dodo Marmarosa, and , in his percussive attack, to New Orlean's piano eccentric James Booker.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Fraser Macpherson","offers":[{"title":"Digital Download","offer_id":39512989761696,"sku":"0068944916351","price":9.99,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true},{"title":"CD","offer_id":39513773801632,"sku":"","price":15.0,"currency_code":"CAD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0537\/8477\/2768\/products\/a367faac-cee7-423b-a052-716749d955756221039010072780866-LARGE_bab9fefa-36cf-4464-9273-e27269f71888.jpg?v=1616129213"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0537\/8477\/2768\/collections\/FraserMacpherson.jpg?v=1616076734","url":"https:\/\/justin-time-records.myshopify.com\/collections\/fraser-macpherson.oembed","provider":"Justin Time Records","version":"1.0","type":"link"}