Last Saturday night I went to Massey Hall to see what has become somewhat of an annual ritual for me - to see a big name jazz show at the famed concert hall. On the bill this night was the Roy Hargrove Quintet with opening act the Bad Plus. To most people in Toronto if you mention Massey Hall they will immediately think of cramped seats built in a by gone era, at times hurting sound, and the odd "obstructed seat" (at least they have the good nature to print it right on the ticket). Speak to anyone in the jazz community outside of Toronto and they will recant that Massey Hall was the sight of what is commonly referred to as the "Greatest Live Jazz Concert Recording". The recording in question is performed by the Quintet (Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus, and Max Roach), a concert that was organized by the Toronto Jazz Society to bring together the great artists from the bop era for a showcase. The recording, which features quite an assortment of lore surrounding it (including Parker playing the entire show on a plastic saxophone and the amount of empty seats in the hall as a result of a title fight booked at the Gardens on the same night) is simply as good as the catalogued title of the album suggest; "The Greatest Jazz Concert Ever".
With that said, you can certainly understand how excited many jazz musicians are to come and play in Toronto. That was certainly the case with the opening act "The Bad Plus", an avant trio from the U.S. that do anything but stick to the standard piano led, bass and drum accompanied grouping. Working their way through a lively, and quite personable opening set that included many tunes from their up coming studio release (look for it in May 2007) The Bad Plus set a great tone for the evening. The group's personality seemed to shine through as you could genuinely sense they were having a great time playing their own material, not to mention an incredibly well paced version of Ornette Coleman's "Song X" and a crowd pleasing rendition of Rush's "Tom Sawyer". They even made a point to pay tribute to old Massey Hall before announcing one of their final selections, an ode if you will from the young lions on stage and the reverence they had for the spirits of the elders who had filled the cavernous ceiling of the building 50 years before them.
A well dressed Roy Hargrove quintet graced the stage 30 minutes later. Hargrove, no stranger to Massey Hall having been apart of the 50th anniversary tribute to the great Quintet set of 1953, was certainly the main attraction of the night. Discovered by Wynton Marsalis as a young trumpet prodigy many years ago, the young Hargrove has been playing to expectations for years. More recently he's been touring with both his live hip hop/funk outfit the "RH Factor" and his quintet, keeping both relevant at the same time. It became apparent early in his set that either he's been playing way too much or not practicing nearly enough. I've personally seen Hargrove in various groupings 5 times over the years, but on this night he definitely sounded flat. Not in energy, but in ability. I commented to my friend Steve early in the set "is this the second or third show he's played today, because he sounds blown out?" As if his lip not producing wasn’t enough, the microphone on his alto player was doing much of the same. The rhythm section seemed to lock up pretty tight, but I couldn't help but be somewhat distracted by the lop-sided amount of energy coming from the drummer's side of the stage.
One thing that has hampered the shows I've seen at Massey from time to time is the inconsistent quality of the sound. Not the natural sound, but the mic'ed up mix that seems to lack the professionalism you expect to receive when you pay $60 (or a lot more in some cases) to see a show that for all purposes should only be seen in a small club anyways. Ever since Norman Granz took jazz out of the clubs with his 1940's series of "Jazz at the Philharmonic" shows, the live jazz experience has taken on all the difficulties putting on big venue concerts has to offer. That said, Hargrove's band came to play and they certainly did play well. It's just too bad in my opinion they had the misfortune of following up the real headliners on this night, The Bad Plus.
A well dressed Roy Hargrove quintet graced the stage 30 minutes later. Hargrove, no stranger to Massey Hall having been apart of the 50th anniversary tribute to the great Quintet set of 1953, was certainly the main attraction of the night. Discovered by Wynton Marsalis as a young trumpet prodigy many years ago, the young Hargrove has been playing to expectations for years. More recently he's been touring with both his live hip hop/funk outfit the "RH Factor" and his quintet, keeping both relevant at the same time. It became apparent early in his set that either he's been playing way too much or not practicing nearly enough. I've personally seen Hargrove in various groupings 5 times over the years, but on this night he definitely sounded flat. Not in energy, but in ability. I commented to my friend Steve early in the set "is this the second or third show he's played today, because he sounds blown out?" As if his lip not producing wasn’t enough, the microphone on his alto player was doing much of the same. The rhythm section seemed to lock up pretty tight, but I couldn't help but be somewhat distracted by the lop-sided amount of energy coming from the drummer's side of the stage.
One thing that has hampered the shows I've seen at Massey from time to time is the inconsistent quality of the sound. Not the natural sound, but the mic'ed up mix that seems to lack the professionalism you expect to receive when you pay $60 (or a lot more in some cases) to see a show that for all purposes should only be seen in a small club anyways. Ever since Norman Granz took jazz out of the clubs with his 1940's series of "Jazz at the Philharmonic" shows, the live jazz experience has taken on all the difficulties putting on big venue concerts has to offer. That said, Hargrove's band came to play and they certainly did play well. It's just too bad in my opinion they had the misfortune of following up the real headliners on this night, The Bad Plus.
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