A brilliant Bird-inspired altoist as opposed to a run-of-the-mill copyist McPherson proved to be a valuable mainstay of Charles Mingus’ working unit from 1960 until 1972, while for good measure Clint Eastwood called upon his services when creating the Bird soundtrack. A powerful player McPherson’s 1964 Bebop Revisited was for a long time his calling card cementing both his vision and subsequent reputation. Beautiful!, the first of four albums he taped for Xanadu, is extremely well focused with Duke Jordan directing a seasoned rhythm trio. In truth, Jordan contributes just as much as McPherson to the overall success of this most appealing session; topping and tailing each of the eight American Songbook Standards – one of which ‘All God’s Chillin Got Rhythm’ (sans McPherson) makes its appearance in public for the first time. It was one summer’s day well spent, in that all four players became a cohesive unit producing an album that should be much better known, in that it gave a refreshing make-over to such pre- WWII popular songs as ‘They Say It’s Wonderful’, ‘It Could Happen To You’, ‘Lover’, ‘This Can’t Be Love’, ‘Body And Soul’, ‘It Had To Be You’ and this album’s title. To be filed alongside albums by Art Pepper, Frank Morgan, Phil Woods and Jackie McLean.