Charles McPherson Quintet, featuring Gilbert Castellanos, Randy Porter, Rob Thorsen & Lewis Nash
You can celebrate alto saxophone great Charles McPherson’s 87th birthday with him here two weeks early — and just one week before he’ll be feted at New York’s Jazz at Lincoln Center. You can also marvel at this longtime San Diego resident’s undimmed musical mastery, improvisational ingenuity and ability to inject new emotional depth into every note he plays.
McPherson has been an internationally acclaimed musician since the early 1960s, thanks to his superb work with jazz giant Charles Mingus — in whose band McPherson performed from 1959 to 1972 — and as a solo artist, whose audacious debut album, “Bebop Revisited!”, came out in 1960.
Now, as then, McPherson’s is equally notable for his grace and agility as a saxophonist who thinks as intently as he plays.
His most recent solo album, the superb “Reverence” came out in 2024. He is prominently featured on former San Diego trumpeter Brian Lynch’s “Torch Bearers,” a justly acclaimed album that was released earlier this year.
It is the first album to feature McPherson alongside 26-year-old singing sensation Samara Joy, who this year won her sixth Grammy Award and is an avowed fan of his. She and her band have performed with McPherson several times in San Diego and New York and have also spent time visiting and jamming with him at his home here.
Samara Joy is a Gen Z jazz star and 5-time Grammy-winner: ‘It feels pretty surreal!’
“He is obviously an incredible musician, but also a very mindful person and a valuable resource when it comes to living a life as an artist and really pursuing being a musician,” Joy said of McPherson in a 2025 San Diego Union-Tribune interview.
“We asked him: ‘What are you working on now? ‘What do you do after a lifetime of doing this? What are you thinking about and doing now?’ And his response was — I’m not going to be able to say it as eloquently as he did — but he said something to the effect of: ‘I want to play from the purest place possible.’ And he called it the God-force. I want to play from the God-force, too,…
“I really appreciate being able to hear words of wisdom like that from somebody like Charles McPherson. And I appreciate that he’s still here and still playing at the highest level, and that he’s so nice and open as a person. Being able to spend time with him is a rare opportunity and I don’t take it for granted.”
7 p.m. (sold out) and 10 p.m. next Friday, July 10. Lou Lou’s, Lafayette Hotel, 2223 El Cajon Blvd., North Park. $78. 619-296-2101; loulous.turntabletickets.com/tables
Sue Palmer, front left, will perform with her Motel Swing Orchestra at Tio Leo’s. (Nelvin C. Cepeda / The San Diego Union-Tribune)
Sue Palmer & Her Motel Swing Orchestra
San Diego boogie-woogie piano queen Sue Palmer has been a mainstay of the music scene here since joining the infectiously swinging band Tobacco Road in the 1980s.
She became the pianist and musical director for San Diego vocal dynamo Candye Kane in early 1991. They performed around the world together until 1999, when Palmer formed her brassy Motel Swing Orchestra.
Queen of boogie woogie Sue Palmer celebrates 25 years with her Motel Swing Orchestra
She has led the group ever since. Its most recent album, “Eight To The Bar,” won Best Local Recording honors at this year’s San Diego Music Awards, where Palmer performed with characteristic aplomb as part of an all-star blues ensemble. Her gigs with the Motel Swing Orchestra are celebratory affairs that exude charm, charisma and musical bonhomie.
7 p.m. Tuesday, July 7. Tio Leo’s, 5302 Napa Street, Bay Park. $15. tioleos.com
Shinyribs, with Schaefer Llana
What’s in a name? Or a song title? And should either be a sufficient reason to recommend a concert?
Consider the rollicking Texas band Shinyribs, whose four-piece brass section bills itself as the Tijuana Trainwreck Horns and whose women harmony singers have appeared as both The Delta Dawns and The Shiny Soul Sisters.
And consider Shinyribs’ 2013 ditty, “Take Me To Lake Charles.” It is one of only two songs I know of that features the name of my Louisiana hometown in its title. (The other is Lucinda Williams’ heart-wrenching 1998 ballad, “Lake Charles.”)
For good measure, Shinyribs is led by singer, guitarist and ukulele player Kevin Russell, whose previous bands include The Gourds and Picket Line Coyotes.
As the amiable leader of Shinyribs, Russell and his colleagues mix rock, country, Texas blues, New Orleans funk, Memphis soul and more into an enjoyable, good-timey, bar-band blend. His sly sense of humor is reflected in the titles such songs as the swamp-rocking “Bolshevik Sugar Cane.”
7:30 p.m. Wednesday, July 8. Belly Up, 143 South Cedros Ave., Solana Beach. $20 (general admission); $35 (reserved loft seating); must be 21 or older to attend. bellyup.com