Jazz at Massey Hall


Jazz at Massey Hall is a live jazz album featuring a performance by "The Quintet" given on 15 May 1953 at Massey Hall in Toronto. The quintet was composed of five leading 'modern' players of the day: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. It was the only time that the five men recorded together as a unit, and it was the last recorded meeting of Parker and Gillespie.

Background

The first pianist considered by the organizers was Lennie Tristano, but he suggested Powell as a more appropriate match for the other musicians. Oscar Pettiford was considered as an alternative to Mingus.

The concert

Parker played a Grafton saxophone on this date; he could not be listed on the original album cover for contractual reasons, so was billed as "Charlie Chan", an allusion to the fictional detective and to Parker's wife Chan.
The original plan was for the Toronto New Jazz Society and the musicians to share the profits from the recording. However, owing to a boxing prize fight between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott taking place simultaneously, the audience was so small that the Society was unable to pay the musicians' fees. The musicians were all given NSF checks, and only Parker was able to actually cash his; Gillespie noted that he did not receive his fee "for years and years".

Album releases

The record was originally issued in 1953 on Mingus's label Debut, from a recording made by the Toronto New Jazz Society. Mingus took the recording to New York where he and Max Roach dubbed in the bass lines, which were under-recorded on most of the tunes, and exchanged Mingus soloing on "All the Things You Are".
A 2002 reissue, Complete Jazz at Massey Hall, released on The Jazz Factory label, contains the full concert, without the overdubbing.
Jazz at Massey Hall was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1995. It is included in National Public Radio's "Basic Jazz Library". The concert was issued in some territories under the tag "the greatest jazz concert ever".

Track listing

Vol. 1
  1. "Perdido" – 7:43
  2. "Salt Peanuts" – 7:39
  3. "All the Things You Are" /"52nd Street Theme" – 7:52
Vol. 3
  1. "Wee " – 6:41
  2. "Hot House" – 9:11
  3. "A Night in Tunisia" – 7:34
  4. "Perdido"
  5. "Salt Peanuts"
  6. "All the Things You Are"
  7. "52nd Street Theme"
  8. "Wee "
  9. "Hot House"
  10. "A Night in Tunisia"
  11. "Perdido"
  12. "Salt Peanuts"
  13. "All the Things You Are"
  14. "52nd Street Theme"
  15. "Drum Conversation"
  16. "Cherokee"
  17. "Embraceable You"
  18. "Hallelujah "
  19. "Sure Thing"
  20. "Lullaby of Birdland"
  21. "I've Got You Under My Skin"
  22. "Wee "
  23. "Hot House"
  24. "A Night in Tunisia"
Tracks 5 through 11 are without Parker and Gillespie.

Personnel

An album of a trio set played by Powell, Mingus and Roach at the concert was also issued.