John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) 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 ...
trumpet
The trumpet is a brass instrument commonly used in classical and jazz ensembles. The trumpet group ranges from the piccolo trumpet—with the highest register in the brass family—to the bass trumpet, pitched one octave below the standard ...
er, bandleader, composer, educator and singer.
He was a trumpet
virtuoso and
improviser
Improvisation is the activity of making or doing something not planned beforehand, using whatever can be found. Improvisation in the performing arts is a very spontaneous performance without specific or scripted preparation. The skills of impr ...
, building on the virtuosic style of
Roy Eldridge
David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989), nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from ...
but adding layers of
harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called
bebop
Bebop or bop is a style of jazz developed in the early-to-mid-1940s in the United States. The style features compositions characterized by a fast tempo, complex chord progressions with rapid chord changes and numerous changes of key, instrumen ...
. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles,
scat singing
In vocal jazz, scat singing is vocal improvisation with wordless vocables, nonsense syllables or without words at all. In scat singing, the singer improvises melodies and rhythms using the voice as an instrument rather than a speaking medium. ...
, bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality provided one of bebop's most prominent symbols.
In the 1940s, Gillespie, with
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz.
He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
,
Jon Faddis,
Fats Navarro
Theodore "Fats" Navarro (September 24, 1923 – July 6, 1950) was an American jazz trumpet player. He was a pioneer of the bebop style of jazz improvisation in the 1940s. He had a strong stylistic influence on many other players, including Cl ...
,
Clifford Brown,
Arturo Sandoval
Arturo Sandoval is a Cuban-American jazz trumpeter, pianist, and composer. While living in his native Cuba, Sandoval was influenced by jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1977 he met Gillespie, who became his f ...
,
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 ...
,
Chuck Mangione
Charles Frank Mangione ( ; born November 29, 1940) is an American flugelhorn player, voice actor, trumpeter and composer.
He came to prominence as a member of Art Blakey's band in the 1960s, and later co-led the Jazz Brothers with his brother ...
,
and balladeer
Johnny Hartman
John Maurice Hartman (July 3, 1923 – September 15, 1983) was an American jazz singer who specialized in ballads. He sang and recorded with Earl Hines' and Dizzy Gillespie's big bands and with Erroll Garner. Hartman is best remembered for his ...
.
He pioneered
Afro-Cuban jazz
Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of Latin jazz. It mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban music has deep roots in African ritual and rhythm.{{cite web, Cuba: Son and Afro-Cuban ...
and won several
Grammy Awards.
Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up being similar to those of Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated
...Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time".
Biography
Early life and career
The youngest of nine children of Lottie and James Gillespie, Dizzy Gillespie was born in
Cheraw, South Carolina
Cheraw ( , ) is a city on the Pee Dee River in Chesterfield County, South Carolina, United States. The population was 5,040 at the 2020 census. The greater Cheraw area in the zip code 29520 has a population of 13,689 according to the 2019 ACS ...
.
His father was a local bandleader,
so instruments were made available to the children. Gillespie started to play the piano at the age of four. Gillespie's father died when he was only ten years old. He taught himself how to play the trombone as well as the trumpet by the age of twelve. From the night he heard his idol,
Roy Eldridge
David Roy Eldridge (January 30, 1911 – February 26, 1989), nicknamed "Little Jazz", was an American jazz trumpeter. His sophisticated use of harmony, including the use of tritone substitutions, his virtuosic solos exhibiting a departure from ...
, on the radio, he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician.
He won a music scholarship to the
Laurinburg Institute
Laurinburg Institute is a historic African American preparatory school in Laurinburg, North Carolina. The school was founded in 1904 by Emmanuel Monty and Tinny McDuffie at the request of Booker T. Washington. Emmanuel McDuffie was a graduate ...
in North Carolina which he attended for two years before accompanying his family when they moved to Philadelphia in 1935.
Gillespie's first professional job was with the
Frank Fairfax
Frank Thurmond Fairfax (25 November 189925 January 1972) was the organizer of Philadelphia's Protective Union Local 274 (1935–1971), a charter of the American Federation of Musicians (AFM/AFofM) for black musicians. Fairfax was also a bandleader, ...
Orchestra in 1935, after which he joined the respective orchestras of
Edgar Hayes
Edgar Junius Hayes (May 23, 1902 – June 28, 1979) was an American jazz pianist and bandleader.
Born in Lexington, Kentucky, United States, Hayes attended Wilberforce University, where he graduated with a degree in music in the early 1920 ...
and later
Teddy Hill, replacing Frankie Newton as second trumpet in May 1937. Teddy Hill's band was where Gillespie made his first recording, "King Porter Stomp". In August 1937 while gigging with Hayes in Washington D.C., Gillespie met a young dancer named Lorraine Willis who worked a Baltimore–Philadelphia–New York City circuit which included the
Apollo Theater. Willis was not immediately friendly but Gillespie was attracted anyway. The two married on May 9, 1940.
Gillespie stayed with Teddy Hill's band for a year, then left and freelanced with other bands.
In 1939, with the help of Willis, Gillespie joined
Cab Calloway's orchestra.
He recorded one of his earliest compositions, "Pickin' the Cabbage", with Calloway in 1940. After an altercation between the two, Calloway fired Gillespie in late 1941. The incident is recounted by Gillespie and Calloway's band members
Milt Hinton
Milton John Hinton (June 23, 1910 – December 19, 2000) was an American double bassist and photographer.
Regarded as the Dean of American jazz bass players, his nicknames included "Sporty" from his years in Chicago, "Fump" from his time on the ...
and
Jonah Jones
Jonah Jones (born Robert Elliott Jones; December 31, 1909 – April 29, 2000) was a jazz trumpeter who created concise versions of jazz and swing and jazz standards that appealed to a mass audience. In the jazz community, he is known for his wo ...
in
Jean Bach's 1997 film, ''The Spitball Story''. Calloway disapproved of Gillespie's mischievous humor and his adventuresome approach to soloing. According to Jones, Calloway referred to it as "Chinese music". During rehearsal, someone in the band threw a spitball. Already in a foul mood, Calloway blamed Gillespie, who refused to take the blame. Gillespie stabbed Calloway in the leg with a knife. Calloway had minor cuts on the thigh and wrist. After the two were separated, Calloway fired Gillespie. A few days later, Gillespie tried to apologize to Calloway, but he was dismissed.
During his time in Calloway's band, Gillespie started writing big band music for
Woody Herman
Woodrow Charles Herman (May 16, 1913 – October 29, 1987) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, singer, and big band leader. Leading groups called "The Herd", Herman came to prominence in the late 1930s and was active until his dea ...
and
Jimmy Dorsey
James Francis Dorsey (February 29, 1904 – June 12, 1957) was an American jazz clarinetist, saxophonist, composer and big band leader. He recorded and composed the jazz and pop standards " I'm Glad There Is You (In This World of Ordinary Peop ...
.
He then freelanced with a few bands, most notably
Ella Fitzgerald
Ella Jane Fitzgerald (April 25, 1917June 15, 1996) was an American jazz singer, sometimes referred to as the "First Lady of Song", "Queen of Jazz", and "Lady Ella". She was noted for her purity of tone, impeccable diction, phrasing, timing, in ...
's orchestra, composed of members of the
Chick Webb's band.
Gillespie did not serve in
World War II
World War II or the Second World War, often abbreviated as WWII or WW2, was a world war that lasted from 1939 to 1945. It involved the vast majority of the world's countries—including all of the great powers—forming two opposing ...
. At his
Selective Service
The Selective Service System (SSS) is an independent agency of the United States government that maintains information on U.S. citizens and other U.S. residents potentially subject to military conscription (i.e., the draft) and carries out contin ...
interview, he told the local board, "in this stage of my life here in the United States whose foot has been in my ass?" and "So if you put me out there with a gun in my hand and tell me to shoot at the enemy, I'm liable to create a case of 'mistaken identity' of who I might shoot." He was classified
4-F.
In 1943, he joined the
Earl Hines band. Composer
Gunther Schuller
Gunther Alexander Schuller (November 22, 1925June 21, 2015) was an American composer, conductor, horn player, author, historian, educator, publisher, and jazz musician.
Biography and works
Early years
Schuller was born in Queens, New York City ...
said,
... In 1943 I heard the great Earl Hines band which had Bird in it and all those other great musicians. They were playing all the flatted fifth chords and all the modern harmonies and substitutions and Gillespie runs in the trumpet section work. Two years later I read that that was 'bop' and the beginning of modern jazz ... but the band never made recordings.
Gillespie said of the Hines band, "
ople talk about the Hines band being 'the incubator of bop' and the leading exponents of that music ended up in the Hines band. But people also have the erroneous impression that the music was new. It was not. The music evolved from what went before. It was the same basic music. The difference was in how you got from here to here to here ... naturally each age has got its own shit."
Gillespie joined 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 ...
of Hines' long-time collaborator
Billy Eckstine, and it was as a member of Eckstine's band that he was reunited with
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
, a fellow member. In 1945, Gillespie left Eckstine's band because he wanted to play with a small combo. A "small combo" typically comprised no more than five musicians, playing the trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums.
Rise of bebop
Bebop was known as the first modern jazz style. However, it was unpopular in the beginning and was not viewed as positively as swing music was. Bebop was seen as an outgrowth of swing, not a revolution. Swing introduced a diversity of new musicians in the bebop era like
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
,
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", ...
,
Bud Powell,
Kenny Clarke
Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914January 26, 1985), nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. A major innovator of the bebop style of drumming, he pioneered the use of the ride cymbal to keep time rather than the hi-ha ...
,
Oscar Pettiford
Oscar Pettiford (September 30, 1922 – September 8, 1960) was an American jazz double bassist, cellist and composer. He was one of the earliest musicians to work in the bebop idiom.
Biography
Pettiford was born in Okmulgee, Oklahoma, United ...
, and Gillespie. Through these musicians, a new vocabulary of musical phrases was created. With Parker, Gillespie jammed at famous jazz clubs like
Minton's Playhouse
Minton's Playhouse is a jazz club and bar located on the first floor of the Cecil Hotel at 210 West 118th Street in Harlem, Manhattan, New York City. It is a registered trademark of Housing and Services, Inc. a New York City nonprofit provider ...
and
Monroe's Uptown House. Parker's system also held methods of adding chords to existing chord progressions and implying additional chords within the improvised lines
Gillespie compositions like "
Groovin' High
"Groovin' High" is an influential 1945 song by jazz composer and trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie. The song was a bebop mainstay that became a jazz standard, one of Gillespie's best known hits, and according to ''Bebop: The Music and Its Players'' author ...
", "
Woody 'n' You "Woody 'n' You", is a 1942 jazz standard written by Dizzy Gillespie as an homage to Woody Herman. It was one of three arrangements Gillespie made for Herman's big band, although it was not used at the time; the other two were "Swing Shift" and "Do ...
", and "
Salt Peanuts
"Salt Peanuts" is a bebop tune reportedly composed by Dizzy Gillespie in 1942, credited "with the collaboration of" drummer Kenny Clarke. It is also cited as Charlie Parker's. The original lyrics have no exophoric meaning. Instead, they are a skat ...
" sounded radically different, harmonically and rhythmically, from the
swing music popular at the time. "
A Night in Tunisia", written in 1942, while he was playing with Earl Hines' band, is noted for having a feature that is common in today's music: a syncopated bass line.
"Woody 'n' You" was recorded in a session led by
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...
with Gillespie as a featured sideman on February 16, 1944 (
Apollo
Apollo, grc, Ἀπόλλωνος, Apóllōnos, label=genitive , ; , grc-dor, Ἀπέλλων, Apéllōn, ; grc, Ἀπείλων, Apeílōn, label= Arcadocypriot Greek, ; grc-aeo, Ἄπλουν, Áploun, la, Apollō, la, Apollinis, label ...
), the first formal recording of bebop. He appeared in recordings by the Billy Eckstine band and started recording prolifically as a leader and sideman in early 1945. He was not content to let bebop sit in a niche of small groups in small clubs. A concert by one of his small groups in New York's Town Hall on June 22, 1945 presented bebop to a broad audience; recordings of it were released in 2005. He started to organize big bands in late 1945. Dizzy Gillespie and his Bebop Six, which included Parker, started an extended gig at
Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles in December 1945. Reception was mixed and the band broke up. In February 1946 he signed a contract with
Bluebird
The bluebirds are a North American group of medium-sized, mostly insectivorous or omnivorous birds in the order of Passerines in the genus ''Sialia'' of the thrush family (Turdidae). Bluebirds are one of the few thrush genera in the Americas.
...
, gaining the distribution power of RCA for his music. He and his big band headlined the 1946 film ''
Jivin' in Be-Bop''.
After his work with Parker, Gillespie led other small combos (including ones with
Milt Jackson,
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 ...
,
Lalo Schifrin,
Ray Brown,
Kenny Clarke
Kenneth Clarke Spearman (January 9, 1914January 26, 1985), nicknamed Klook, was an American jazz drummer and bandleader. A major innovator of the bebop style of drumming, he pioneered the use of the ride cymbal to keep time rather than the hi-ha ...
,
James Moody,
J.J. Johnson
J.J. Johnson (January 22, 1924 – February 4, 2001), born James Louis Johnson and also known as Jay Jay Johnson, was an American jazz trombonist, composer and arranger.
Johnson was one of the earliest trombonists to embrace bebop.
Biography ...
, and
Yusef Lateef
Yusef Abdul Lateef (born William Emanuel Huddleston; October 9, 1920 – December 23, 2013) was an American jazz multi-instrumentalist, composer, and prominent figure among the Ahmadiyya Community in America.
Although Lateef's main instruments ...
) and put together his successful big bands starting in 1947. He and his big bands, with arrangements provided by
Tadd Dameron
Tadley Ewing Peake Dameron (February 21, 1917 – March 8, 1965) was an American jazz composer, arranger, and pianist.
Biography
Born in Cleveland, Ohio, Dameron was the most influential arranger of the bebop era, but also wrote charts for swin ...
,
Gil Fuller
Walter Gilbert "Gil" Fuller (April 14, 1920, Los Angeles, California – May 26, 1994, San Diego, California) was an American jazz arranger. He is no relation to the jazz trumpeter and vocalist Walter "Rosetta" Fuller.
In the 1930s and 1940s, Fu ...
, and
George Russell, popularized bebop and made him a symbol of the new music.
His big bands of the late 1940s also featured Cuban ''
rumberos''
Chano Pozo
Luciano Pozo González (January 7, 1915 – December 3, 1948), known professionally as Chano Pozo, was a Cuban jazz percussionist, singer, dancer, and composer. Despite only living to age 33, he played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz. ...
and
Sabu Martinez, sparking interest in Afro-Cuban jazz. He appeared frequently as a soloist with
Norman Granz
Norman Granz (August 6, 1918 – November 22, 2001) was an American jazz record producer and concert promoter. He founded the record labels Clef, Norgran, Down Home, Verve, and Pablo. Granz was acknowledged as "the most successful impres ...
's
Jazz at the Philharmonic
Jazz at the Philharmonic, or JATP (1944–1983), was the title of a series of jazz concerts, tours and recordings produced by Norman Granz.
Over the years, "Jazz at the Philharmonic" featured many of the era's preeminent musicians, including Lou ...
.
Gillespie and his Bee Bop Orchestra was the featured star of the 4th Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at
Wrigley Field
Wrigley Field is a Major League Baseball (MLB) stadium on the North Side of Chicago, Illinois. It is the home of the Chicago Cubs, one of the city's two MLB franchises. It first opened in 1914 as Weeghman Park for Charles Weeghman's Chicago ...
in Los Angeles which was produced by
Leon Hefflin, Sr. on September 12, 1948. The young maestro had recently returned from Europe where his music rocked the continent. The program description noted "the musicianship, inventive technique, and daring of this young man has created a new style, which can be defined as off the chord solo gymnastics." Also on the program that day were
Frankie Laine,
Little Miss Cornshucks
Little Miss Cornshucks (or Lil' Miss Cornshucks) was the stage name of Mildred Jorman (born Mildred Elizabeth Cummings; May 26, 1923 – November 11, 1999). She was an American rhythm and blues and jazz singer and songwriter. In her stage show ...
,
The Sweethearts of Rhythm,
The Honeydrippers
The Honeydrippers were an English rock and roll band of the 1980s, deriving their name from Roosevelt Sykes, an American blues singer also known as "Honeydripper". Former Led Zeppelin lead singer Robert Plant formed the group in 1981 to sati ...
,
Big Joe Turner,
Jimmy Witherspoon
James Witherspoon (August 8, 1920 – September 18, 1997) was an American jump blues singer.
Early life, family and education
Witherspoon was born in Gurdon, Arkansas. His father was a railroad worker who sang in local choirs, and his mot ...
, The Blenders, and The Sensations.
In 1948, Gillespie was involved in a traffic accident when the bicycle he was riding was bumped by an automobile. He was slightly injured and found that he could no longer hit the B-flat above high C. He won the case, but the jury awarded him only $1000 in view of his high earnings up to that point.
In 1951, Gillespie founded his record label,
Dee Gee Records; it closed in 1953.
On January 6, 1953, he threw a party for his wife Lorraine at Snookie's, a club in Manhattan, where his trumpet's bell got bent upward in an accident, but he liked the sound so much he had a special trumpet made with a 45 degree raised bell, becoming his trademark.
In 1956 Gillespie organized a band to go on a State Department tour of the Middle East which was well-received internationally and earned him the nickname "the Ambassador of Jazz". During this time, he also continued to lead a big band that performed throughout the United States and featured musicians including
Pee Wee Moore
Numa Smith "Pee Wee" Moore (March 5, 1928 in Raleigh, North Carolina – April 13, 2009) was an American jazz saxophonist.Zagier, Alan Scher. News and Observer (Durham, NC). "Jazzman doesn’t sing the blues." 2/22/1999
Moore attended Washin ...
and others. This band recorded
a live album at the 1957 Newport jazz festival that featured
Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, an ...
as a guest artist on piano.
Afro-Cuban jazz
In the late 1940s, Gillespie was involved in the movement called
Afro-Cuban music Music of African heritage in Cuba derives from the musical traditions of the many ethnic groups from different parts of West Africa that were brought to Cuba as slaves between the 16th and 19th centuries. Members of some of these groups formed thei ...
, bringing
Afro-Latin American music and elements to greater prominence in jazz and even pop music, particularly
salsa
Salsa most often refers to:
* Salsa (Mexican cuisine), a variety of sauces used as condiments
* Salsa music, a popular style of Latin American music
* Salsa (dance), a Latin dance associated with Salsa music
Salsa or SALSA may also refer to:
...
.
Afro-Cuban jazz
Afro-Cuban jazz is the earliest form of Latin jazz. It mixes Afro-Cuban clave-based rhythms with jazz harmonies and techniques of improvisation. Afro-Cuban music has deep roots in African ritual and rhythm.{{cite web, Cuba: Son and Afro-Cuban ...
is based on traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms. Gillespie was introduced to
Chano Pozo
Luciano Pozo González (January 7, 1915 – December 3, 1948), known professionally as Chano Pozo, was a Cuban jazz percussionist, singer, dancer, and composer. Despite only living to age 33, he played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz. ...
in 1947 by
Mario Bauza
is a character created by Japanese video game designer Shigeru Miyamoto. He is the title character of the '' Mario'' franchise and the mascot of Japanese video game company Nintendo. Mario has appeared in over 200 video games since his ...
, a Latin jazz trumpet player. Chano Pozo became Gillespie's conga drummer for his band. Gillespie also worked with Mario Bauza in New York jazz clubs on 52nd Street and several famous dance clubs such as the
Palladium
Palladium is a chemical element with the symbol Pd and atomic number 46. It is a rare and lustrous silvery-white metal discovered in 1803 by the English chemist William Hyde Wollaston. He named it after the asteroid Pallas, which was itself na ...
and the
Apollo Theater in
Harlem
Harlem is a neighborhood in Upper Manhattan, New York City. It is bounded roughly by the Hudson River on the west; the Harlem River and 155th Street on the north; Fifth Avenue on the east; and Central Park North on the south. The greater Ha ...
. They played together in the Chick Webb band and Cab Calloway's band, where Gillespie and Bauza became lifelong friends. Gillespie helped develop and mature the Afro-Cuban jazz style. Afro-Cuban jazz was considered bebop-oriented, and some musicians classified it as a modern style. Afro-Cuban jazz was successful because it never decreased in popularity and it always attracted people to dance.
Gillespie's most famous contributions to Afro-Cuban music are
"Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo" (both co-written with Chano Pozo); he was responsible for commissioning
George Russell's "Cubano Be, Cubano Bop", which featured Pozo. In 1977, Gillespie met
Arturo Sandoval
Arturo Sandoval is a Cuban-American jazz trumpeter, pianist, and composer. While living in his native Cuba, Sandoval was influenced by jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Clifford Brown, and Dizzy Gillespie. In 1977 he met Gillespie, who became his f ...
during a jazz cruise to Havana. Sandoval toured with Gillespie and defected in Rome in 1990 while touring with Gillespie and the United Nations Orchestra.
Final years
In the 1980s, Gillespie led the United Nations Orchestra. For three years
Flora Purim toured with the Orchestra. She credits Gillespie with improving her understanding of jazz.
[Beatrice Richardson for JazzReview interviews Flora Purim – Queen of Brazilian Jazz](_blank)
In 1982, he was sought out by
Motown musician
Stevie Wonder to play his solo in Wonder's 1982 hit single, "
Do I Do".
He starred in the film ''
The Winter in Lisbon'' that was released as ''El invierno en Lisboa'' in 1992 and re-released in 2004.
The soundtrack album, featuring him, was recorded in 1990 and released in 1991. The film is a crime drama about a jazz pianist who falls for a dangerous woman while in Portugal with an American expatriate's jazz band.
In December 1991, during an engagement at Kimball's East in Emeryville, California, he suffered a crisis from what turned out to be
pancreatic cancer. He performed one more night but cancelled the rest of the tour for medical reasons, ending his 56-year touring career. He led his last recording session on January 25, 1992.
On November 26, 1992,
Carnegie Hall, following the Second
Baháʼí World Congress
The Baháʼí World Congress is a large gathering of Baháʼí Faith, Baháʼís from across the world that is called irregularly by the Universal House of Justice, the governing body of the Baháʼís. There have only been two conferences of this ...
, celebrated Gillespie's 75th birthday concert and his offering to the celebration of the centenary of the passing of
Baháʼu'lláh. Gillespie was to appear at Carnegie Hall for the 33rd time. The line-up included
Jon Faddis,
James Moody,
Paquito D'Rivera, and
the Mike Longo Trio with Ben Brown on bass and
Mickey Roker
Granville William "Mickey" Roker (September 3, 1932 – May 22, 2017) was an American jazz drummer.
Biography
Roker was born into extreme poverty in Miami to Granville (Sr.) and Willie Mae Roker. After his mother died (his father never lived wi ...
on drums. Gillespie was too unwell to attend. "But the musicians played their real hearts out for him, no doubt suspecting that he would not play again. Each musician gave tribute to their friend, this great soul and innovator in the world of jazz."
Death and postmortem
A longtime resident of
Englewood, New Jersey,
Gillespie died of
pancreatic cancer on January 6, 1993, at the age of 75 and was buried in
Flushing Cemetery, Queens, New York City.
Mike Longo delivered a eulogy at his funeral.
Politics and religion
In 1962, Gillespie and actor
George Mathews starred in ''
The Hole'', an animated short film by
John
John is a common English name and surname:
* John (given name)
* John (surname)
John may also refer to:
New Testament
Works
* Gospel of John, a title often shortened to John
* First Epistle of John, often shortened to 1 John
* Secon ...
and
Faith Hubley
Faith Hubley (née Chestman; September 16, 1924 – December 7, 2001) was an American animator, known for her experimental work both in collaboration with her husband John Hubley, and on her own following her husband's death.
Biography
Bor ...
. Released the same year as the
Cuban Missile Crisis, it uses audio from an improvised conversation between the two debating the causes of accidents and the possibility of accidentally launching
nuclear weapon
A nuclear weapon is an explosive device that derives its destructive force from nuclear reactions, either fission (fission bomb) or a combination of fission and fusion reactions ( thermonuclear bomb), producing a nuclear explosion. Both bom ...
s. The short went on to win the
Academy Award
The Academy Awards, better known as the Oscars, are awards for artistic and technical merit for the American and international film industry. The awards are regarded by many as the most prestigious, significant awards in the entertainment ind ...
for
Best Animated Short Film
The Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film is an award given by the Academy of Motion Picture Arts and Sciences (AMPAS) as part of the annual Academy Awards, or Oscars, since the 5th Academy Awards (with different names), covering the year ...
the following year.
During the
1964 United States presidential campaign, Gillespie put himself forward as an independent
write-in candidate
A write-in candidate is a candidate whose name does not appear on the ballot but seeks election by asking voters to cast a vote for the candidate by physically writing in the person's name on the ballot. Depending on electoral law it may be poss ...
.
He promised that if he were elected, the White House would be renamed the Blues House, and he would have a cabinet composed of
Duke Ellington (Secretary of State),
Miles Davis
Miles Dewey Davis III (May 26, 1926September 28, 1991) was an American trumpeter, bandleader, and composer. He is among the most influential and acclaimed figures in the history of jazz and 20th-century music. Davis adopted a variety of musi ...
(Director of the CIA),
Max Roach
Maxwell Lemuel Roach (January 10, 1924 – August 16, 2007) was an American jazz drummer and composer. A pioneer of bebop, he worked in many other styles of music, and is generally considered one of the most important drummers in history. He work ...
(Secretary of Defense),
Charles Mingus (Secretary of Peace),
Ray Charles
Ray Charles Robinson Sr. (September 23, 1930 – June 10, 2004) was an American singer, songwriter, and pianist. He is regarded as one of the most iconic and influential singers in history, and was often referred to by contemporaries as "The Ge ...
(Librarian of Congress),
Louis Armstrong (Secretary of Agriculture),
Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, an ...
(Ambassador to the Vatican),
Thelonious Monk
Thelonious Sphere Monk (, October 10, 1917 – February 17, 1982) was an American jazz pianist and composer. He had a unique improvisational style and made numerous contributions to the standard jazz repertoire, including " 'Round Midnight", ...
(Travelling Ambassador) and
Malcolm X
Malcolm X (born Malcolm Little, later Malik el-Shabazz; May 19, 1925 – February 21, 1965) was an American Muslim minister and human rights activist who was a prominent figure during the civil rights movement. A spokesman for the Nation of I ...
(Attorney General).
He said his running mate would be
Phyllis Diller
Phyllis Ada Diller (née Driver; July 17, 1917 – August 20, 2012) was an American stand-up comedian, actress, author, musician, and visual artist, best known for her eccentric stage persona, self-deprecating humor, wild hair and clothes, and ...
. Campaign buttons had been manufactured years before by Gillespie's booking agency as a joke but proceeds went to Congress of Racial Equality, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King Jr.; in later years they became a collector's item. In 1971, he announced he would run again but withdrew before the 1972 United States presidential election, election.
Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker, Gillespie encountered an audience member after a show. They had a conversation about the oneness of humanity and the elimination of racism from the perspective of the Baháʼí Faith. Impacted by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, he became a Baháʼí that same year.
The universalist emphasis of his religion prodded him to see himself more as a global citizen and humanitarian, expanding on his interest in his African heritage. His spirituality brought out generosity and what author Nat Hentoff called an inner strength, discipline, and "soul force".
Gillespie's conversion was most affected by William Sears (Baháʼí), Bill Sears' book ''Thief in the Night''.
Gillespie spoke about the Baháʼí Faith frequently on his trips abroad.
He is honored with weekly jazz sessions at the New York Baháʼí Center in the memorial auditorium.
Personal life
Gillespie married dancer Lorraine Willis in Boston on May 9, 1940.
They remained together until his death in 1993; Lorraine converted to Catholicism with
Mary Lou Williams
Mary Lou Williams (born Mary Elfrieda Scruggs; May 8, 1910 – May 28, 1981) was an American jazz pianist, arranger, and composer. She wrote hundreds of compositions and arrangements and recorded more than one hundred records (in 78, 45, an ...
in 1957.
Lorraine managed his business and personal affairs. The couple had no children, but Gillespie fathered a daughter, jazz singer Jeanie Bryson, born in 1958 from an affair with songwriter Connie Bryson.
Gillespie met Bryson, a Juilliard-trained pianist, at the jazz club Birdland (New York jazz club), Birdland in New York City.
In the mid-1960s, Gillespie settled down in Englewood, New Jersey, with his wife. The local
Englewood public high school, Dwight Morrow High School, named its auditorium after him: the 'Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium'.
Artistry
Style
Gillespie has been described as the "sound of surprise".
''The Rough Guide to Jazz'' describes his musical style:
In Gillespie's obituary, Peter Watrous describes his performance style:
Wynton Marsalis summarized Gillespie as a player and teacher:
Bent trumpet
Gillespie's trademark trumpet featured a bell which bent upward at a 45-degree angle rather than pointing straight ahead as in the conventional design. According to Gillespie's autobiography, this was originally the result of accidental damage caused by the dancers Stump and Stumpy falling onto the instrument while it was on a trumpet stand on stage at Snookie's in Manhattan on January 6, 1953, during a birthday party for Gillespie's wife Lorraine. The constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the instrument, and Gillespie liked the effect. He had the trumpet straightened out the next day, but he could not forget the tone. Gillespie sent a request to Martin Band Instrument Company, Martin to make him a "bent" trumpet from a sketch produced by Lorraine, and from that time forward played a trumpet with an upturned bell.
By June 1954 he was using a professionally manufactured horn of this design, and it was to become a trademark for the rest of his life.
Such trumpets were made for him by Martin (from 1954), King Musical Instruments (from 1972) and Renold Schilke (from 1982, a gift from
Jon Faddis).
Gillespie favored mouthpieces made by Al Cass. In December 1986 Gillespie gave the National Museum of American History his 1972 King "Silver Flair" trumpet with a Cass mouthpiece.
In April 1995, Gillespie's Martin trumpet was auctioned at Christie's in New York City with instruments used by
Coleman Hawkins
Coleman Randolph Hawkins (November 21, 1904 – May 19, 1969), nicknamed "Hawk" and sometimes "Bean", was an American jazz tenor saxophonist.Yanow, Scot"Coleman Hawkins: Artist Biography" AllMusic. Retrieved December 27, 2013. One of the first p ...
, Jimi Hendrix, and Elvis Presley. An image of Gillespie's trumpet was selected for the cover of the auction program. The battered instrument was sold to Manhattan builder Jeffery Brown for $63,000, the proceeds benefiting jazz musicians with cancer.
Awards and honors
In 1989, Gillespie was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The next year, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ceremonies celebrating the centennial of American jazz, Gillespie received the Kennedy Center Honors Award and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers ''Duke Ellington Award'' for 50 years of achievement as a composer, performer, and bandleader.
In 1989, Gillespie was awarded with an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music.
In 1991, Gillespie received the Golden Plate Award of the Academy of Achievement, American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Wynton Marsalis.
In 1993 he received the Polar Music Prize in Sweden.
In 2002, he was posthumously inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame for his contributions to Afro-Cuban music. He was honored on December 31, 2006 in A Jazz New Year's Eve: Freddy Cole & the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2014, Gillespie was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.
In popular culture
Samuel E. Wright played Dizzy Gillespie in the film ''Bird (1988 film), Bird'' (1988), about
Charlie Parker
Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...
. Kevin Hanchard portrayed Gillespie in the Chet Baker biopic ''Born to Be Blue (film), Born to Be Blue'' (2015).
Charles S. Dutton played him in ''For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story'' (2000).
List of works
References
External links
The Dizzy Gillespie BandsArticles at NPR MusicShort biography by C.J Shearn*
*
{{DEFAULTSORT:Gillespie, Dizzy
1917 births
1993 deaths
Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres
Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners
Kennedy Center honorees
United States National Medal of Arts recipients
African-American jazz composers
African-American jazz musicians
Afro-Cuban jazz bandleaders
Afro-Cuban jazz composers
Afro-Cuban jazz trumpeters
American jazz bandleaders
American jazz composers
American jazz trumpeters
American male trumpeters
American male jazz composers
Bebop trumpeters
Big band bandleaders
Latin jazz bandleaders
Latin jazz composers
Latin jazz trumpeters
Capitol Records artists
Manor Records artists
Musicraft Records artists
Prestige Records artists
RCA Victor artists
Savoy Records artists
Verve Records artists
American Bahá'ís
African-American Bahá'ís
Converts to the Bahá'í Faith
Deaths from cancer in New Jersey
Deaths from pancreatic cancer
People from Cheraw, South Carolina
Musicians from South Carolina
Burials at Flushing Cemetery
20th-century Bahá'ís
20th-century African-American musicians
20th-century American composers
20th-century trumpeters
The Giants of Jazz members
The Cab Calloway Orchestra members
Discovery Records artists
20th-century American male musicians
20th-century jazz composers
CTI Records artists
Philips Records artists