Calvin "Cal" Massey (January 11, 1928 – October 25, 1972) was an American
jazz
Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a m ...
trumpeter and composer.
Early life
Born in
Philadelphia
Philadelphia, often called Philly, is the List of municipalities in Pennsylvania#Municipalities, largest city in the Commonwealth (U.S. state), Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, the List of United States cities by population, sixth-largest city i ...
,
Pennsylvania
Pennsylvania (; ( Pennsylvania Dutch: )), officially the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania, is a state spanning the Mid-Atlantic, Northeastern, Appalachian, and Great Lakes regions of the United States. It borders Delaware to its southeast, ...
, United States, Massey studied trumpet under Freddie Webster, and following this played in the
big band
A big band or jazz orchestra is a type of musical ensemble of jazz music that usually consists of ten or more musicians with four sections: saxophones, trumpets, trombones, and a rhythm section. Big bands originated during the early 1910s ...
s of
Jay McShann
James Columbus "Jay" McShann (January 12, 1916 – December 7, 2006) was an American jazz pianist, vocalist, composer, and bandleader. He led bands in Kansas City, Missouri, that included Charlie Parker, Bernard Anderson, Walter Brown, and B ...
,
Jimmy Heath
James Edward Heath (October 25, 1926 – January 19, 2020), nicknamed Little Bird, was an American jazz saxophonist, composer, arranger, and big band leader. He was the brother of bassist Percy Heath and drummer Albert Heath.
Biography
Heath w ...
, and
Billie Holiday
Billie Holiday (born Eleanora Fagan; April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959) was an American jazz and swing music singer. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner, Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop s ...
. After that he mainly worked as a composer. Growing up, Massey had two cousins in the Philadelphia area who were, like him, interested in jazz and the arts. Massey's cousin Bill Massey, also a jazz trumpet player, composed music for and played on several
Prestige
Prestige refers to a good reputation or high esteem; in earlier usage, ''prestige'' meant "showiness". (19th c.)
Prestige may also refer to:
Arts, entertainment and media Films
* ''Prestige'' (film), a 1932 American film directed by Tay Garnet ...
recording sessions for alto saxophonist Sonny Stitt in the early 1950s. His cousin Calvin L. Massey (1926–2019), brother of Bill Massey, was also known professionally as Cal Massey and worked as a jazz pianist in the 1960s before becoming a visual artist. Calvin L. Massey worked as monument designer (with sculptures at
Valley Forge
Valley Forge functioned as the third of eight winter encampments for the Continental Army's main body, commanded by General George Washington, during the American Revolutionary War. In September 1777, Congress fled Philadelphia to escape the ...
and
Ellis Island
Ellis Island is a federally owned island in New York Harbor, situated within the U.S. states of New York and New Jersey, that was the busiest immigrant inspection and processing station in the United States. From 1892 to 1954, nearly 12 mil ...
) and illustrator at
Marvel Comics
Marvel Comics is an American comic book publishing, publisher and the flagship property of Marvel Entertainment, a divsion of The Walt Disney Company since September 1, 2009. Evolving from Timely Comics in 1939, ''Magazine Management/Atlas Co ...
, and later was an independent painter and sculptor.
Career
In the mid-1950s, Massey led an ensemble in Philadelphia with Jimmy Garrison,
McCoy Tyner
Alfred McCoy Tyner (December 11, 1938March 6, 2020) was an American jazz pianist and composer known for his work with the John Coltrane Quartet (from 1960 to 1965) and his long solo career afterwards. He was an NEA Jazz Master and five-time Gram ...
John Coltrane
John William Coltrane (September 23, 1926 – July 17, 1967) was an American jazz saxophonist, bandleader and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music.
Born and raise ...
and Donald Byrd played with Massey's group. According to jazz researcher
Fred Ho
Fred Ho (; born Fred Wei-han Houn; August 10, 1957 – April 12, 2014) was an American jazz baritone saxophonist, composer, bandleader, playwright, writer and Marxist social activist.
Biography
He was born in Palo Alto, California,John Steven ...
, after his move to
Brooklyn
Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...
, Massey put together a new group. Tenor saxophonist Roland Alexander told Ho that the group included Alexander and Massey on saxophone and trumpet, with
Sadik Hakim
Sadik Hakim (born Forrest Argonne Thornton; July 15, 1919 – June 20, 1983) was an American jazz pianist and composer.
Early life
Forrest Argonne Thornton was born on July 15, 1919 in Duluth, Minnesota. The name Argonne came from the World War ...
on piano, Roy Standard on bass, and Scoby Stroman on drums. "The band worked such Brooklyn clubs as the Moulin Rouge, The Turbo Village, and The Coronet. The band never worked outside of Brooklyn, according to Alexander. Massey in this period would occasionally do concerts with Sonny Stitt and Coltrane in Philadelphia. Alexander believed that the Brooklyn quartet worked for two or three years." However, Ho writes that according to Massey's wife Charlotte, "they often lived at the edge of poverty. Massey earned most of his money not from performing but from the many arrangements he wrote for local bands and singers."
In the 1950s, he gradually receded from active performance and concentrated on composition; his works were recorded by Coltrane, Tyner, Freddie Hubbard,
Jackie McLean
John Lenwood "Jackie" McLean (May 17, 1931 – March 31, 2006) was an American jazz alto saxophonist, composer, bandleader, and educator, and is one of the few musicians to be elected to the ''DownBeat'' Hall of Fame in the year of their deat ...
,
Lee Morgan
Edward Lee Morgan (July 10, 1938 – February 19, 1972) was an American jazz trumpeter and composer.
One of the key hard bop musicians of the 1960s, Morgan came to prominence in his late teens, recording on John Coltrane's '' Blue Train'' (1 ...
,
Philly Joe Jones
Joseph Rudolph "Philly Joe" Jones (July 15, 1923 – August 30, 1985) was an American jazz drummer.
Biography Early career
As a child, Jones appeared as a featured tap dancer on ''The Kiddie Show'' on the Philadelphia radio station WIP. He wa ...
,
Horace Tapscott
Horace Elva Tapscott (April 6, 1934 – February 27, 1999) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He formed the Pan Afrikan Peoples Arkestra (also known as P.A.P.A., or The Ark) in 1961 and led the ensemble through the 1990s.
Early lif ...
and
Archie Shepp
Archie Shepp (born May 24, 1937) is an American jazz saxophonist, educator and playwright who since the 1960s has played a central part in the development of avant-garde jazz.
Biography Early life
Shepp was born in Fort Lauderdale, Florida, but ...
. Massey played and toured with Shepp from 1969 until 1972. He also performed in The Romas Orchestra with Romulus Franceschini.
Massey died from a heart attack at the age of 44 in
New York City
New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the most densely populated major city in the Un ...
Massey's political standpoint was radical and his work is strongly connected with the
Civil Rights Movement
The civil rights movement was a nonviolent social and political movement and campaign from 1954 to 1968 in the United States to abolish legalized institutional racial segregation, discrimination, and disenfranchisement throughout the Unite ...
of the 1960s and '70s. The Black Panther Party were an inspiration for ''The Black Liberation Movement Suite'' which he created with Franceschini. The ''Suite'' was performed three times at Black Panther benefit concerts. Massey's ideology resulted in him getting blacklisted (or "whitelisted" according to Fred Ho) from major recording companies and only one album was recorded under his name.
Compositions recorded by other artists
''The following is a partial list of Massey compositions recorded by jazz musicians during Massey's lifetime. It is not a comprehensive list of recordings of Massey's works.''
Recorded by John Coltrane
* "Bakai" - '' Coltrane''
* "Nakatini Serenade" - '' The Believer''
* "The Damned Don't Cry" - from ''
Africa/Brass
''Africa/Brass'' is the eighth studio album by jazz musician John Coltrane, released on September 1, 1961 on Impulse! Records. The sixth release for the fledgling label and Coltrane's first for Impulse!, it features Coltrane's working quartet au ...
'' sessions
Recorded by Freddie Hubbard
* "Assunta" - '' Here to Stay''
* "Father and Son" - ''Here to Stay''
Recorded by Lee Morgan
* "These Are Soulful Days" - '' Lee-Way''
* "Nakatini Suite" - ''Lee-Way''
* "The Cry of My People" - ''
The Sixth Sense
''The Sixth Sense'' is a 1999 American psychological thriller film written and directed by M. Night Shyamalan. It stars Bruce Willis as a child psychologist whose patient ( Haley Joel Osment) claims he can see and talk to the dead.
Released ...
''
* "A Pilgrim's Funny Farm" - '' The Rajah''
* "A Baby's Smile" - '' Caramba!''
* "Taru, What's Wrong with You?" - '' Taru''
Recorded by Cedar Walton
* "Lady Charlotte" - ''
Spectrum
A spectrum (plural ''spectra'' or ''spectrums'') is a condition that is not limited to a specific set of values but can vary, without gaps, across a continuum. The word was first used scientifically in optics to describe the rainbow of colors ...
* "Pitchin' Can" - '' Pitchin Can''
* "What Would It Be Without You" - '' For Losers''
* "Dr. King, The Peaceful Warrior" - '' Things Have Got to Change''
* "Things Have Got to Change" (parts 1 and 2) - ''Things Have Got to Change''
* "Good Bye Sweet Pops" - '' Attica Blues''
* "Quiet Dawn" - ''Attica Blues''
* "A Prayer" - '' The Cry of My People''
* "The Cry of My People" - ''The Cry of My People''
* "Bakai" - ''
Kwanza
The kwanza (sign: Kz; ISO 4217 code: ) is the currency of Angola. Four different currencies using the name kwanza have circulated since 1977.
The currency derives its name from the Kwanza River (Cuanza, Coanza, Quanza).
Overview
First kwanza ...
''
Others
* "Fiesta" - Charlie Parker, ''The Genius Of Charlie Parker, #6 - Fiesta'' / '' Bird: The Complete Charlie Parker on Verve''
* "Trinidad" - Herbie Mann and Charlie Rouse, ''
Just Wailin'
''Just Wailin'' is an album recorded by flautist Herbie Mann, tenor saxophonist Charlie Rouse, guitarist Kenny Burrell and pianist Mal Waldron in 1958 for the New Jazz label.Blues for Dracula''
* "Funky London" - Houston Person, '' Blue Odyssey''
* "I Thought I'd Let You Know" - McCoy Tyner, '' Expansions''
Music written for theatrical productions
* ''Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy'', a musical play, several songs (Massey's last work)
Tribute album
* ''The Music of Cal Massey: A Tribute'', recorded by Fred Ho, Quincy Saul and the Green Monster Band
Recordings by Cal Massey
* ''Blues to Coltrane'', recorded by the Candid label on January 13, 1961 at Nola Penthouse Sound Studio in New York City. First released in 1987, and again in 2006, features Massey on trumpet. All the compositions on the album are by Massey; it was the only album recorded under Massey's name.
Other musicians on the album are:
*
Julius Watkins
Julius Watkins (October 10, 1921 – April 4, 1977) was an American jazz musician who played French horn. Described by AllMusic as "virtually the father of the jazz French horn", Watkins won the ''Down Beat'' critics poll in 1960 and 1961 for M ...