Complete Jazz at Massey Hall is a live jazz album featuring a performance b… Read Full Bio ↴Complete 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 several 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.
In 1953, Parker performed at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada, joined by Gillespie, Mingus, Powell and Roach. Unfortunately, the concert happened at the same time as a televised heavyweight boxing match between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott, so the musical event was poorly attended. Mingus recorded the concert, resulting in the album Jazz at Massey Hall. At this concert, Parker played a plastic Grafton saxophone.
At this point in his career he was experimenting with new sounds and materials. Parker himself explained the purpose of the plastic saxophone in a May 9, 1953 broadcast from Birdland and did so again in a subsequent May 1953 broadcast. Parker is known to have played several saxophones, including the Conn 6M, the Martin Handicraft and Selmer Model 22. He is also known to have performed with a King 'Super 20' saxophone. Parker's King Super 20 saxophone was made specially for him in 1947.
The record was originally issued on Mingus's label Debut, from a recording made by the Toronto New Jazz Society (Dick Wattam, Alan Scharf, Roger Feather, Boyd Raeburn and Arthur Granatstein). 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 2004 reissue, Complete Jazz at Massey Hall, 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'.
In 1953, Parker performed at Massey Hall in Toronto, Canada, joined by Gillespie, Mingus, Powell and Roach. Unfortunately, the concert happened at the same time as a televised heavyweight boxing match between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott, so the musical event was poorly attended. Mingus recorded the concert, resulting in the album Jazz at Massey Hall. At this concert, Parker played a plastic Grafton saxophone.
At this point in his career he was experimenting with new sounds and materials. Parker himself explained the purpose of the plastic saxophone in a May 9, 1953 broadcast from Birdland and did so again in a subsequent May 1953 broadcast. Parker is known to have played several saxophones, including the Conn 6M, the Martin Handicraft and Selmer Model 22. He is also known to have performed with a King 'Super 20' saxophone. Parker's King Super 20 saxophone was made specially for him in 1947.
The record was originally issued on Mingus's label Debut, from a recording made by the Toronto New Jazz Society (Dick Wattam, Alan Scharf, Roger Feather, Boyd Raeburn and Arthur Granatstein). 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 2004 reissue, Complete Jazz at Massey Hall, 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'.
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Complete Jazz at Massey Hall
The Quintet Lyrics
Cherokee Sweet Indian maiden, since first I met you, I can't…
Embraceable You Embrace me, my sweet embraceable you! Embrace me, you irrepl…
Hot House These lil', lil' fuckin' Martians You gotta love em' though…
I've Got You Under My Skin I've got you under my skin. I've got you deep in…
Lullaby Of Birdland Lullaby of Birdland, that's what I Always hear when you…