Probably my favorite tune. I'm still obsessed with A Night in Tunisia even after listening to many versions and playing it for my Senior Recital in College....jazz is always new. You always catch something new. It's like when I listen to a preaching 3 times....each time is different and I catch something else every time.
Most famous jazz concerts ever there were;This was in 1953 and will never be possible to surpass.The best players ever-came together and played the most famous concerts ever played anywhere.They were concerts for the ages at the best acoustical hall anywhere and one with unobstructed views-period.This was just an example of this remarkable achievement.
he recorded under the name of CHARLIE CHAN for this record. 10" LP. 5 playing cards on cover of record, image of BIRD from the back. moonlighting perhaps
@cappy70brown1 Contractual reasons.He was playing a Plastic saxophone in violation of his contract so Charles Mingus who recorded the sparsly attended concert(due to a boxing match held on the same night) with the Charlie Chan name.
Never before had a stage been so full of the greatest geniuses of jazz music (especially bebop) and we will never see the likes of a summit like this ever again! Thankfully, someone thought to record the concert for jazz posterity. This happened in 1953, just a scant few days after I was born! There is a cosmic reason why I am so in love with Jazz.
massey hall canada 1953..about half full because of a storm.glad that it was recorded.on the first relase mingus recordeed over his bass parts. has that ever been corrected?
parker with a sound this good on a plastic sax!? As a pianist, that's like me having to create the greatest performance of the century with a toy keyboard instead of a steinway :o
ofcourse its a funny fact that he sold his old one and they had to run and search for a new one in time and had to hook up with a plasitc one but as long as they dont break theyre still pretty good!\
ornette colemanis famous for his plastic saxophone use :)
Ornette is also famous for badly playing violin and trumpet on records when he had no idea how to use them, or having his 12 year old son play on his records. he's not always a good point of reference.
there's a video on here somewhere of a british guy playing that plastic sax Bird used on this show, it is for some auction house that was selling it. Interesting to see and hear a modern recording of this same horn
I've seen him do his magic countless times in clubs and at festivals.
If you're interested, search him on the net and you'll find all the available recordings, but remember there are examples of his fantastic playing on loads of sessions where he is not the 'main man'.
The Grafton plastic sax was invented by the brits for use in military bands during WWII. It was a good sounding horn, but nearly impossible to repair.
thanks man, i wanted to hear it live, ive got this album called Take Flight:a bluebird collection,theres a good take of it on that album,but i gotta say this is much better.
We all have to be thankfull to charles mingus because he took a recorder with him and cut all these titles. Two versions exists: mingus rerecorded parts of his basslines later (underrecorded on location) in the studio and one ist original.
i don't think there are any existing versions of this recording without Mingus's overdubbed bass lines. you can actually hear him duet with himself on one of his solos, pretty silly.
Yes, there are! They came out two years ago. They sound miles better than the old LP's or CD's, and they have put the titles in the correct order. When Mingus overdubbed the bass he changed the whole sound and also the pitch. Now, since it's all corrected, it's more fun, and you can hear the bass very well.
I'm so glad this was recorded. Those bop musicians were really restricted when recording in studios. The compositions on official albums are always under 3 minutes, giving them no time to fully explore the pieces. In this live recording, we get to see them develop the pieces and show off their legendary talent. One of a kind recording. Absolutely legend.
No big deal, unless you have been influenced by Diz, Bird, Bud, Mingus, or Max (I'm guilty on all 5 counts). Something like this happens every 50 years or so. Remember the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, the 1984 Macintosh TV commercial, or the 1896 Paris debut of Alfred Jarry's "Pere Ubu"
bird is playing the plastic alto( Grafton) i read he'd rented there in Canada for this Massey Hall gig...the city of Kansas City ,Mo. won the horn at auction 9-10 years ago for a bit under 200 K...DIG THAT CRAZY JAZZ!!!
What happened was that customs and immigration in Toronto had lost his sax, so he went down to a store downtown and bought a plastic one. Went down in the greatest show in history...
someone gave him the grafton saxophone aka the plastic saxophone. im not sure about what happened to the one he had before hand.. it might of gotten lost, or either he sold it, who knows... obviously it didn't matter, he sounded good on anything
As a schoolboy, I spent my "pocket money" buying this recording (vinyl, of course) in about 1957. When I played it at the school jazz club, some said (they were trad jazz fans): "But they're just playing any note."
I realised then that you either "get it," or you don't and they didn't. I didn't go to the jazz club anymore! I still have the record 51 years later. Fantastic to listen to, yet again.
sounds so ironic, when i show free jazz to mainstream fans they would say the same. True artists are always ahead of the era. As was Armstrong, as were Parker and Dizzy and this pack, as are Coleman or Taylor (Cecil).
btw i wonder how much is your lp now worth :) 53 years that's something :)
Talk about a magic time and place! When in doubt, go see the show! You just may stumble onto a once in a lifetime event like this. People will envy you for the rest of your life. Hell, you'll envy yourself! I'm too young to have been at this one, but am grateful it was recorded. Wish it has been filmed too. I guess people at the time didn't realize what they had there. I've read even Dizzy kept leaving the stage to check up on a baseball game he was following on the radio!
There's been lots of debate on this one, but I think the title of Greatest Jazz Concert Ever is well deserved. For the time, this has got to be the most awesome array of artists on their respective instruments ever assembled.
Probably my favorite tune. I'm still obsessed with A Night in Tunisia even after listening to many versions and playing it for my Senior Recital in College....jazz is always new. You always catch something new. It's like when I listen to a preaching 3 times....each time is different and I catch something else every time.
PalabraViva3 10 months ago
Most famous jazz concerts ever there were;This was in 1953 and will never be possible to surpass.The best players ever-came together and played the most famous concerts ever played anywhere.They were concerts for the ages at the best acoustical hall anywhere and one with unobstructed views-period.This was just an example of this remarkable achievement.
paulostroff99 10 months ago 2
sounds nothing loke our version :p
woodwind538 11 months ago
Look for the Parker's plastic horn!
rogerjazzfan 11 months ago
merci!!
jazzart1 1 year ago
he recorded under the name of CHARLIE CHAN for this record. 10" LP. 5 playing cards on cover of record, image of BIRD from the back. moonlighting perhaps
cappy70brown1 1 year ago
@cappy70brown1 Contractual reasons.He was playing a Plastic saxophone in violation of his contract so Charles Mingus who recorded the sparsly attended concert(due to a boxing match held on the same night) with the Charlie Chan name.
smoothie6ft3 9 months ago
@smoothie6ft3 he played the plastic sax (later popularised by Coleman) because he had hawked his own and had to borrow whatever was available.
jfdYT 2 months ago
amazing
DoraAshes 1 year ago
Unroooooooool.....
moshepotts 1 year ago
Never before had a stage been so full of the greatest geniuses of jazz music (especially bebop) and we will never see the likes of a summit like this ever again! Thankfully, someone thought to record the concert for jazz posterity. This happened in 1953, just a scant few days after I was born! There is a cosmic reason why I am so in love with Jazz.
1953jazzman 1 year ago
thank you for posting, this is great!
PaulMurphyJazzDrum 1 year ago
oh god this is epic
cholocharile 2 years ago
massey hall canada 1953..about half full because of a storm.glad that it was recorded.on the first relase mingus recordeed over his bass parts. has that ever been corrected?
cidedwards31a 2 years ago
bird was rockin that grafton
aaronamccoy 2 years ago
honistly the best i'v heard a grafton played! Bird is an apsolout insperation to all horn players
Fishmcspastic 2 years ago
no doubt..he was my main teacher, him and trane
aaronamccoy 2 years ago
Definitely my favourite version!!! Amazing quintet! Thanks for the uploading!
spamsanne 2 years ago
This has been flagged as spam show
hot diggity dog!
seriously
TheWayish 2 years ago
The absolute hottest quintet ever played in history if you ask me.
McHilten 2 years ago 2
Dizzy Gillespie — trumpet
Charles Mingus — bass
Charlie Parker — alto sax
Bud Powell — piano
Max Roach — drums
Morahman7vnNo2 2 years ago
Bird plays the notes that make the strongest man weep, and Diz aint so bad either.
fig8slomo 2 years ago
I understand they did the show in canada because of the record ban of the mid 50s.
gjazz22 2 years ago 2
No
It was the Toronto Jazz Society that invited them
drummerdoc 2 years ago
Best quintet ever!
ckymadam 2 years ago
yeah for sure, i just looked up parker, found all these of my favourite jazz artists all in one! magic
franksinbeans 2 years ago
parker with a sound this good on a plastic sax!? As a pianist, that's like me having to create the greatest performance of the century with a toy keyboard instead of a steinway :o
BRazor78 3 years ago
nah you shouldnt see it that way..
ofcourse its a funny fact that he sold his old one and they had to run and search for a new one in time and had to hook up with a plasitc one but as long as they dont break theyre still pretty good!\
ornette colemanis famous for his plastic saxophone use :)
shufflephunk 3 years ago
pretty good and expensive ;)
shufflephunk 3 years ago
Ornette is also famous for badly playing violin and trumpet on records when he had no idea how to use them, or having his 12 year old son play on his records. he's not always a good point of reference.
jaikwillis 3 years ago
there's a video on here somewhere of a british guy playing that plastic sax Bird used on this show, it is for some auction house that was selling it. Interesting to see and hear a modern recording of this same horn
jaikwillis 3 years ago
Hello,
That British guy is the great Peter King.
Check him, he's a fabulous musician.
I've seen him do his magic countless times in clubs and at festivals.
If you're interested, search him on the net and you'll find all the available recordings, but remember there are examples of his fantastic playing on loads of sessions where he is not the 'main man'.
ps. he's also a great guy.
stillavril 2 years ago
The Grafton plastic sax was invented by the brits for use in military bands during WWII. It was a good sounding horn, but nearly impossible to repair.
gcrav 2 years ago
LOVE this song!
54spiritedwill54 3 years ago
thanks man, i wanted to hear it live, ive got this album called Take Flight:a bluebird collection,theres a good take of it on that album,but i gotta say this is much better.
orangehead420 3 years ago
We all have to be thankfull to charles mingus because he took a recorder with him and cut all these titles. Two versions exists: mingus rerecorded parts of his basslines later (underrecorded on location) in the studio and one ist original.
karlhelge2005 3 years ago
i don't think there are any existing versions of this recording without Mingus's overdubbed bass lines. you can actually hear him duet with himself on one of his solos, pretty silly.
jaikwillis 3 years ago
Yes, there are! They came out two years ago. They sound miles better than the old LP's or CD's, and they have put the titles in the correct order. When Mingus overdubbed the bass he changed the whole sound and also the pitch. Now, since it's all corrected, it's more fun, and you can hear the bass very well.
BrunoJazzmanLeicht 2 years ago 6
This is my favorite recording
this concert!!!!
can't beat budd and charlie! oh and dizzy
zammzammbamm 3 years ago
Thank you for posting this. Surely someone must have filmed Bird and Miles at places like this, Paris in '49 or at the Three Deuces and Birdland.
Streamline09 3 years ago
Too all youtubers.
Keep up with updates on the good stuff.
Still looking for the things Miles and Oscar
did together. It's out there. Davis and Peterson rule. God rest thier souls but they will never die. At least not untill I can hear a 12th note.
my
witgw 3 years ago
This is an historic occasion...legends all...
kevinherbert 3 years ago
I'm so glad this was recorded. Those bop musicians were really restricted when recording in studios. The compositions on official albums are always under 3 minutes, giving them no time to fully explore the pieces. In this live recording, we get to see them develop the pieces and show off their legendary talent. One of a kind recording. Absolutely legend.
handsomerob48 3 years ago
this is the best jazz concert in history....
bluetango84 3 years ago 4
Everything @ Massey Hall was MAGICAL...
check it out, you know I'm right!!
jAzz4bb 3 years ago 2
No big deal, unless you have been influenced by Diz, Bird, Bud, Mingus, or Max (I'm guilty on all 5 counts). Something like this happens every 50 years or so. Remember the Declaration of Independence, the Magna Carta, the 1984 Macintosh TV commercial, or the 1896 Paris debut of Alfred Jarry's "Pere Ubu"
CCEX 3 years ago
CCEX: I'm with u......
kevinherbert 3 years ago
One of my favorite CDs in my Jazz collection.
cha5 3 years ago
Side is the best side of music ever! Perdido, Salt Peanuts and All the Things You Are.
livegems 3 years ago
bird is playing the plastic alto( Grafton) i read he'd rented there in Canada for this Massey Hall gig...the city of Kansas City ,Mo. won the horn at auction 9-10 years ago for a bit under 200 K...DIG THAT CRAZY JAZZ!!!
nedmanxxx 4 years ago 2
What happened was that customs and immigration in Toronto had lost his sax, so he went down to a store downtown and bought a plastic one. Went down in the greatest show in history...
myoeman 3 years ago
lol i red he sold his sax for smack :P
ketahoer23 3 years ago 2
someone gave him the grafton saxophone aka the plastic saxophone. im not sure about what happened to the one he had before hand.. it might of gotten lost, or either he sold it, who knows... obviously it didn't matter, he sounded good on anything
Altissimo15 3 years ago
Safe bet that "Bird" pawned it for horse, junk, dope. Oh well, best sounding "plastic saxophone" in the history of the world.
oldschoolpete 3 years ago
As a schoolboy, I spent my "pocket money" buying this recording (vinyl, of course) in about 1957. When I played it at the school jazz club, some said (they were trad jazz fans): "But they're just playing any note."
I realised then that you either "get it," or you don't and they didn't. I didn't go to the jazz club anymore! I still have the record 51 years later. Fantastic to listen to, yet again.
Gruntol5 4 years ago 23
@Gruntol5
sounds so ironic, when i show free jazz to mainstream fans they would say the same. True artists are always ahead of the era. As was Armstrong, as were Parker and Dizzy and this pack, as are Coleman or Taylor (Cecil).
btw i wonder how much is your lp now worth :) 53 years that's something :)
jazzowyalchemik 1 year ago
@Gruntol5
jazzowyalchemik 1 year ago
so many great artists all together , that could happen only at that time (unfortunately)
Anyway they are wonderful just as the song
anvedicepiero 4 years ago
Great!! Bird,Gillespie,Mingus,Roach... What an Ensamble !! and what a song ...!!
This goes into my favs.
Mike, Italy.
minerovox1 4 years ago
Talk about a magic time and place! When in doubt, go see the show! You just may stumble onto a once in a lifetime event like this. People will envy you for the rest of your life. Hell, you'll envy yourself! I'm too young to have been at this one, but am grateful it was recorded. Wish it has been filmed too. I guess people at the time didn't realize what they had there. I've read even Dizzy kept leaving the stage to check up on a baseball game he was following on the radio!
BDWong 4 years ago 2
"I'm too young to have been at this one, but am grateful it was recorded."
Either am I.
dafaveri 2 years ago
There's been lots of debate on this one, but I think the title of Greatest Jazz Concert Ever is well deserved. For the time, this has got to be the most awesome array of artists on their respective instruments ever assembled.
pcarucci 4 years ago
Merci Patrice... via Elfoceane
Joyeuses Fêtes à tous deux!
geranium68 4 years ago
Check out Massey Hall's Perdido' @
Paintings by Mark Erickson - Days Of Mercury-Paint it Black
Garcia42 4 years ago
thank you for posting this. i met max in 1980 & he signed the cover of my vinyl lp of this concert...a very gracious man, rest his soul.
exit7a 4 years ago
merci elfeoceane !
ta vd (rare) est dans ma playlist "jazz, etc"
à bientôt
geranium68 4 years ago
that the classic bird!
tomonsax 4 years ago
LOVE this song! Thank you for posting! :-)
SoulByDzyne 4 years ago 2
greetings from the birthplace of Bird
jimtzu 4 years ago