Cal Massey

Born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Massey studied trumpet under Freddie Webster, and following this played in the big bands of Jay McShann, Jimmy Heath, and Billie Holiday. After that he mainly worked as a composer.[2]. 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 Records recording sessions for alto saxophonist Sonny Stitt in the early 1950s. His cousin Calvin L. Massey (1926-2019), who also known professionally as Cal Massey (and who was a brother to Bill Massey) was a jazz pianist in the 1960s before becoming a visual artist. Calvin L. Massey worked as monument designer (with sculptures at Valley Forge and Ellis Island) and illustrator at Marvel Comics, and later was an independent painter and sculptor.[3]

In the mid-1950s, Massey led an ensemble in Philadelphia with Jimmy Garrison, McCoy Tyner, and Tootie Heath.[4] On occasion, guests including John Coltrane and Donald Byrd played with Massey's group. According to jazz researcher Fred Ho, after his move to Brooklyn, 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 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."[5]

In the 1950s he gradually receded from active performance and concentrated on composition; his works were recorded by Coltrane, Tyner, Freddie Hubbard, Jackie McLean, Lee Morgan, Philly Joe Jones, Horace Tapscott and Archie Shepp. Massey played and toured with Shepp from 1969 until 1972. He also performed in The Romas Orchestra with Romulus Franceschini.[2]

Massey died from a heart attack at the age of 44 in New York City, New York.[1][6] His son, Zane Massey (born 1957), is also a jazz musician.

Massey's political standpoint was radical and his work is strongly connected with the Civil Rights Movement 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.[7]

The following is a partial list of Massey compositions recorded by notable jazz musicians during Massey's lifetime. It it not a comprehensive list of recordings of Massey's works.

• Lady Day: A Musical Tragedy, a musical play, several songs (Massey's last work)

• The Music of Cal Massey: A Tribute, recorded by Fred Ho, Quincy Saul and the Green Monster Band[8]

• Blues to Coltrane, on Candid, recorded on January 13, 1961, and first released in 1987,[9] and again in 2006, features Massey on trumpet.[6]

The compositions on the album are his. It was recorded at Nola Penthouse Sound Studio in New York City and distributed by Black Lion Records. The five-track album is described as "...a very honest session with real depth and a rewarding listen".[9] It is the only album recorded under Massey's name.[7]

Other musicians on the album are:[7][9]

• Julius Watkins, French horn
• Patti Bown, piano
• Jimmy Garrison, bass
• Hugh Brodie, tenor saxophone
• G. T. Hogan, drums

• Ho, Fred (2009). "The Damned Don't Cry: The Life and Music of Calvin Massey". Wicked Theory, Naked Practice: A Fred Ho Reader (University of Minnesota Press).

• Cal Massey discography at Discogs
• Video of Cal Massey's Black Liberation Movement Suite Part One