Dizzy

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie

1917 - 1993

The figure who personified modern jazz or "bebop" perhaps more than any other was Dizzy Gillespie. Wearing horn-rimmed glasses, a beret, and outlandish clothes, he sported a goatee, behaved irrepressibly and made outrageous statements. He was known as 'the clown prince of jazz' and played an upswept trumpet and bulged his cheeks- he helped create an art form that is still every bit as valid today as it was in the late 40s and early 50s. He helped revolutionize the face of jazz!

His life:-

Born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the last of nine children
Dizzy's father was a local bandleader and instruments were always available in the Gillespie home.
At the age of four he could pound out tunes on the piano.
At the age of ten he received a music scholarship to Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina
He switched from trombone to trumpet and became interested in music theory.
Dizzy received his nickname after moving to Philadelphia in 1935 and joining the Frank Fairfax Band.
He replaced his idol, Roy "Little Jazz" Eldridge on the Teddy Hill Band and cut his first record.
He joined Cab Calloway in 1939 and remained until the famous "incident."
Someone had been peppering Cab with spitballs while his back was to the band...he accused Dizzy.
Dizzy denied the charge and a scuffle ensued...Diz grabbed a knife and cut Cab in the posterior.
Jonah Jones and Milt Hinton were the real culprits...Diz and Cab made up.
Dizzy moved on to work with Benny Carter, Charlie Barnett and Ella Fitzgerald.
Dizzy started to jam at Minton's Playhouse in Harlem...regulars at these jam sessions included Thelonius Monk, Kenny Clarke, Don Byas, Charlie Christian and Charlie Parker.
In order to scare off the less talented players Diz and Monk would prepare complex chord changes.
A new form evolved---BEBOP!
From 1943 on Gillespie played with a number of top notch bands...Earl Hines, Coleman Hawkins, Boyd Raeburn and Duke Ellington (3 months) as well as leading his own small combos.
He became musical director of the Billy Eckstine Band which included Charlie Parker. The Eckstine Band began to play big band bebop.
In 1964 he ran for president of the United States on a platform to completely withdraw from Viet Nam, a national lottery and abolition of segregation.
He had been interested in Cuban music for a long time and in 1977 visited Cuba where he was photographed with Fidel Castro...this did not make him popular with the State Department.
President Jimmy Carter invited him (and several other jazz artists) to the White House.
He fronted a big band in 1945 and did so again in 1951-52, 1956-59 (state department tour), and again in 1987 with a band that included his protege, Jon Faddis.
Dizzy was a good husband (married to Lorraine until his death), a good business man, and was generous with both his time and money.
They bought a house in Englewood, New Jersey in 1965 and lived there till his death of pancreatic cancer in January of 1993.
His compositions included "Night In Tunisia," "Con Alma," "Cubano be - Cubano bop," and "Round Midnight."
His legacy to jazz was enormous and dispels the stereotype of the "jazz musician."

If you have any comments or information to add, E-mail Dr. Mike Day at

daym@aurora.ncat.edu

Return to the Biographical sketches

Music Department Homepage

Return to A&T Homepage

updated 06/24/99