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Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, along with Charlie Parker, ushered in the era of Be-Bop in the American jazz tradition. He was born Cheraw, South Carolina, and was the youngest of nine children. He began playing piano at the age of four and received a music scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina. Most noted for his trademark “swollen cheeks”, Gillespie admitted to copying the style of trumpeter Roy Eldridge early in his career.
He replaced Eldridge in the 'Teddy Hill' Band after Eldridge's departure. He eventually began experimenting and creating his own style which would eventually come to the attention of Mario Bauza, the Godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz who was then a member of the Cap Calloway Orchestra, joining Calloway in 1939, Gillespie was fired after two years when he cut a portion of the Calloway's buttocks with a knife after Calloway accused him of throwing spitballs (the two men later became lifelong friends and often retold this story with great relish until both of their deaths).
Although noted for his on and off-stage clowning, Gillespie endured as one of the founding fathers of the Afro-Cuban &/or Latin Hazz tradition. Influenced by Bauza, known as Gillespies musical father, he was able to fuse Afro-American jazz and Afro-Cuban rhythms to form a burgeoning CuBop sound. Always a musical ambassador, he toured Africa, the Middle East and Latin America under the sponsorship of the US State Department. Quite often he returned, not only with fresh musical ideas, but with musicians who would eventually go on the achieve world renown.
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General Articles
Album Reviews
- Concert of the Century - Tribute to Charlie Parker by Stefano Merighi
- Concert Of The Century by Mark E. Gallo
Jazz Raconteurs
My Blue Note Obsession
Reassessing
Album Reviews
- Four Classic Albums by David Rickert
Multiple Reviews
Album Reviews
- Showtime at The Spotlite by George Kanzler
Profiles
Album Reviews
- Showtime at the Spotlite by David Rickert
Jazz Art
Album Reviews
- Night in Tunisia: The Very Best of Dizzy Gillespie by Francis Lo Kee
- Dizzy's Business by George Kanzler
- Dizzy's Business by Jack Bowers
- The Verve / Philips Dizzy Gillespie Small Group Sessions by Andrew Velez
- Dizzy's Business by C. Michael Bailey
- Dizzy's Business by Dr. Judith Schlesinger
September 13, 2019
Six Videos: Big-Band Gillespie
May 10, 2019
October 21, 2018
Jazz Musician of the Day: Dizzy Gillespie
October 21, 2017
Jazz Musician of the Day: Dizzy Gillespie
October 20, 2017
Dizzy Gillespie in London, 1969
October 19, 2017
October 18, 2017
Dizzy Gillespie at Cornell in 1947
October 17, 2017
October 21, 2016
Jazz Musician of the Day: Dizzy Gillespie
August 11, 2016
August 08, 2016
August 05, 2016
Dizzy Gillespie + Sonny Stitt: '58
October 20, 2015
Jazz Musician of the Day: Dizzy Gillespie
April 29, 2015
Dizzy Gillespie in London, 1973
March 19, 2015
Jazz this week: Greater St. Louis Jazz Festival, Dizzy Gillespie...
March 04, 2015
Just Because: Dizzy Gillespie, 1987
October 21, 2014
Jazz Musician of the Day: Dizzy Gillespie
October 22, 2013
October 21, 2013
Jazz Musician of the Day: Dizzy Gillespie
June 30, 2013
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Discography
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Last Updated: December 14, 2018
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