Dizzy Gillespie
(1917-1993)
John Birks, aka Dizzy, was a trumpeter, bandleader and composer who
was one of the principle developers of "bop" in the early
1940's.
His styles of improvising and trumpet playing
were widely imitated in the 1940's and 1950's.
He was
noted for his swollen cheeks, his bent trumpet and his
mischievous sense of play, for which he gained the name
"Dizzy." Indeed, he was one of the most influential
players in the history of jazz.
Gillespie was the youngest of nine children whose
father was a bricklayer and a weekend bandleader. He
attended the Laurinberg Institute in North Carolina in
1932 where he practiced trumpet and piano. In 1935,
he moved to Philadelphia and joined a band led by Frankie
Fairfax.
Here he learned to imitate Roy Eldridge, his early
role model. In 1937, he moved to New York where in 1939,
he joined Cab Calloway's big band.
While on tour in 1940, Gillespie met Charlie Parker in
Kansas City. Soon he began participating in after-hours
jam sessions in New York with Parker, Thelonious Monk and
others. This group of young, experimenting players gradually
developed a new,
more complex style of jazz called bop.
After leaving
Calloway's band in 1941,
he worked with many
prominent jazz
musicians through the mid-forties experimenting
with this new style. Artists he worked with included Ella
Fitzgerald,
Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Les Hite, Earl
Hines, Duke Ellington, Oscar Pettiford and Billy Eckstine.
During 1945, he made his first bop recordings with Charlie Parker
and other non-conformists of the 52nd Street jazz scene, which
included the seminal bop pieces Hot House, Groovin' High and Salt Peanuts.
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