Requisites
Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie recorded the live bebop album Jazz At Massey Hall on May 15, 1953 in Toronto, Canada. With him on this date were bassist Charles Mingus, drummer Max Roach, pianist Bud Powell and saxophonist Charlie Parker who is billed as Charlie Chan for contractual reasons, an allusion to the fictional detective and to Parker’s wife Chan. It was the only time these five men recorded as a unit and the last recorded meeting of Parker and Gillespie.
The session was produced by Charles Mingus, and was originally released on Mingus’s label Debut, from a recording made by the Toronto New Jazz Society. Due to under-recording of the bass lines, Mingus took the recording to New York where he and Max Roach dubbed in the bass lines on most of the tunes, exchanging Mingus soloing on All The Things You Are. However, a 2004 reissue, Complete Jazz At Massey Hall contains the full concert without the overdubbing.
The original issue was as a two 10” LPs, 46:54 in length and and the cover design had five playing cards, with Gillespie as the Joker. The set on Volume 1 contains the tracks Perdido, Salt Peanuts, All The Things You Are and 52nd Street Theme. Volume 3 has Wee, Hot House and A Night In Tunisia. Volume 2 consisted of the trio recordings of Powell, Mingus and Roach from the same date all but I’ve Got You Under My Skin and one track by Billy Taylor with Mingus and Roach from a later date.
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Three Wishes
The wishes given by Sonny Payne resulted in combining all three in one answer…
- “Health, wealth and happiness.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats – Complied and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
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Three Wishes
The question of three wishes was put to Elvin Jones by the baroness and he said…
- “Peace on earth.”
- “Complete acceptance and recognition of this music as a pure art form.”
- “To see an end of suffering for humanity.”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats – Complied and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
Three Wishes
When the Baroness Pannonica asked drummer Philly Joe Jones what his three wishes were he responded…
-
- “Money”
- “Money”
- “Money”
*Excerpt from Three Wishes: An Intimate Look at Jazz Greats – Complied and Photographed by Pannonica de Koenigswarter
Daily Dose Of Jazz…
Joseph Alison Harris was born on December 23, 1926 in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania and took lessons at an early age from Pittsburgh native Bill Hammond, an acclaimed master of traditional rudimental drumming. The training gave him the ability to sit in with a band or orchestra and quickly sight-read almost any style of music. While still in his teens he hit the road playing in big-band ensembles for a globe-trotting career as one of the most versatile jazz drummers of his time, one of the last survivors of the golden era of bebop.
A former Pittsburgh band mate, bassist Ray Brown who had joined Dizzy Gillespie’s pioneering bebop band, arranged for Joe to audition for the drum chair, leading to be a member of the group. Fired for demanding overtime pay for a rehearsal, they later reconciled.
Remaining in high demand throughout his career, he married, lived and played in Sweden for five years during the Fifties, welcoming the contrast from the racial prejudices of the United States. Harris toured Europe with a band led by Quincy Jones, joined a state-run band at Radio Free Berlin and accompanied Charlie Parker, Ella Fitzgerald, Sarah Vaughan, Sonny Rollins, Stan Getz, Billie Holiday and many other greats.
He spent his last decades at his Manchester home, teaching jazz history and drums for years at the University of Pittsburgh, tapered back his performing schedule and mentored younger jazz musicians. Drummer and educator Joe Harris passed away on January 27, 2016 at age of 89.
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