Dizzy Gillespie

Oct. 21, 1917- Jan 6, 1993

Born: Cheraw, S. C.

Trumpeter Dizzy Gellespie is considered the father of bebop. He was the las in a series of of progressions Of virtuosity in jazz that culminated n the consolidation of bebop. If Charlie Parker was the soul of bebop, Gillespie was its heart and public face. If Armstrong had expanded the reach of instrumental technique for his generation making more things possible -- and if Roy Eldridge and Charlie Shavers extended the reach of virtuosity still farther, embracing still more possibilities -- then Gillespie seemed to reach the final theoretical point of command that made all things possible, effectively ending the arms race of capacity that had driven jazz for two decades. His speed, articulation and sense of surprise took many forms in many bebop trumpet players in the years after 1946, but few doubted that Gillespie was the master and matrix of it all.

Starting as a self-taught player, his natural gifts won him a scholarship at the Laurinburg Insitute where he studied for three years. He first recorded with Teddy Hills band in New York, then in 1939 he joined the Cab Calloway band and during its travels first encontered Charlie Parker in Kansas City. But two showmen in one band is one too many and in Calloway's band, Cab was that man. In 1941, he fired Dizzy. Dizzy then recorded "Little John Special" on the Jay McShann Deccas label, the same label that Parker was releasing his first solos on at the same time. "Little John Special" not only included solo work every bit as provocative as Parker's but it also had the singular riff that the jazz world would shortly come to know as "Salt Peanuts".

In 1946, he assembled a band that would hold together for four years and record extensively for Victor. Such albums as "Cubana Be/Cubana Bop", "Good Bait", and others. Gillespie's rapport with audiences was equally golden, yet never got in the way of the music he offered. He was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1990. The Song in this deion is Gillespie's "A Night in Tunisia".