PAJZ002 - The Quintet - The Trio - Massey Hall, Toronto, May 1953

Jazz at Massey Hall is a jazz album featuring a live performance by "The Quintet" on 15 May 1953 at Massey Hall in Toronto. The musicians were five of the biggest names in jazz: Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach. It was the only time that the five recorded together as a unit, and it was the last recorded meeting of Parker and Gillespie. Parker famously played a plastic alto 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 record was originally issued 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 missing from most of the tunes and exchanged Mingus soloing on "All the Things You Are." Gillespie was billed first, as can be seen in the copy of the advertisement in Mark Miller's "Cool Blues."

The original plan was for the Jazz Society and the musicians to share the profits from the recording. However the audience was so small that the Society was unable to pay the musician's fees. The musicians were all given NSF checks, and only Parker was able to actually cash his. Mingus and Max published on by their Debut Label.

Notes on this issue

In assembling this release I've tried to bring together all of the available tracks of this historic concert, which has resulted, in the case of the Trio section, in some variation in sound quality. On this recording you will hear only the original recordings, with the bass part as originally played and restored to something closer to an appropriate level by the XR remastering process.

One may ask as to why this concert needs another release? My answer is that, for such a historic recording, all of the previous issues have failed to convey, through their sonic flaws, the full impact of the playing and overall sound. That five men - who'd never rehearsed together or played together as a group, could arrive at a two-thirds-empty hall, missing a saxophone (so playing a plastic one bought that day), half drunk (and more drunk after the interval) with one member on release from a psychiatric hospital, with the two lead players apparently not speaking to each other - can conjure up such magic is incredible. To finally hear it in this quality of sound more than justifies the hours of painstaking work it's taken me to bring this project to fruition. Despite owning copies of this recording for many years, I've heard it anew over the last few weeks, and since its completion it has rarely left my CD player. I hope you'll find similar inspiration from it!

Additional notes

Editing: It became clear when working on the restoration of these tracks that a small amount of editing had taken place in at least two tracks. It seems that the opening of the very first track was not properly recorded - we hear the opening theme twice but it is clear from the applause in the background that at least one of these is a direct copy of the other. Likewise that applause is heard a short time later when the theme returns. After a degree of experimentation I decided to leave these repeats in place and tidy up the slightly rough edges of the original cuts. Likewise, applause has been lifted and reinserted elsewhere, and some announcements show clear signs of editing. In each case I opted to tidy up and smooth the joins to provide a believable continuity for the listener.

Track order: The original LP release of this set featured only the Quintet recordings. Other issues have inserted the Trio between the two halves of the Quintet sets (as per the original running order, though not necessarily with all tracks present). I have opted to present the music as two separate sets, joining the two halves of the Quintet's set together and separating it from the smaller group's set, which begins with Roach's solo piece before the announcer brings on the two other members of the Trio. This provides a more comfortable continuinty for the home listener to what was essentially two overlapping concerts.

Content: This issue contains all of the material performed by The Quintet and all of the material performed by The Trio. Also present at the evening's concert was The Graham Topping Band, who preceded The Quintet with an set running to eleven pieces, and closed the night with a further four titles after the return ot The Quintet in the second half. The final number featured all of the evening's musicians and is not included in this recording - as far as I can tell it was never recorded.

Overdubs: None of the material presented here contains any of Charles Mingus' somewhat notorious double bass overdubs. What you hear is the original material as played and recorded on the night.