Massey Hall Toronto 1953: Night in Tunisia

[@Gruntol5]

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.

[@Snakedoctor182]

Thank you for posting,, I've been trying to find this for 30 years

[@metius66]

The most beautiful and astonishing 4 bars break in the history of jazz!

[@1953jazzman]

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.

[@dee_dee_place]

I could listen to these wonderful musicians all day & all night. I miss not having 'true' jazz clubs anymore. I'm sure they rehearsed their pieces but they always sounded impromptu & right on the money. Thank You for posting this.

[@minerovox1]

Great!! Bird,Gillespie,Mingus,Roach... What an Ensamble !! and what a song ...!! This goes into my favs. Mike, Italy.

[@HectorGallegosmusic]

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.

[@渡邉政雄-t3s]

伝説のカナダトロントのマッセイホールコンサートです。当日はホール向かいでプロボクシングのチャンピオンを決める試合があったそうです。

[@cha5]

One of my favorite CDs in my Jazz collection.

[@exit7a355]

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.

[@TheRealG2024]

the sheer breadth and scope of parkers influence on EVERYBODY is truly stunning.

[@UkuleleAversion]

+Geoff Bournes I had never heard Charlie Parker's music until now. Man, this guy was not only influential, but also a lyrical and rhythmic iconoclast. The influence he had on Eric Dolphy is apparent to me now. But this makes me wonder.... Where did Bird get his ideas from?

[@manualvarado2212]

It's a very good question. Of course he also took inspiration from older jazz musicians. I don't know, Bix, Armstrong? But with very innovative ideas. Who knows, there has to be something genuinely new also.

[@franksinbeans]

yeah for sure, i just looked up parker, found all these of my favourite jazz artists all in one! magic

[@zammzammbamm]

This is my favorite recording this concert!!!! can't beat budd and charlie! oh and dizzy

[@paulostroff99]

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.

[@54spiritedwill54]

LOVE this song!

[@spamsanne]

Definitely my favourite version!!! Amazing quintet! Thanks for the uploading!

[@livegems]

Side is the best side of music ever! Perdido, Salt Peanuts and All the Things You Are.

[@jazzalex22]

Jazz at Massey Hall: The best concert album ever made. So many amazing songs. Here's a message to kids today: Jazz at Massey Hall beats the crap out of One Direction's This is Us, and Glee live in concert.

[@ckymadam]

Best quintet ever!

[@brayanhabidcol]

I think this is the best performance in a plastic sax ever.

[@DoraAshes]

amazing

[@jaikwillis]

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

[@tontonsalut]

Yes, Peter King (alto sax extraordinaire) plays this sax on the video you're talking about !

[@dafaveri]

"I'm too young to have been at this one, but am grateful it was recorded." Either am I.

[@gcrav]

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.

[@MarkErickson-Painter]

Check out Massey Hall's Perdido' @ Paintings by Mark Erickson - Days Of Mercury-Paint it Black

[@jimyjames1465]

There is a great book called Cool blues about the Toronto and Montreal visits CP made..plus many other things surrounding these shows..Great book.. RIP Cats..

[@lambertobiagi9306]

non capisci molto di jazz. Il cool blues è tutta un'altra cosa. Questo è puro Be Pop Lamberto

[@Harry-zc8rg]

Blasphemy perhaps but this is my favorite break. Parker plays something slower but just as spine tingling to me.

[@aaronamccoy]

bird was rockin that grafton

[@jazzowyalchemik]

@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 :)

[@shufflephunk]

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 :)

[@lorena.stephanie]

Bonita música *_*

[@RonaldStewart]

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

[@jaikwillis]

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.

[@CCEX]

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"

[@aaronamccoy]

no doubt..he was my main teacher, him and trane

[@BuckshotLaFunke1]

He played the plastic alto sax because the King company threatened him with a lawsuit if he continued playing such dazzling breaks on Night In Tunisia and he had pawned his shoes and Miles ran into him and Mingus consumed an ox on his own and and and...

[@shufflephunk]

pretty good and expensive ;)

[@jimtzu]

greetings from the birthplace of Bird

[@drummerdoc]

No It was the Toronto Jazz Society that invited them

[@jazzowyalchemik]

@Gruntol5

[@gjazz22]

I understand they did the show in canada because of the record ban of the mid 50s.

[@lastknowngood0]

Some of the Founders sans Monk!

[@TheTravisAustin]

sounds nothing loke our version :p

[@moshepotts]

Unroooooooool.....

[@ketahoer23]

lol i red he sold his sax for smack :P

[@jaikwillis]

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.