If you Google “the greatest jazz concert ever,” you’ll be delighted to find that such an historic event took place at our own Massey Hall. Now, I’ll admit that it’s not quite a fair search: “The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever” is the subtitle of a live album of concert conveniently called Jazz at Massey Hall, but we’ll take the accolades just the same.
We’re now nearing what promises to be another epic concert — Herbie Hancock and Lang Lang at dueling pianos, with orchestra, are performing this Wednesday — and this has gotten us all reflecting on the history of jazz collaborations at Massey Hall.
Just what, you may be wondering, was this greatest of jazz shows? It took place in 1953 and featured Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach playing as a quintet together for the first and only time in their lives. Despite its greatness (and Greatness), the concert was poorly attended — in large part because it was competing against a live televised broadcast of a boxing match between Rocky Marciano and Jersey Joe Walcott. (Incidentally, boxing matches were also popular events at Massey Hall once upon a time.) Although only a few caught the show in person, the live album remains a vital piece in many jazz lovers’ collections.
Fifty years after the legendary Jazz at Massey Hall recording, an anniversary concert saw a new quintet take the stage: Herbie Hancock and Roy Hargrove returned to Massey Hall, where they’d both played previously, and were joined by bassist Dave Holland, drummer Roy Haynes, and saxaphonist Kenny Garrett — this time to play to a full house. History was in the air as a seventeen-piece Massey Hall All-Stars Band, which included some of the members of the original 1953 concert, opened for the quintet. Max Roach himself, the only surviving member of the original quintet, was an honoured guest.
Hancock and Lang Lang, in their bid to join the history of great jazz collaborations at Massey Hall, seem to have learned a bit from history: though it isn’t quite a boxing match, their dueling pianos won’t give us any excuse to wander elsewhere for a rousing battle.
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