Video: Massey Hall Toronto 1953: Night in Tunisia

NICK DERISO: A furious cry against the dying of the light around bebop, this 1953 show included a fivesome (dubbed, simply, "The Quintet") from some hipster dream: trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, saxist Charlie Parker, pianist Bud Powell and drummer Max Roach. Add to that the restless imagination of bassist Charlie Mingus, who was still rounding into shape, and you have an album first presented as tribute that, in fact, becomes an opportunity for re-examination. If only it was better documented. Unfortunately, "Jazz at Massey Hall" was recorded from this Canadian [...]