Dizzy Gillespie Summary
John Birks Gillespie also known as Dizzy was born on October 21, 1917, in
Cheraw, South Carolina. Dizzy without question is one of the best to have picked
up a Trumpet and make music that would change the landscape of Jazz. The
musical genies of Dizzy also extended to Piano as he stared playing on the ivory
keys at age four and the Trombone, which he was self taught at age 12. Dizzy
grew up in poverty and he used his musical talent to win a scholarship to an
agricultural school (Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina) for two years, where he
played in the band and took music classes. In 1935 at (add age) Gillespie
dropped out of school to look for work as a musician. Gillespie’s
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first professional job was in the Frankie Fairfax’s band, based in Philadelphia; there “Dizzy played ,impressing many of the local musicians who gathered there with his original style”. Groovin' High : (The Life of Dizzy Gillespie pg 69) and In 1937 Dizzy was hired by Fairfax to replace his idol, a trumpeter by the name of Roy Eldridge in the Teddy Hill Orchestra. By the late 1930s and early ’40s, Gillespie played in a number of bands led by the some of the greatest musicians in jazz history such as Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Hines, Duke Ellington, and many others. He also made a name for himself by entertaining into late-night jam sessions “Around 1942 after classical jazz had its conquests, a small group used to get together every night in a Harlem night club called Minton’s Playhouse. It was made was made up of several young color boys who, unlike their fellow musicians no longer felt at home in the atmosphere of swing music”(Blues People pg 197,198). There Gillespie met jazz musicians Charlie Parker, Charlie Christian, Thelonious Monk, and Max Roach. Gillespie made a lot of recording with those great jazz musicians he met at Minton’s Playhouse and together created the bebop sound and style.”Kenny Clark created a new style of drum playing , and Gillespie and Parker took choruses that seem crazy to the people who came to listen to them. The bebop style was in process of being born.”(Blues People pg 198) they were trying to evolve Jazz, by manipulating the way the instruments played the notes and in doing so they were able to invent this new style that was brought to the music community.
With eagerness they played a
couple of gigs, in order to see if they had come upon a style that would be as well
received as swing music.
Gillespie and Charlie Parker are known as the co-founders of the bebop
movement; the two worked together in the 1940’s and early 50’s. Gillespie and
his friends was trying to make the music of bebop more of a classy style,
something different from the sound of swing music from the tone and rhythm of
the music. “Bebop was an extreme, it was the only kind of idea that could have
restored any amount of excitement and beauty to contemporary”.(Blues People
pg 199) . Gillespie and Parker were in the mindset that trying different ways to
maneuver music notes, from that a more stylish sound could be obtained. With
dedication to their craft and a bit by accident, like with all whom have been
branded geniuses something’s are created when least expected, and that could
be said of Dizzy. In the brilliance that was Dizzy Gillespie he fashioned great and
timeless bebop classics such as "Groovin' High," "Salt Peanuts" and "A Night in
Tunisia". Dizzy stayed true to bebop all of his life in whatever group of
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musical format he was engaged, bebop was the anchor. “Bebop was the coup de grace, the idea that abruptly lifted jazz completely out of the middle-class Negros life (though as I have pointed out, the roots of this separation were as old as appointment of the first black house servant)”. (Blues People pg 199) In the beginning, bebop was something that a lot of people had a hard time connecting with. The style and form of this new bebop music was not at first widely accepted everywhere. It wasn't until change in economic status started to shape what came to be known as the middle-class, did the embracing of bebop start to take place. With the rise of the “middle-class” life style, people started to adapt to bebop because it reflected on this new era. “Although it would seem now that bop’s rhythmic conceptions were its most complete innovation, during the forties many people who were unimpressed or disgusted with “new” music seem to mystified most by its harmonic ideas”.(Blues People pg 196). For the music loving public, it was bebop’s vastly different style from swing that took some time for people to warm up to. The lukewarm receptions to that kind of modern jazzy melody resulted in musicians forced to practice and develop their sound in secrecy or only among those who were in favor of it. Dizzy used distinguishing sounds in order to develop his ever evolving jazzy reverberations with certain stock phrases in his improvisations that bridge the gap between generations of jazz musicians that incorporated them into their own solos.
“The bebop costume which become the rage for hip or hep (then) young
American was merely an adaptation of the dress Dizzy Gillespie one of the
pioneers of bebop, wore. (And Dizzy’s dress merely a personal version of a kind
of fashionable Negro city dress).”(Blues People pg 190). A long with the music
aspect of bebop, Gillespie helped create the next thing that came along with the
bebop movement, style and appearance. His late 1940’s look would include a
beret, horn-rim glasses, and goatee. That 1940’s swagger became the unofficial
“bebop uniform” and a precursor to the beatnik styles of the 1950’s which
became Gillespie signature chic, that he made popular. Gillespie helped create
the beboppers signature looks for the next generation of musicians, which Dizzy
inspired to greatness.
Gillespie is one of the first musicians to combined Afro-Cuban sound, Caribbean
and Brazilian rhythms with jazz. Gillespie differed from other musicians by being
a masterful showman who could make his music seem both accessible and a fun
ride for the listening audience’s ear. Around the late 1940s, Gillespie formed his
own orchestra it was considered to be one of the finest large jazz
ensembles. “Within a few short weeks, Dizzy’s band had moved the pace on even faster . The band developed an extraordinary spirit .The power , the rhythm , the harmonies of that band were like something I' d never heard before " Groovin' High : (The Life of Dizzy Gillespie” pg 183). Gillespie was gifted and had the knowledge to develop new sound and with his gift he was always willing to share. Dizzy would take the time to show others how he developed new musical sound and world comparing each of the musical style to others(don’t understand) Gillespie has acknowledged his musical indebtedness to swing trumpeter Roy Eldridge ( and of course to Armstrong) many times over“”.(Blues People pg 193) apart from Louis Armstrong, Gillespie ranks as the greatest jazz trumpeter of all times. Dizzy was influenced by and idolized the saxophone style of Roy Eldridge. Dizzy was able execute his trumpet skills fast and with great ease. Gillespie played his jazzy melodies with abandon, reaching into the highest registers of the trumpet range. “Dizzy was clearly absorbing influences from many places , initially from Monroe's , later from Minton's , and eventually from many of the new locales he visited on Galloway' s taxing itinerary of cross-country travel” Groovin' High : (The Life of Dizzy Gillespie pg 68) By traveling, learning, and feasting on the musical flavors he enjoyed, Gillespie was able to broaden his musical skills even further and develop more new music. During the 1970’s Dizzy made several big band and small group duet recordings with such players as Oscar Peterson and Count Basie without question, those duets are ranked amongst some of Dizzy Gillespie best work. During his later years, Gillespie was the leader of the United Nations Orchestra; he led several overseas tours sponsored by the U.S. State Department. In his role as United Nations Orchestra leader, Gillespie traveled the world extensively sharing his knowledge and musical genius with younger players. Dizzy Gillespie was a unique individual and musician. He just had a different way of looking at thing. The music, the chords and that goes for politics as well. It would seem that music talked to Dizzy, explaining to him how to communicate it out to others for them to understand. Dizzy died of pancreatic cancer January 6th, 1993 at age 75. In his death, his music still has a great impact and influence on the world of jazz today
"Dizzy Gillespie – Jazz and Blues Masters ." american jazz musician . b 1917 . d 1993.
chopping wood - introduced him to early rock & roll and rhythm & blues music.
Quotes: Now I became not just good, but exceptional, with Chet Douglas my only rival in sight. I began to see that Chet was weakened by the very genuineness of his interest in learning." -Gene -page 46
After being seen on tv he started Modeling and then was selected by America's Next Top Model casting team to be on the show. He won the award for America's Next Top Model and was the first deaf person to win the award. Since he was very popular now he also ended up on the tv show “ Dancing With The Stars” and then won
In many different scenes, dances were created to capture how each character felt in the scene that they were in. For example, when the crow was being bullied while he was tied up on the cross, Fatima created a dance to show him finding his inner courage and no longer having fear of the birds. I loved when Dorothy and Scarecrow sang walking down the yellow brick road because the dance gave the sensibility of people uniquely living the spirit of expression. The dance looked fun and vibrant like many of the jazz dances we see today. One of the styles of jazz that were engaged in the film was bebop. Bebop is characterized during the 1940s as having a fast tempo and improvisation based on the structures of a situation that inspired the movement. I noticed that bebop was displayed well when Ne-Yo danced because of its complex technique, fast tempo, and improvisation while singing at the same time. This style of jazz was suitable for the presentation of the film because it kept me as an audience engaged in every dance that was choreographed. With the tempo being very fast, it allowed for the movement to be big and easily
He did well when it came to playing different instruments. His favorite musician was Beethoven. He played a violin that he found with two strings at Pershing Square in Los Angeles. He was a man of many talents when it came to playing instruments. He was diagnosed with Schizophrenia when he was in college and he started to hear voices and it took over his life as evidence by him dropping out of college and becoming homeless. Nathaniel played any instrument that he could find. He found instruments such as the violin, trumpet, and cello and transported them in his shopping cart.
violin, piano, cornet, alto horn, flute, baritone. Like his father, who played the trombone in the U.S. Marines Band, John, too, learned to play the trombone. John also spent time studying voice.
After his high school graduation he enrolled at Fisk University in Nashville, Tennessee. There he "discovered his Blackness" and made a lifelong commitment to his people. He taught in rural Black schools in Tennessee during summer vacations, thus expanding his awareness of his Black culture.
He was born six weeks early with retinopathy of prematurity. It’s an eye disorder which was exacerbated when he receives too much oxygen in an incubator, leading to his blindness. Before the age of 10, he taught himself how to play the harmonica, piano, and drums. Stevie Wonder was discovered by Ronnie White of the Motown band the Miracles as age 11. He then auditioned for Berry Gordy which was the founder of Motown and he signed him to a record deal. In 1962, they renamed Stevie to Little Stevie Wonder. His commitment to his gifted, he was faced with the difficulty of staying on the topic relevant to what he was known for singing. He grew from a bot to a man, and his voice matured into a tenor. In 1971, Stevie Wonder negotiated a new contract with Motown which gave him a lot of control over his records. Over the course throughout the years, he had four outstanding albums. Stevie Wonder created some of the most indelible songs in popular music history. His album Talking Book offered two number one hits. Next was the album Innervision The record featured two socially conscious number one R&B charts. His first finale release of Fulfillingness was inspired after he survived a bad car accident that left him in a coma. He had two number one hits both the pop and R&B on this album as well. After this Stevie Wonder has created many more albums with a lot more number one hits. With Stevie’s
beginning just wanted to play music. But he got so much more than just that and was able
Art Blakey was born to a poor family in the heart of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania in 1919. He was working in the steel and coal mills when he was only fourteen. There were no child labor laws in those times. He had to work to help support his family and put food on the table. Blakey turned to music as a way of escaping the exhausting day-to-day labor of the mills. Blakey taught himself how to play the piano. Even though he couldn't read music, and could only play songs in three keys, Blakey was a crowd favorite a several local venues. He used to make fifteen-twenty dollars a night in tips every night he went. At fifteen Blakey was leading his own band. They were small and unknown, but played at clubs all around the city.
At one point during the fighting there were 39 band leaders in the army. Glen Miller, whose infectious hits like “In the Mood” epitomized the war years, disbanded his own hugely successful [jazz] orchestra, enlisted, and formed an all-star air force unit that some believe was the best band he ever had – and died in 1944 when his airplane disappeared over the English channel.” With the capitol of many bandleaders declining It became inevitable that in order to progress, the jazz ensemble would have to become smaller. Musicians that were not enlisted, but out of work, began to meet up at local clubs and perform, and were often unpaid, but happy to at least be able to play with other musicians. By this time a major change in jazz was afoot, and a young trumpet player named Dizzy Gillespie formed his own small prototype group at the Onyx Club in New York.
the world. Gershwin , at the young age of fifteen, quit school and became a song plugger.
MacAdams, Lewis. Birth of the Cool: Beat, Bebop, and the American Avant-Garde. New York: The Free Press, 2001.
Andrews, John. (1998). What bebop meant to jazz history. A review of Scott Deveux’ book “The Birth of the Bebop: A Social and musical history.”