The great jazz trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie,
was one of the musicians at the forefront of the development of be-bop music in
the Fifties. He was born John Birkes Gillespie in Cheraw , South Carolina ,
in 1917. Gillespie earned the moniker, “Dizzy,” for his ebullient personality
and antics while performing.
In 1943, Gillespie would join Earl Hines
band which featured Charlie Parker and was beginning to create a new music
which would become bebop. From there, it was on to the Billie Ekstine band,
which also featured Parker. He would later leave the Ekstine band because he
wanted to play in a smaller ensemble.
In the mid-Forties, Gillespie, Parker and
other jazz musicians such as Max Roach, Bud Powell, Thelonious Monk, and Kenny
Clark would meet at clubs such as Minton’s Playhouse and Monroe ’s Uptown to jam and experiment. It was
at these jams that bebop was born.
Gillespie would become a member of the
“Quintet,” the legendary be-bop supergroup formed in Toronto in 1953, with Parker, Powell, Charles
Mingus and Max Roach. Following his one-show tenure with the Quintet, Gillespie
would form his own Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra.
Among the best of the classic sides that
Gillespie recorded in the Forties and Fifties are: “A Night in Tunisia ,” “Salt Peanuts,” “Hot House,” “Manteca ,” “Perdido,” and
“Night and Day.”
Gillespie’s best albums begin with the
Quintet. His “Salt Peanuts” from the album “Live at Massey Hall” is perhaps the
best moment of many brilliant moments on that live recording of the Quintet’s
only show. Other fine Gillespie albums include, “Dizzy In Paris” (1953), “For
Musicians Only” (1958), ”Gillespiana” (1960), “Groovin’ High” (1953).
After Gillespie had had his fill of bebop,
he became interested in Afro-Cuban music. Gillespie died in 1993.