Dizzy Gillespie

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This article is about the jazz musician. For the Australian cricketer nicknamed "Dizzy", see
Jason Gillespie.
Dizzy Gillespie

Gillespie in concert, Deauville, Normandy, France
Background information
Birth name J ohn Birks Gillespie
Born
October 21, 1917
Cheraw, South Carolina, United States
Died
J anuary 6, 1993 (aged 75)
Englewood, New Jersey, United States
Genres J azz, bebop, Afro-Cuban jazz
Occupations Musician, composer
Instruments Trumpet, piano, vocals
Years active 193593
Labels Pablo, RCA Victor, Savoy, Verve
Associated
acts
Ray Brown, Cab Calloway, Roy Eldridge,
J .J . Johnson, J ames Moody, Chico
O'Farrill, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell,
Chano Pozo, Max Roach, Mickey Roker,
Sonny Rollins, Lalo Schifrin, Sonny Stitt,
William Oscar Smith
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (/lspi/; October 21, 1917 January 6, 1993) was an
American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer and occasional singer.
[1]

Allmusic's Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of
the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a
complex player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and Fats Navarro
instead, and it was not until J on Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was
successfully recreated [...] Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike,
as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time."
[2]

Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy
Eldridge
[3]
but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. His beret
and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-
hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop.
[citation needed]

In the 1940s Gillespie, together with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the
development of bebop and modern jazz.
[4]
He taught and influenced many other musicians,
including trumpeters Miles Davis, J on Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo
Sandoval, Lee Morgan,
[5]
Chuck Mangione,
[6]
and balladeer J ohnny Hartman
[5]

Contents
1 Biography
o 1.1 Early life and career
o 1.2 The rise of bebop
o 1.3 Afro-Cuban music
o 1.4 Later years
o 1.5 Death and legacy
2 Style
3 "Bent" trumpet
4 Discography
o 4.1 As leader
o 4.2 As sideman
5 Filmography
6 Bibliography
7 References
8 External links
Biography[edit]
Early life and career[edit]


Dizzy Gillespie, Tadd Dameron, Hank J ones, Mary Lou Williams and Milt Orent in 1947
Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children of J ames and
Lottie Gillespie. J ames was a local bandleader, so instruments were made available to the
children. Gillespie started to play the piano at the age of four. Gillespie's father died when
the boy was only ten years old. Gillespie taught himself how to play the trombone as well
as the trumpet by the age of twelve. From the night he heard his idol, Roy Eldridge, play on
the radio, he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician.
[7]
He received a music scholarship to
the Laurinburg Institute in Laurinburg, North Carolina, which he attended for two years
before accompanying his family when they moved to Philadelphia.
[8]

Gillespie's first professional job was with the Frank Fairfax Orchestra in 1935, after which
he joined the respective orchestras of Edgar Hayes and Teddy Hill, essentially replacing
Roy Eldridge as first trumpet in 1937. Teddy Hill's band was where Gillespie made his first
recording, "King Porter Stomp". In August 1937 while gigging with Hayes in Washington
D.C., Gillespie met a young dancer named Lorraine Willis who worked a Baltimore
PhiladelphiaNew York circuit which included the Apollo Theatre. Willis was not
immediately friendly but Gillespie was attracted anyway. The two finally married on May
9, 1940. They remained married until his death in 1993.
[9]

Gillespie stayed with Teddy Hill's band for a year, then left and free-lanced with numerous
other bands.
[5]
In 1939, Gillespie joined Cab Calloway's orchestra, with which he recorded
one of his earliest compositions, the instrumental "Pickin' the Cabbage", in 1940.
(Originally released on Paradiddle, a 78rpm backed with a co-composition with Cozy Cole,
Calloway's drummer at the time, on the Vocalion label, No. 5467).


Tadd Dameron, Mary Lou Williams and Dizzy Gillespie in 1947
After a notorious altercation between the two men, Calloway fired Gillespie in late 1941.
The incident is recounted by Gillespie, along with fellow Calloway band members Milt
Hinton and J onah J ones, in Jean Bach's 1997 film, The Spitball Story. Calloway did not
approve of Gillespie's mischievous humor, nor of his adventuresome approach to soloing;
according to J ones, Calloway referred to it as "Chinese music". During one performance,
Calloway saw a spitball land on the stage, and accused Gillespie of having thrown it.
Gillespie denied it, and the ensuing argument led to Calloway striking Gillespie, who then
pulled out a switchblade knife and charged Calloway. The two were separated by other
band members, during which scuffle Calloway was cut on the hand.
During his time in Calloway's band, Gillespie started writing big band music for
bandleaders like Woody Herman and J immy Dorsey.
[5]
He then freelanced with a few
bands most notably Ella Fitzgerald's orchestra, composed of members of the late Chick
Webb's band, in 1942.
In 1943, Gillespie joined the Earl Hines band. Composer Gunther Schuller said:
... In 1943 I heard the great Earl Hines band which had Bird in it and all those other great
musicians. They were playing all the flatted fifth chords and all the modern harmonies and
substitutions and Gillespie runs in the trumpet section work. Two years later I read that that
was 'bop' and the beginning of modern jazz ... but the band never made recordings.
[10]

Gillespie said of the Hines band, "People talk about the Hines band being 'the incubator of
bop' and the leading exponents of that music ended up in the Hines band. But people also
have the erroneous impression that the music was new. It was not. The music evolved from
what went before. It was the same basic music. The difference was in how you got from
here to here to here ... naturally each age has got its own shit".
[11]

Next, Gillespie joined Billy Eckstine's (Earl Hines' long-time collaborator) big band and it
was as a member of Eckstine's band that he was reunited with Charlie Parker, a fellow
member of Hines's band. In 1945, Gillespie left Eckstine's band because he wanted to play
with a small combo. A "small combo" typically comprised no more than five musicians,
playing the trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums.
The rise of bebop[edit]


Ella Fitzgerald, Dizzy Gillespie, Ray Brown, Milt J ackson and Timme Rosenkrantz in
September 1947, New York
Bebop was known as the first modern jazz style. However, it was unpopular in the
beginning and was not viewed as positively as swing music was. Bebop was seen as an
outgrowth of swing, not a revolution. Swing introduced a diversity of new musicians in the
bebop era like Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Oscar
Pettiford, and Gillespie. Through these musicians, a new vocabulary of musical phrases
was created.
[12]
With Charlie Parker, Gillespie jammed at famous jazz clubs like Minton's
Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House. Charlie Parker's system also held methods of
adding chords to existing chord progressions and implying additional chords within the
improvised lines.
[12]

Gillespie compositions like "Groovin' High", "Woody 'n' You" and "Salt Peanuts" sounded
radically different, harmonically and rhythmically, from the swing music popular at the
time. "A Night in Tunisia", written in 1942, while Gillespie was playing with Earl Hines'
band, is noted for having a feature that is common in today's music, a non-walking bass
line.
[citation needed]
The song also displays Afro-Cuban rhythms.
[13]
One of their first small-
group performances together was only issued in 2005: a concert in New York's Town Hall
on J une 22, 1945. Gillespie taught many of the young musicians on 52nd Street, including
Miles Davis and Max Roach, about the new style of jazz. After a lengthy gig at Billy Berg's
club in Los Angeles, which left most of the audience ambivalent or hostile towards the new
music, the band broke up. Unlike Parker, who was content to play in small groups and be
an occasional featured soloist in big bands, Gillespie aimed to lead a big band himself; his
first, unsuccessful, attempt to do this was in 1945.
[citation needed]



Gillespie with J ohn Lewis, Cecil Payne, Miles Davis, and Ray Brown, between 1946 and
1948
After his work with Parker, Gillespie led other small combos (including ones with Milt
J ackson, J ohn Coltrane, Lalo Schifrin, Ray Brown, Kenny Clarke, J ames Moody, J .J .
J ohnson, and Yusef Lateef) and finally put together his first successful big band. Gillespie
and his band tried to popularize bop and make Gillespie a symbol of the new music.
[14]
He
also appeared frequently as a soloist with Norman Granz's J azz at the Philharmonic. He
also headlined the 1946 independently-produced musical revue film Jivin' in Be-Bop.
[15]

In 1948 Gillespie was involved in a traffic accident when the bicycle he was riding was
bumped by an automobile. He was slightly injured, and found that he could no longer hit
the B-flat above high C. He won the case, but the jury awarded him only $1000, in view of
his high earnings up to that point.
[16]

In 1956 he organized a band to go on a State Department tour of the Middle East which was
extremely well received internationally and earned him the nickname "the Ambassador of
J azz".
[17][18]
During this time, he also continued to lead a big band that performed
throughout the United States and featured musicians including Pee Wee Moore and others.
This band recorded a live album at the 1957 Newport jazz festival that featured Mary Lou
Williams as a guest artist on piano.
Afro-Cuban music[edit]


Miriam Makeba and Dizzy Gillespie in concert, Deauville (Normandy, France), J uly 20,
1991
In the late 1940s, Gillespie was also involved in the movement called Afro-Cuban music,
bringing Afro-Latin American music and elements to greater prominence in jazz and even
pop music, particularly salsa. Afro-Cuban jazz is based on traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms.
Gillespie was introduced to Chano Pozo in 1947 by Mario Bauza, a Latin jazz trumpet
player. Chano Pozo became Gillespie's conga drummer for his band. Gillespie also worked
with Mario Bauza in New York jazz clubs on 52nd Street and several famous dance clubs
such as Palladium and the Apollo Theater in Harlem. They played together in the Chick
Webb band and Cab Calloway's band, where Gillespie and Bauza became lifelong friends.
Gillespie helped develop and mature the Afro-Cuban jazz style.
[19]

Afro-Cuban jazz was considered bebop-oriented, and some musicians classified it as a
modern style. Afro-Cuban jazz was successful because it never decreased in popularity and
it always attracted people to dance to its unique rhythms.
[19]
Gillespie's most famous
contributions to Afro-Cuban music are the compositions "Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo"
(both co-written with Chano Pozo); he was responsible for commissioning George Russell's
"Cubano Be, Cubano Bop", which featured the great but ill-fated Cuban conga player,
Chano Pozo. In 1977, Gillespie discovered Arturo Sandoval while researching music
during a tour of Cuba.
Later years[edit]


Gillespie performing in 1955
His biographer Alyn Shipton quotes Don Waterhouse approvingly that Gillespie in the
fifties "had begun to mellow into an amalgam of his entire jazz experience to form the basis
of new classicism". Another opinion is that, unlike his contemporary Miles Davis, Gillespie
essentially remained true to the bebop style for the rest of his career.
[citation needed]

In 1960, he was inducted into the Down Beat magazine's J azz Hall of Fame.
During the 1964 United States presidential campaign the artist, with tongue in cheek, put
himself forward as an independent write-in candidate.
[20][21]
He promised that if he were
elected, the White House would be renamed "The Blues House," and a cabinet composed of
Duke Ellington (Secretary of State), Miles Davis (Director of the CIA), Max Roach
(Secretary of Defense), Charles Mingus (Secretary of Peace), Ray Charles (Librarian of
Congress), Louis Armstrong (Secretary of Agriculture), Mary Lou Williams (Ambassador
to the Vatican), Thelonious Monk (Travelling Ambassador) and Malcolm X (Attorney
General).
[22][23]
He said his running mate would be Phyllis Diller. Campaign buttons had
been manufactured years ago by Gillespie's booking agency "for publicity, as a gag",
[24]
but
now proceeds from them went to benefit the Congress of Racial Equality, Southern
Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, J r.;
[25]
in later years they became
a collector's item.
[26]
In 1971 Gillespie announced he would run again
[27][28]
but withdrew
before the election for reasons connected to the Bah' Faith.
[29]

Gillespie published his autobiography, To Be or Not to Bop, in 1979.
Gillespie was a vocal fixture in many of J ohn Hubley and Faith Hubley's animated films,
such as The Hole, The Hat, and Voyage to Next.
In the 1980s, Gillespie led the United Nation Orchestra. For three years Flora Purim toured
with the Orchestra and she credits Gillespie with evolving her understanding of jazz after
being in the field for over two decades.
[30]
David Snchez also toured with the group and
was also greatly influenced by Gillespie. Both artists later were nominated for Grammy
awards. Gillespie also had a guest appearance on The Cosby Show as well as Sesame Street
and The Muppet Show.
In 1982, Gillespie had a cameo appearance on Stevie Wonder's hit "Do I Do". Gillespie's
tone gradually faded in the last years in life, and his performances often focused more on
his proteges such as Arturo Sandoval and J on Faddis; his good-humoured comedic routines
became more and more a part of his live act.


Dizzy Gillespie with drummer Bill Stewart at 1984 Stanford J azz Workshop
In 1988, Gillespie had worked with Canadian flautist and saxophonist Moe Koffman on
their prestigious album Oo Pop a Da. He did fast scat vocals on the title track and a couple
of the other tracks were played only on trumpet.
In 1989 Gillespie gave 300 performances in 27 countries, appeared in 100 U.S. cities in 31
states and the District of Columbia, headlined three television specials, performed with two
symphonies, and recorded four albums.
[citation needed]
He was also crowned a traditional chief
in Nigeria, received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; France's most prestigious cultural
award. He was named Regent Professor by the University of California, and received his
fourteenth honorary doctoral degree, this one from the Berklee College of Music. In
addition, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award the same year. The
next year, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ceremonies celebrating the
centennial of American jazz, Gillespie received the Kennedy Center Honors Award and the
American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Duke Ellington Award for 50
years of achievement as a composer, performer, and bandleader.
[31][32]
In 1993 he received
the Polar Music Prize in Sweden.
[33]



Dizzy Gillespie with the Italian singer Sergio Caputo
November 26, 1992 at Carnegie Hall in New York, following the Second Bah' World
Congress was Gillespie's 75th birthday concert and his offering to the celebration of the
centenary of the passing of Bah'u'llh. Gillespie was to appear at Carnegie Hall for the
33rd time. The line-up included: J on Faddis, Marvin "Doc" Holladay, J ames Moody,
Paquito D'Rivera, and the Mike Longo Trio with Ben Brown on bass and Mickey Roker on
drums. But Gillespie didn't make it because he was in bed suffering from cancer of the
pancreas. "But the musicians played their real hearts out for him, no doubt suspecting that
he would not play again. Each musician gave tribute to their friend, this great soul and
innovator in the world of jazz."
[34]

Gillespie also starred in a film called The Winter in Lisbon released in 2004.
[35]
He has a
star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7057 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood
section of the City of Los Angeles. He is honored by the December 31, 2006 A J azz New
Year's Eve: Freddy Cole & the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band at The J ohn F. Kennedy
Center for the Performing Arts.
[36]

Death and legacy[edit]


Gillespie in concert at Colonial Tavern, Toronto, 1978
A longtime resident of Englewood, New Jersey,
[37]
he died of pancreatic cancer J anuary 6,
1993, aged 75, and was buried in the Flushing Cemetery, Queens, New York. Mike Longo
delivered a eulogy at his funeral. He was also with Gillespie on the night he died, along
with J on Faddis and a select few others.
At the time of his death, Gillespie was survived by his widow, Lorraine Willis Gillespie (d.
2004); a daughter, jazz singer J eanie Bryson; and a grandson, Radji Birks Bryson-Barrett.
Gillespie had two funerals. One was a Bah' funeral at his request, at which his closest
friends and colleagues attended. The second was at the Cathedral of St. J ohn the Divine in
New York open to the public.
[38]

Dizzy Gillespie, a Bah' since about 1970,
[39]
was one of the most famous adherents of the
Bah' Faith which helped him make sense of his position in a succession of trumpeters as
well as turning his life from knife-carrying roughneck to global citizen, and from alcohol to
"soul force",
[40]
in the words of author Nat Hentoff, who knew Gillespie for forty years.
Gillespie's conversion was most affected by Bill Sear's book Theif in the Night.
[39]
Gillespie
spoke about the Bah' Faith frequently on his trips abroad.
[41][42][43]
He is honored with
weekly jazz sessions at the New York Bah' Center in the memorial auditorium.
[44]

As a tribute to him, DJ Qualls' character in the 2002 American teen comedy film The New
Guy was named Dizzy Gillespie Harrison.
The Marvel Comics current Hawkeye comic written by Matt Fraction features Gillespie's
music in a section of the editorials called the "Hawkguy Playlist".
Also, Dwight Morrow High School, the public high school of Englewood, New J ersey,
renamed their auditorium the Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium, in memory of him.
In 2014, Gillespie was inducted into the New J ersey Hall of Fame.
[45]

Style[edit]


Statue of Dizzy Gillespie in his hometown Cheraw, South Carolina
Gillespie has been described as the "Sound of Surprise".
[46]
The Rough Guide to Jazz
describes his musical style:
The whole essence of a Gillespie solo was cliff-hanging suspense: the phrases and the angle
of the approach were perpetually varied, breakneck runs were followed by pauses, by huge
interval leaps, by long, immensely high notes, by slurs and smears and bluesy phrases; he
always took listeners by surprise, always shocking them with a new thought. His lightning
reflexes and superb ear meant his instrumental execution matched his thoughts in its power
and speed. And he was concerned at all times with swingeven taking the most daring
liberties with pulse or beat, his phrases never failed to swing. Gillespiess magnificent
sense of time and emotional intensity of his playing came from childhood roots. His parents
were Methodists, but as a boy he used to sneak off every Sunday to the uninhibited
Sanctified Church. He said later, The Sanctified Church had deep significance for me
musically. I first learned the significance of rhythm there and all about how music can
transport people spiritually.'"
[47]

In Gillespie's obituary, Peter Watrous describes his performance style:
In the naturally effervescent Mr. Gillespie, opposites existed. His playingand he
performed constantly until nearly the end of his lifewas meteoric, full of virtuosic
invention and deadly serious. But with his endlessly funny asides, his huge variety of facial
expressions and his natural comic gifts, he was as much a pure entertainer as an
accomplished artist."
[48]

Wynton Marsalis summed up Gillespie as a player and teacher:
His playing showcases the importance of intelligence. His rhythmic sophistication was
unequaled. He was a master of harmonyand fascinated with studying it. He took in all the
music of his youthfrom Roy Eldridge to Duke Ellingtonand developed a unique style
built on complex rhythm and harmony balanced by wit. Gillespie was so quick-minded, he
could create an endless flow of ideas at unusually fast tempo. Nobody had ever even
considered playing a trumpet that way, let alone had actually tried. All the musicians
respected him because, in addition to outplaying everyone, he knew so much and was so
generous with that knowledge..."
[49]

"Bent" trumpet[edit]


Dizzy Gillespie with his bent trumpet, performing in 1988
Gillespie's trademark trumpet featured a bell which bent upward at a 45-degree angle rather
than pointing straight ahead as in the conventional design. According to Gillespie's
autobiography, this was originally the result of accidental damage caused by the dancers
Stump and Stumpy falling onto it while it was on a trumpet stand on stage at Snookie's in
Manhattan on J anuary 6, 1953, during a birthday party for Gillespie's wife Lorraine.
[50]
The
constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the instrument, and Gillespie liked
the effect. He had the trumpet straightened out the next day, but he could not forget the
tone. Gillespie sent a request to Martin to make him a "bent" trumpet from a sketch
produced by Lorraine, and from that time forward Gillespie played a trumpet with an
upturned bell.
[51]

Gillespie's biographer Alyn Shipton writes that Gillespie probably got the idea for a bent
trumpet when he saw a similar instrument in 1937 in Manchester, England, while on tour
with the Teddy Hill Orchestra. According to this account (from British journalist Pat
Brand) Gillespie was able to try out the horn and the experience led him, much later, to
commission a similar horn for himself.
Whatever the origins of Gillespie's upswept trumpet, by J une 1954, he was using a
professionally manufactured horn of this design, and it was to become a visual trademark
for him for the rest of his life.
[52]
Such trumpets were made for him by Martin (from 1954),
King Musical Instruments (from 1972) and Renold Schilke (from 1982, a gift from J on
Faddis).
[51]
Gillespie favored mouthpieces made by Al Cass. In December 1986 Gillespie
gave the National Museum of American History his 1972 King "Silver Flair" trumpet with
a Cass mouthpiece.
[51][53][54]
In April 1995, Gillespie's Martin trumpet was auctioned at
Christie's in New York City, along with instruments used by other famous musicians such
as Coleman Hawkins, J imi Hendrix and Elvis Presley.
[55]
An image of Gillespie's trumpet
was selected for the cover of the auction program. The battered instrument sold to
Manhattan builder J effery Brown for $63,000, the proceeds benefiting jazz musicians
suffering from cancer.
[56][57][58]

Discography[edit]
As leader[edit]
193749: The Complete RCA Victor Recordings (RCA Victor)
194547: Groovin' High (Savoy)
1948: Gene Norman Presents Dizzy Gillespie in Concert (GNP Crescendo 23)
1950: Bird and Diz (Clef) with Charlie Parker
195152: Dee Gee Days: The Savoy Sessions (Savoy) includes all tracks on The
Champ (Savoy) and School Days (Regent)
195253: The Great Blue Star Sessions 1952-1953 (EmArcy) includes all tracks
on Dizzy Gillespie and His Operatic Strings Orchestra (Fontana) and some tracks
released on Dizzy at Home and Abroad (Atlantic)
1953: Dizzy Digs Paris (Giant Steps) includes all tracks on Dizzy Over Paris
(Roost)
1953: Jazz at Massey Hall (Debut) with Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles
Mingus and Max Roach
1953: Diz and Getz (Norgran) with Stan Getz
1954: Afro (Norgran)
1954: Dizzy and Strings (Norgran)
1954: Roy and Diz (Clef) with Roy Eldridge
195455: Jazz Recital (Norgran) also released as Dizzy Gillespie and His
Orchestra
1955: One Night in Washington (Elektra Musician [1983])
1956: Modern Jazz Sextet (Norgran)
1956: World Statesman (Norgran)
1956: Dizzy in Greece (Verve)
1956: For Musicians Only (Verve) with Stan Getz and Sonny Stitt
1957: Birks' Works (Verve)
1957: Dizzy Gillespie and Stuff Smith (Verve)
1957: Sittin' In (Verve) with Stan Getz and Coleman Hawkins
1957: Dizzy Gillespie at Newport (Verve)
1957: Duets (Verve) with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt
1957: The Greatest Trumpet of Them All (Verve) with Benny Golson
1957: Sonny Side Up (Verve) with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt
1959: The Ebullient Mr. Gillespie (Verve)
1959: Have Trumpet, Will Excite! (Verve)
1960: A Portrait of Duke Ellington (Verve)
1960: Gillespiana (Verve) composed and arranged by Lalo Schifrin
1961: An Electrifying Evening with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet (Verve)
1961: Carnegie Hall Concert (Verve)
1961: Perceptions (Verve) composed and arranged by J .J . J ohnson, conducted by
Gunther Schuller
1962: Dizzy on the French Riviera (Philips)
1962: The New Continent (Limelight) composed and arranged by Lalo Schifrin
1963: New Wave (Philips) 8 tracks
1963: New Wave! (Wing WL1152) 7 tracks
1963: Something Old, Something New (Philips)
1963: Dizzy Gillespie and the Double Six of Paris (Philips)
1964: Dizzy Goes Hollywood (Philips)
1964: The Cool World (Philips)
1964: Jambo Caribe (Limelight)
1965: Gil Fuller & the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra featuring Dizzy Gillespie
(Pacific J azz) with Gil Fuller
1966: The Melody Lingers On (Limelight)
1967: Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac (Impulse!)
1967: Live at the Village Vanguard (Solid State)
1968: The Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Big Band (MPS)
1969: It's My Way (Solid State) also released as My Way
1969: Cornucopia (Solid State)
1970: The Real Thing (Perception) with J ames Moody
1970: Portrait of Jenny (Perception)
1971: Giants (Perception) with Bobby Hackett and Mary Lou Williams
1971: Dizzy Gillespie and the Mitchell Ruff Duo in Concert (Mainstream) with
Willie Ruff and Dwike Mitchell
1971: The Giants of Jazz (Atlantic) with Art Blakey, Al McKibbon, Thelonious
Monk, Sonny Stitt and Kai Winding
1973: The Giant (America)
1973: The Source (America)
1974: Dizzy Gillespie's Big 4 (Pablo)
1974: The Trumpet Kings Meet Joe Turner (Pablo) with J oe Turner, Roy Eldridge,
Harry "Sweets" Edison and Clark Terry
1974: Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie (Pablo) with Oscar Peterson
1974: Oscar Peterson and The Trumpet Kings - Jousts (Pablo) with Oscar
Peterson
1975: The Bop Session (Sonet) with Sonny Stitt, J ohn Lewis, Hank J ones, Percy
Heath and Max Roach
1975: Jazz Maturity...Where It's Coming From (Pablo) with Oscar Peterson and
Roy Eldridge
1975: Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods (Pablo) with Machito
1975: The Dizzy Gillespie Big 7 (Pablo) also released as Dizzy
1975: The Trumpet Kings at Montreux '75 (Pablo) with Roy Eldridge, Clark Terry
and Oscar Peterson
1975: Bahiana (Pablo)
1976: Carter, Gillespie Inc. (Pablo) with Benny Carter
1976: Dizzy's Party (Pablo)
1977: Free Ride (Pablo) composed and arranged by Lalo Schifrin
1977: The Gifted Ones (Pablo) with Count Basie
1977: Dizzy Gillespie Jam (Pablo) with J ohn Faddis
1980: The Trumpet Summit Meets the Oscar Peterson Big 4 (Pablo) with Freddie
Hubbard, Clark Terry and Oscar Peterson
1980: The Alternate Blues (Pablo) with Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry and Oscar
Peterson
1980: Digital at Montreux, 1980 (Pablo)
1981: Musician, Composer, Raconteur (Pablo)
1981: To a Finland Station (Pablo) with Arturo Sandoval
1984: Closer to the Source (Atlantic)
1985: New Faces (GRP)
1986: Dizzy Gillespie Meets Phil Woods Quintet with Phil Woods
1988: Endlessly (Impulse!)
1988: Oop-Pop-A-Da (Soundwings) with Moe Koffman
1989: Live at the Royal Festival Hall (Enja) with the United Nation Orchestra
1989: Max + Dizzy: Paris 1989 (A&M) with Max Roach
1989: The Paris All Stars Homage to Charlie Parker (A&M) with J ackie McLean,
Phil Woods, Stan Getz, Milt J ackson, Hank J ones, Percy Heath and Max Roach
1989: The Symphony Sessions (ProJ azz)
1990: The Winter in Lisbon (Milan) soundtrack
1991: Live! at Blues Alley (with Ron Holloway, Ed Cherry, J ohn Lee, Ignacio
Berroa)
1992: Bird Songs: The Final Recordings (Telarc)
1992: To Bird with Love (Telarc)
1992: To Diz with Love (Telarc)
As sideman[edit]
With Benny Carter
New Jazz Sounds (Norgran, 1954)
With CTI All Stars
Rhythmstick (CTI, 1990)
With Duke Ellington
Jazz Party (Columbia, 1959)
With Quincy Jones
Back on the Block (Warner Bros., 1989)
With Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich
Krupa and Rich (Clef, 1955)
With Mike Longo
Talk with the Spirits (Pablo, 1976)
With the Manhattan Transfer
Vocalese (Atlantic, 1985)
With Carmen McRae
Carmen McRae at the Great American Music Hall (Blue Note, 1976)
With Charles Mingus
Charles Mingus and Friends in Concert (Columbia, 1972)
With Katie Bell Nubin
Soul, Soul Searching (Verve, 1960)
With Oscar Peterson
Oscar Peterson Jam - Montreux '77 (Pablo)
With Mongo Santamaria
Montreux Heat! (Pablo, 1980)
Summertime (Pablo, 1980)
With Woody Shaw
Woody Shaw and Friends at Monterey Jazz Festival 1979 (Concord Jazz, 1979)
With Lillian Terry
Oo-Shoo-Be-Doo-Be...Oo, Oo...Oo, Oo (Black Saint, 1985)
With Randy Weston
Spirits of Our Ancestors (Verve, 1993)
Filmography[edit]
1983 Jazz in America (Embassy)
1986 In Redondo Beach/Jazz in America ( Embassy)
1991 Dizzy Gillespie: A Night in Tunisia (VIEW)
1993 Live in London (Kultur Video)
1998 Dizzy Gillespie & Charles Mingus (Vidjazz)
1998 Dizzy Gillespie: Ages (Vidjazz)
1999 Jazz Casual: Dizzy Gillespie (Rhino)
2001 Jivin'in Be-Bop (J azz Classic Video)
2001 Dizzy Gillespie: A Night in Chicago (VIEW)
[59]

2001 Live at the Royal Festival Hall 1987 (Pioneer)
2002 Live in Montreal (Image)
2003 20th Century Jazz Masters
2003 Swing Era (with Mel Torm) (Idem)
2005 Norman Granz Jazz in Montreux: Presents Dizzy Gillespie Sextet '77 (Eagle
Vision USA)
2005 Summer Jazz Live at New Jersey 1987 (FS World J azz / Alpha Centauri
Entertainment)
2005 A Night in Havana: Dizzy Gillespie in Cuba (New Video Group)
2006 Jazz Icons: Live in '58 & '70 (Universal)
2008 London Concerts 1965 & 1966 (Impro-J azz Spain)
Bibliography[edit]
To Be, or Not...to Bop. New York: Doubleday, 1979.
To Be, or Not...to Bop. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.
References[edit]
1. ^ Watrous, Peter Dizzy Gillespie, Who Sounded Some of Modern Jazz's Earliest Notes, Dies at 75,
The New York Times Obituary, January 7, 1993
2. ^ Yanow, S. (2002) All Music Guide to Jazz. Backbeat Books.
3. ^ To Be or Not to Bop: Memoirs of Dizzy Gillespie by Dizzy Gillespie and Al Fraser. Published:
Doubleday, New York, 1979. Pages: 552
4. ^ Palmer, Richer. "The Greatest Jazzman of Them All? The Recorded Work of Dizzy Gillespie: An
Appraisal" Jazz Journal, January 2001, p. 8
5. ^
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b

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d
"jazz-music-history.com". jazz-music-history.com. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
6. ^ "chuckmangione.com". chuckmangione.com. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
7. ^ Reich, Howard. "Dizzy's Legacy: James Moody Carries on the Tradition of His Mentor", Chicago
Tribune, March 28, 1993
8. ^ "Priestly, Brian. "The Definitive Dizzy Gillespie" May 2000. 2 Jun 2009". Vervemusicgroup.com.
Retrieved October 20, 2010.
9. ^ Vail, Ken (2003). Dizzy Gillespie: the Bebop Years, 19371952. Scarecrow Press. pp. 6, 12.
ISBN 0810848805.
10. ^ Gunther Schuller 14 Nov 1972. Dance, p 290
11. ^ *Dance, Stanley (1983). The World of Earl Hines. [Includes a 120-page interview with Hines]. Da
Capo Press. ISBN 0-306-80182-5: p.260
12. ^
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b
"Kato, Lisa. "Charlie Parker and the Rise of Bebop". 2003. 29 Jun 2009". Theguitarschool.com.
Retrieved October 20, 2010.
13. ^ Yanow, Scott. "Afro-Cuban Jazz". Hal Leonard Publication. 2000
14. ^ Yanow, Scott. "Yanow, Scott. "Dizzy Gillespie Biography". 2009. June 25, 2009". Allmusic.com.
Retrieved October 20, 2010.
15. ^ "'J ivin' in Be-Bop (DVD)". Filmthreat.com. August 17, 2004. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
16. ^ Ready for the Plaintiff! by Melvin Belli, 1956.
17. ^ "fromKen Burns's J azz, A Gillespie Biography". .wwnorton.com. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
18. ^ "Ken Burns's Jazz, A Gillespie Biography". Pbs.org. Retrieved October 20, 2010.
19. ^
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b
[Yanow, Scott. "Afro-Cuban Jazz". Hal Leonard Publication. 2000]
20. ^ Gillespie, Dizzy; Al Fraser (2000) [1979]. "Diz for President". To Be or Not to Bop. Minneapolis:
University of Minnesota Press. pp. 452461. ISBN 978-0-8166-6547-1.
21. ^ Lipsitz, George. The Possessive Investment in Whiteness: How White People Profit from Identity
Politics. Philadelphia: Temple University Press. pp. 161162. ISBN 1-59213-493-9.
22. ^ "BBC radio broadcast on Gillespie's 1964 presidential campaign". Bbc.co.uk. January 8, 2007.
Retrieved October 20, 2010.
23. ^ "The Winter in Lisbon" CD booklet.
24. ^ Gillespie 2000 [1979], op. cit. p. 453.
25. ^ Gillespie 2000 [1979], op. cit. p. 460.
26. ^ Gelly, Dave (May 8, 2005). "Other Jazz CDs". The Observer. p. Observer Review: 13. Archived
fromthe original on January 29, 2011. Retrieved J anuary 29, 2011.
27. ^ "Dizzy Wants to Blow Right into White House". Jet 40 (17): 61. July 22, 1971. ISSN 0021-5996.
28. ^ "Dizzy Gillespie Picks Two Cabinet Members: Duke Ellington, Muhammad Ali". Jet 40 (26): 56.
September 23, 1971. ISSN 0021-5996.
29. ^ Gillespie 2000 [1979], op. cit. pp. 460461.
30. ^ Beatrice Richardson for JazzReview interviews Flora Purim Queen of Brazilian Jazz.
31. ^ Pop/Jazz; A Tribute For Gillespie And the Jazz He Created.
32. ^ Jazz with Bob Parlocha Biographies Dizzy Gillespie.
33. ^ About | Polar Music Prize.
34. ^ The Spiritual Side of Dizzy by Lowell Johnson.
35. ^ "The Winter in Lisbon" Dizzy Gillespie | Milan Records (2004).
36. ^ The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Schedule 2006-7.
37. ^ Berman, Eleanor. "The jazz of Queens encompasses music royalty", Pittsburgh Post-Gazette,
January 1, 2006. Retrieved October 1, 2009. "Mr. Knight shows the brick building that was the
studio of Dizzie Gillespie, where other Corona residents like Cannonball Adderley used to come and
jam."
38. ^ Dizzy Gillespie Memorial.
39. ^
a

b
Dizzy Gillespie; Al Fraser (2009) [1979]. To Be, Or Not-- to Bop. U of Minnesota Press.
pp. xiv, 185, 2878, 4301, 4604, 473480, 486, 493. ISBN 978-0-8166-6547-1.
40. ^ Alyn Shipton (3 June 1999). Groovin' High : The Life of Dizzy Gillespie: The Life of Dizzy
Gillespie. Oxford University Press. p. 302. ISBN 978-0-19-534938-2.
41. ^ "Remembering Dizzy". Jazztimes.com. Archived fromthe original on December 28, 2008.
Retrieved 2010-10-20.
42. ^ Groovin' High The Life of Dizzy Gillespie by Alyn Shipton.
43. ^ Groovin' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie Review by Brad Pokorny
44. ^ "Jazz Night @ the Bah' Center". New York City Baha'i Center. Local Spiritual Assembly of the
Baha'is of New York City. Retrieved 2014-03-20.
45. ^ The Star Leadger. August 1, 2014. pg. 19
46. ^ Shipton, A. Groovin' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie (1999) New York: Oxford University
Press.
47. ^ Carr, I., Fairweather, D, Brian P, The rough guide to Jazz. page. 291
48. ^ Watrous, Peter. "Dizzy Gillespie, Who Sounded Some of Modern Jazz's Earliest Notes, Dies at
75", New York Times, January 7, 1993
49. ^ Marsalis, W. with Geoffrey C. Ward. Moving to higher ground : how jazz can change your life.
New York : RandomHouse, 2008.
50. ^ Maggin, Donald L. (2006). Dizzy: The Life and Times of John Birks Gillespie. HarperCollins.
p. 253. ISBN 0-06-055921-7.
51. ^
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c
Hamlin, Jesse (July 27, 1997). "A Distinctly American Bent / Dizzy Gillespie's misshapen
horn highlights Smithsonian's traveling show". San Francisco Chronicle.
52. ^ Shipton, Alyn. 'Groovin' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie' New York : Oxford University Press.
(see pp.258259)
53. ^ "Dizzy Gillespie Donates Trumpet to NMAH". Smithsonian Institution Archives. December 1986.
Retrieved J anuary 15, 2012.
54. ^ "Dizzy Gillespie's B-flat trumpet along with one of his Al Cass mouthpieces". National Museum of
American History, Smithsonian Institution. Retrieved September 8, 2008.
55. ^ Fisher, Don (April 23, 1995). "Christie's To Auction Prized Martin Guitar Collection L.V. Man's
Love To Be Instrument of His Retirement". The Morning Call (Lehigh Valley, Pennsylvania). p. 2.
56. ^ "Bent, Battered Trumpet Sells For Dizzy $63,000". Deseret News. April 26, 1995.
57. ^ "Object of Desire: Bell Epoque". New York Magazine 28 (17): 111. April 24, 1995. ISSN 0028-
7369.
58. ^ Macnie, J im(May 13, 1995). "Jazz Blue Notes". Billboard 107 (19): 60. ISSN 0006-2510.
^ Artist: Gillespie, Dizzy. "VIEW DVD Listing". View.com. Retrieved October 20, 2010.