Jazz at Massey Hall

 (29 customer reviews)

Other than excerpts available here on Amazon, I haven't actually heard either this CD or the 20-bit remastered version of it. Based solely on the description, however, I instead ordered The Jazz Factory's 2003 CD "Complete Jazz at Massey Hall" (JFCD 22856) (referred to hereafter in this review as "CJMH"), and I am very glad I did. Here's why:1. In addition to the 6 quintet tracks on the present CD, CJMH includes 8 other tracks from the concert, including a 4-and-a-half-minute self-contained drum solo by Max Roach, and 6 great tracks by a trio of Powell, Mingus, and Roach (Cherokee, Embraceable You, Halleluja, Sure Thing, Lullaby of Birdland, and I've Got You Under My Skin). Also, according to the liner notes, all 14 tracks are in the order in which they were performed at the concert.2. NONE OF MINGUS' OVERDUBBED BASS is included on CJMH. You can still hear him, though, but much more naturally than he sounds on the overdubbed excerpts I've heard here on...Read more

This is an excellent, but not "essential" recording of perhaps the five greatest jazz instrumentalists of the bop era. The legendary players include Charlie "Bird" Parker on sax, John B. "Dizzie" Gillespie on trumpet, Bud Powell on piano, Charles Mingus on bass, and Max Roach on drums. It would be difficult to ask for a better all-star lineup; it is, indeed, a historic meeting.However, while the meeting is stratospheric, the results are mixed. Of course, each plays superbly, but the ensemble playing--the empathic groove between the musicians-- is sometimes uneven. This is not to take away any superlatives from individual performances or those cuts where the band is tight and simpatico, but, in reviewing the performance, one must (somehow) suspend knowledge of each performer's individual excellence. The biggest culprit is the very uneven sound quality obtained from Mingus' backstage recorder (!). Mingus, in fact, had to dub in most of his...Read more

By 1953, when this was recorded, Dizzy Gillespie had been the subject of a story in LIFE Magazine. Bird had not. Dizzy was touring and making a good buck. Bird was not. So when the Toronto Jazz Society asked the two of them to play together for a special one-night gig, the gloves came off. This recording more or less explains what it is that people love about bebop: The two players take each other's ideas and try to drive them higher and harder. Bird, even on the famous borrowed plastic alto, is at the absolute top of his game; Dizzy likewise. Given the fierce rivalry, a high point is Dizzy making Bird laugh on "Salt Peanuts." The recording quality is the best Fantasy's engineers could come up with, given that this was basically a home recording that Mingus made with his own reel-to-reel machine. For illuminating detail on the evening (it was the same night as the Rocky Marciano-Jersey Joe Walcott fight--Dizzy kept leaving the stage for reports on the fight's progress), read...Read more