Jazz At Massey Hall

[patricia]

May 15 marked the fiftieth anniversary of the legendary performance of "The Quintet", consisting of Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Dizzy Gillespie. This is a marvelous record. Just a couple of years later, Parker was dead and the others, except for Max Roach have gone, one by one, in the intervening years. The performance, which was recorded through the hall's PA system [!] is also available, although not easily, as "Jazz At Massey Hall" on vinyl, now a collector's item.

The track list is:

Perdido

Salt Peanuts

All The Thngs You Are

Wee

Hot House

A Night In Tunisia

The crowd was SO with the band. Marvelous!

The entire CD is less than fifty minutes long and each track is a gem with the energy of the crowd [which was sadly small, about 500, due to the championship fight, the same night, between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott, which lasted one round.]

Roach was at the fiftieth anniversary tribute, led by Herbie Hancock and was called upon to perform, which should not have happened, given his failing health. Apparantly it took him fifteen minutes [!] to navigate the fifty feet to the drum set. A miscalculation by the show's organizers. I would have thought just him being there should have been enough.