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Cal Massey

Calvin Massey was an American jazz trumpeter and composer. Massey studied trumpet under Freddie Webster, and following this played in the big bands of Jay McShann, Jimmy Heath, and Billie Holiday. In the late 1950s he led an ensemble with Jimmy Garrison, McCoy Tyner, and Tootie Heath; John Coltrane and Donald Byrd occasionally played with them. In the 1950s he gradually receded from active performance and concentrated on composition; his works were recorded by Coltrane, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Lee Morgan, Philly Joe Jones, and Archie Shepp. Massey played with Shepp from 1969 until 1972. He also performed in The Romas Orchestra with Romulus Franceschini. His last composition was Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy.

Cal Massey: Blues to Coltrane

Read "Blues to Coltrane" reviewed by Samuel Chell

by Samuel Chell
January 16, 2008

This is the only recording by the luckless, quasi-legendary trumpeter-composer Cal Massey, whose elliptical, often anonymous career can be a challenge to piece together. Some close followers of the music are aware of the late musician, at least by name, because of “These Are Soulful Days," a composition programmed by trumpeter Lee Morgan (Lee-Way, Blue Note, 1960) and subsequently recorded by pianist Benny Green and organists Don Patterson and Joey DeFrancesco. For others, the name registers because of pianist Stanley ...

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Performance / Tour

Celebrating Cal Massey: Fred Ho and Salim Washington Concert on April 22

Source: Michael Ricci
March 24, 2010

CELEBRATING CAL MASSEY with Fred Ho & the Afro Asian Music Ensemble and Salim Washington & the Brooklyn College Big Band Thursday, April 22, 7 pm, Gershwin Theater Brooklyn College, Campus Road and Hillel Place FREE to Public This concert features a rare performance of the gifted composer and trumpeter Cal Massey's piece, The Black Liberation Movement Suite. Presented by the H. Wiley Hitchcock Institute for Studies in American Music and The Central Brooklyn Jazz Consortium ...
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Music Industry