The Pop Story

The Quintet - Jazz at Massey Hall (1953)

Charlie Parker via last.fm

This is subtitled ‘The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever’. These jazz dudes go in for this sort of thing a lot. It’s all ‘The Most Wow Sound in Town’ and ‘The Solo That Changed the World’. It’s admirable - imagine any bands today having the balls (‘The Maccabees: The Indie Sound from Just Over There’).

So here we have Parker, Gillespie, Bud Powell, Charlie Mingus and Max Roach all together doing their thing. In pop terms this is like Lennon, Jagger, Ginger Baker and Noel Redding playing in the same band. Hot stuff, and to these untrained ears it sounds joyously melodic and free - although I continue to feel like I’m trapped in a never-ending episode of Mad Men.

Jazz at Massey Hall on Spotify