“Jazz at Massey Hall” – The Quintet

Album: Jazz at Massey Hall

Artist: The Quintet (Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus & Max Roach)

Year: 1953

Genre: Bebop

Grade: A

May 15, 1953. Toronto. Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Bud Powell and Max Roach. The Quintet. The greatest one-off collective ever assembled gave one of the greatest concerts ever performed. A historical occurrence.

Jazz at Massey Hall is a watershed moment not just for bebop but for the entirety of jazz itself. Every solo — and there’s a bunch — is a victory lap of artistic triumph; the musicians tapping into an extraordinary collaborative ethos.

The live improvisation also lends itself to the audience — they applaud at the appropriate times, providing a stand-in for us, the listener. This is an album in which it is completely acceptable to ooh and aah out loud (at least 2 times per song). The fact that the Massey Hall attendants are there to share the experience with us — or is it we with them? — makes it even more special.

Above all, this record is entertaining as hell, which should be a requirement for all live LPs. I am in awe of the one-two punch of Bird-&-Diz on “Perdido,” and then I’m cracking up over the comic vocals of “Salt Peanuts” (verbatim: “salt peanuts/salt peanuts”). Even though the formula is largely the same — main theme/Bird solo/Diz solo/Bud solo/Mingus or Max outro/main theme recapitulation — our attention never wavers. The spirit of the performance enraptures and holds us, not letting go and maintaining a keen sense of being star-struck. Kinda like Grateful Dead’s Live/Dead. You can just tell you’re listening to something important.

If I had to choose an MVP for the concert as a whole it would have to be Parker, if only because he typically leads things off, giving each song a fitting first impression. This would be his final collaboration with Gillespie, who matches Bird note-for-note in playful intensity. Just like on the 1952 Bird and Diz LP, their legendary interplay is the music’s defining trait.

Elsewhere, the rhythm section of Mingus and Roach — a next-gen pairing that will come to define post-bop — provide the sinewy undercurrent upon which everything sits comfortably. And Bud Powell does Amazing Bud Powell things.

The Quintet’s performance is among the most significant musical moments of the 20^th century. An espresso shot of primo hipster jazz, or in other words, a damn fine serving of bop. Tastes even better than the salt peanuts contained within.

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