Charlie Parker - Complete Jazz at Massey Hall
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Free Music Notes for Complete Jazz at Massey Hall
Free Music Review: one of three essential Charlie Parker concerts available on CD
Hit: 5 Stars
Simply put, "Complete Jazz at Massey Hall" contains one of three essential Charlie Parker concerts now available on CD, the May 15, 1953 concert at Massey Hall.
Only seven tracks here (the first four and the last three) feature Parker (with Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, Bud Powell on piano, Charles Mingus on bass, and Max Roach on drums); one track (#5) is a self-contained drum solo (by Roach), and six tracks (#6-#11) are trio pieces featuring the incomparable Bud P (with Mingus & Roach).
The extraordinary trio pieces alone would make this CD worthwhile, but Bird & Diz are simply amazing on at least five of the seven quintet pieces (of the remaining two, "All the Things You Are" is a bit of a mess, and "52nd Street Theme" is less than 45 seconds long).
This Massey Hall CD (a Spanish import from the Jazz Factory, which also produced the indispensible "Bud Powell: Complete 1947-1951 Blue Note, Verve & Roost Sessions") features sound quality which, while nowhere near perfect, is surprisingly clear, bright, and present, and actually superior to the sound on two other essential Parker concerts, the May 15/16, 1950 Birdland concert (with Parker, Powell, Fats Navarro, Curley Russell, and Art Blakey), and the Sept 29, 1947 Carnegie Hall concert (with CP, Gillespie, John Lewis, Al McKibbon, and Joe Harris).
While the remastered sound of the 1947 Carnegie Hall concert is particularly appealing on the "Charlie Parker: The Complete Live Performances on Savoy" box set, the piano is very poorly miked, so much so you barely hear John Lewis at all. Which leaves a gap, a hole, in a song like "Confirmation," where you're listening through the inaudible piano solo, waiting for the real music making to return. Still, we have five quintet pieces from Carnegie that are among Parker's greatest live performances.
The sound quality of the May 1950 Birdland concert on "Charlie Parker at Birdland, Vol. 1" is clearly the worst of the three concerts, but the music making is electric. Bud Powell is on fire at Birdland--his inventiveness is at least the equal of Parker's. Which is to say, it is among the most masterful, the most intricate, the most engaging in the history of jazz. Indeed, it is Powell's playing, in particular, that keeps me coming back again and again to the Birdland concert--or maybe it's the way in which Powell and Parker and Navarro seem to be feeding off one another; all three are on fire, all three are playing at the very peak of their powers, and so you begin to feel immersed in the brilliance of the invention as it surrounds you on all three sides, alto sax, trumpet, and piano.
By contrast, the Massey and Carnegie concerts are principally about the soaring brilliance of two musicians: Bird and Diz, even though Powell himself is present at Massey Hall. Don't get me wrong, Bud P in 1953 (or 1950) is almost always brilliant, and his playing at Massey Hall is clearly exceptional, but it is in the trio pieces at Massey where Powell really shines.
Some might argue that there is a fourth essential Parker concert on CD: the recently unearthed recording of the June 22, 1945 concert at Town Hall (with CP, Gillespie, Don Byas, Al Haig, Curley Russell, Max Roach & Sid Catlett). And while the playing at Town Hall is indeed brilliant (and while the recording itself has major historical significance), I don't think it's nearly as compelling, nor as essential, as the playing at Massey Hall in 1953, Carnegie Hall in 1947, or Birdland in 1950.
All of which is to say, while there are numerous Parker concerts I enjoy listening to (such as the Royal Roost concerts in 1948 & 1949, the amazing pick-up concert in Chicago on October 23, 1950, as well as the seminal 1945 Town Hall concert), I don't think I could do without the concerts at Massey or Carnegie or Birdland.
Free Music Review: Such Limitless Potential
Hit: 3 Stars
This concert has the makings of something quite magical. Five of the best bebop musicians ever, taking to the same stage. Unfortunately, it doesn't live up to it's potential. Apparently Bird, Diz, and Powell were all drunk...with Bird being the worst offender. And Diz kept leaving the stage to go watch a big heavyweight boxing match that was being broadcast. Bird also forgot to bring his sax so he was playing a cheap alto borrowed from a local music store. Bud was on leave from a mental institution and required supervision, so he wasn't exactly at his best to start with. Moreover, Bird and Diz left the stage for more than half the concert leaving just a trio performing. Max was impeccables that night, however, playing an amazing set with some powerful solos. Mingus was tight as well, at least as much as could be heard. The sound recording is ok on 3 or 4 tunes and dreadful on the rest.
This recording is sad because it had so much potential. If it was recorded properly and the musicians in shape and wanting to perform at their best this could have been one for the ages. As it is, you get some decent bebop from three drunk guys (one of them being a mental patient), and a fantastic rhythm section recorded by an amateur through a third rate PA system at Massey Hall. So this recording is nice but hardly magical.
I don't know why there are so many 5 star reviews as the music is just average, and the sound well below average for the time. I suspect that they're based on what the concert should have been based on the players, not what it is.
Free Music Review: I don't quite get the reputation of this concert
Hit: 3 Stars
Once again, disappointment strikes with "event" concerts, no matter what genre of music they're in. Previously I had the vinyl version with the overdubbing, and never thought maybe I didn't dig it because of the bass, which always did sound like it was in another room to me. Admittedly this way of hearing it *is* better, but this is still not a "recording to end all recordings" or anything close. I've heard that Bird and Diz, long having gone their separate ways, were barely speaking to each other on this night. It shows. There's little interplay, little of the joy of spontaneous creation so vital to jazz. Instead I hear a group of men who were paid to play this gig and are fulfilling a contract. Also Roach sounds stiff--unusual for him--and bangy in the quintet numbers. The Powell trio pieces fare better, and they are the highlight of the album, but for Parker and Dizzy there are far better recordings out there than this outing, with its long patches where they just quote to fill time or repeat simple phrases over and over. After listening to the recently unearthed Bird and Dizzy material from Town Hall in June of 1945, with a Salt Peanuts that simply has to be heard to be believed, the tiredness of this night becomes all the more apparent. This is one of those albums whose legend, I think, has superceded its musical content, and must be listened to again with cold, objective ears. I'm sure I'll get a lot of dissenting votes from the cultists, but so be it.Free Music Review: Best musicians of an era... performing together!
Hit: 4 Stars
Everybody should thanks Mingus for taping this concert. It was an unique reunion of the greatest musicians of an era: Charlie "Bird" Parker, Dizzy Gillepsie, Bud Powell, Max Roach and Mingus himself. A memorable night in which they show the public(about 700 persons acording to the booklet) the magic of their music and their amazing musicianship.
Ironically, the problems started when Mingus decided to record the live session. He did a terrible job and the resulting mix almost eliminited the sound of his bass. So he dubbed it later, affecting the entire sound and pitch of the music. That's what you got when you purchase "Live at Massey Hall" A live performance must be a live performance. Overdubbing is not an option to me, it's like cheating. "Complete live at Massey Hall" is a gret product because it presents the concert as it was: The tracks appear in the order they were performed with a more natural sound. Beware, the sound quality of the CD is not not the best, but it's enough to identify the instruments and enjoy the wonderful performance of these great musicians.
What I can say about the concert? The tracks appear in the right order. If you listen the concert from the beginning to the end you can feel that the band is increasing their level, reaching the musical climax in "A Night in Tunisia": Incredible Charlie Parker saxo chops, Gillespie groundbreaking trumpet solo, Powell rythm section hot as hell, Mingus bass lines sounding loud and clear and Max Roach's drums section in perfect sinchronicity with the band. It's true that some of the tracks reach that musical peak and that a few of them sound erratic and chaotic, but still it's a great concert. My favorite themes are: Salt peanuts, Wee and Hot House.
Packaging of this edition please me a lot. As a graphic designer I can tell you that I prefer it to the standard version (the B&W cover) The liner notes included in this edition give details about the concert itself, the problems between musicians, and the conditions in which the concert was realized.
"Complete Jazz at Massey Hall" is a pefect oportunity to hear the best musicians of the bebop era performing together in an unforgetable, magic night.
Free Music Review: The only hall you'll need
Hit: 5 Stars
The recent hype about the discovery of the Diz-Bird concert at Town Hall in 1945 led me to compare it with their other two "live" recordings: the Carnegie Hall concert of 1947 and the Massey Hall concert of 1953. Give the nod to the Massey Hall date. The audio, though admittedly problematic, still has more "presence" than the other two dates; the solos are both more extended and more inspired; the overall level of musicianship is inarguably of a higher order (Bud Powell clearly blows away both Al Haig and John Lewis, the pianists on the other two recordings).
This edition is the closest you'll get to the original event--in terms of the programming as well as the original audio recording made by Mingus. Unlike the better-known Debut/OJC edition, this Spanish import dispenses with Mingus' later overdubbing of his bass part, has more "presence" in the treble frequencies (Roach's drum kit and the crowd ambiance are more noticeable along with slightly brighter horns), and contains 24 additional minutes of music. Any listener who first discovered Diz in the '60's (my situation) is likely to experience some eye-opening moments at hearing him on all three concert recordings with Bird. In his prime he clearly was at least the equal of Charlie Parker and very likely the greatest jazz trumpet player of all time.
Footnote: It's of particular interest to listen carefully to Bird's 4-bar break on "Night in Tunisia" on all three recordings. The 1947 Carnegie Hall date is simply unreal--a microcosmic moment of pure genius. On the Town Hall date he's fast and flashy but not as linguistically rich and complex; on the Massey Hall date he eschews pyrotechnics in favor of majestic statement.
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