John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz musician who played the trumpet, led bands, wrote music, taught others, and sang. He was a highly skilled trumpet player who created music on the spot, building on the style of another musician named Roy Eldridge but adding more complex musical elements, such as new note patterns and rhythms, that had not been used in jazz before. His musical talent, ability to perform with energy, and sense of humor helped him share a new style of jazz called bebop with many people. His appearance, including a beret, glasses with horn-shaped frames, and playful expressions, made him a well-known figure in jazz history.

In the 1940s, Gillespie worked closely with another musician named Charlie Parker to help develop bebop and modern jazz. He taught and inspired many other musicians, including trumpeters like Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, and a singer named Johnny Hartman.

Gillespie received several Grammy Awards. Scott Yanow wrote that Gillespie made major contributions to jazz. He was one of the greatest jazz trumpeters ever, and his unique style was so special that other musicians from his time were often compared to Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead. It was not until a musician named Jon Faddis appeared in the 1970s that Gillespie’s style was successfully played again. Gillespie is remembered by both critics and fans as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time.

Biography

Dizzy Gillespie was the youngest of nine children born to Lottie and James Gillespie in Cheraw, South Carolina. His father was a local bandleader, so instruments were available for the children to use. James Gillespie passed away when Dizzy was ten years old.

Dizzy began playing the piano at age four. By the time he was twelve, he taught himself how to play the trombone and trumpet.

After hearing his idol, Roy Eldridge, on the radio, Dizzy dreamed of becoming a jazz musician. He earned a music scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina, where he studied for two years. In 1935, he moved with his family to Philadelphia.

Dizzy’s first professional job was with the Frank Fairfax Orchestra in 1935. Later, he joined the orchestras of Edgar Hayes and Teddy Hill, replacing Frankie Newton as second trumpet in May 1937. While with Teddy Hill’s band, Gillespie made his first recording, "King Porter Stomp." In August 1937, while working with Hayes in Washington D.C., Gillespie met Lorraine Willis, a dancer who performed in cities like Baltimore, Philadelphia, and New York. The two married on May 9, 1940.

Gillespie stayed with Teddy Hill’s band for a year before freelancing with other groups. In 1939, with Lorraine’s help, he joined Cab Calloway’s orchestra. He recorded one of his earliest compositions, "Pickin’ the Cabbage," with Calloway in 1940. After a disagreement, Calloway fired Gillespie in late 1941.

The incident was described in Jean Bach’s 1997 film, The Spitball Story, by Gillespie and Calloway’s band members Milt Hinton and Jonah Jones. Calloway disliked Gillespie’s humorous style and his bold way of playing. During rehearsal, a spitball was thrown. Calloway, already upset, blamed Gillespie, who refused to accept responsibility. Gillespie stabbed Calloway in the leg with a knife, causing minor injuries. Calloway later fired Gillespie. Gillespie later tried to apologize, but Calloway refused to accept it.

While with Calloway’s band, Gillespie began writing arrangements for big bands, including those led by Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey. He later freelanced with other groups, including Ella Fitzgerald’s orchestra, which included members from Chick Webb’s band.

Gillespie did not serve in World War II. At his Selective Service interview, he told the board, "In this stage of my life here in the United States whose foot has been in my ass?" and "If you put me out there with a gun in my hand and tell me to shoot at the enemy, I might shoot the wrong person." He was classified 4-F.

In 1943, Gillespie joined the Earl Hines band. He once said, "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."

Gillespie joined the big band of Billy Eckstine, Hines’s long-time collaborator, where he reunited with Charlie Parker. In 1944, Gillespie left Eckstine’s band to play in a small group. He recommended Fats Navarro for the position, who became a strong replacement.

Bebop was the first modern jazz style, but it was not popular at first. It was seen as a development of swing music. Swing introduced new musicians like Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford, and Gillespie. These musicians created a new way of playing music. Parker’s methods included adding chords to existing progressions and implying extra chords in improvisations. Gillespie and Parker performed at famous jazz clubs like Minton’s Playhouse and Monroe’s Uptown House.

Gillespie’s compositions, such as "Groovin’ High," "Woody ‘n’ You," and "Salt Peanuts," were very different from the swing music of the time. "A Night in Tunisia," written in 1942 while Gillespie was with Earl Hines’s band, is known for its rhythmic bass line, a feature common in today’s music. "Woody ‘n’ You" was recorded in a session led by Coleman Hawkins with Gillespie as a featured musician on February 16, 1944, and was the first formal recording of bebop. Gillespie began recording prolifically as a leader and sideman in early 1945. He wanted to bring bebop to a wider audience, and in June 1945, he performed at a concert in New York’s Town Hall. Recordings of this event were released in 2005. He started organizing big bands in late 1945.

In December 1945, Gillespie and his Bebop Six, which included Charlie Parker, began a long gig at Billy Berg’s club in Los Angeles. The reception was mixed, and the band broke up. In February 1946, Gillespie signed a contract with Bluebird, which gave him the distribution power of RCA for his music. He and his big band headlined the 1946 film Jivin’ in Be-Bop.

After working with Parker, Gillespie led other small groups, including those with Milt Jackson, John Coltrane, Lalo Schifrin, Ray Brown, Kenny Clarke, James Moody, J. J. Johnson, and Yusef Lateef. He also formed successful big bands starting in 1947. With arrangements by Tadd Dameron, Gil Fuller, and George Russell, Gillespie’s big bands popularized bebop and made him a symbol of the new music.

His big bands in the late 1940s also included Cuban musicians Chano Pozo and Sabu Martinez, which sparked interest in Afro-Cuban jazz. Gillespie frequently performed as a soloist with Norman Granz’s Jazz at the Philharmonic.

Gillespie and his Bebop Orchestra were the featured performers at the 4th Cavalcade of Jazz concert at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles on September 12, 1948. The event was produced by Leon Hefflin Sr. Gillespie had recently returned from Europe, where his music was popular. The program description noted, "the musicianship, inventive technique, and daring of this young man has created a new style, which can be defined as off the chord solo gymnastics." Other performers that day included Frankie Laine, Little Miss Cornshucks, The Sweethearts of Rhythm, The Honeydrippers, Big Joe Turner, Jimmy Witherspoon, The Blenders, and The Sensations.

In 1948, Gillespie was involved in a traffic accident when a car bumped his bicycle. He

Politics and religion

In 1962, Gillespie and actor George Mathews appeared in The Hole, an animated short film created by John and Faith Hubley. The film was released in the same year as the Cuban Missile Crisis. It used audio from a made-up conversation between Gillespie and Mathews, in which they discussed the causes of accidents and the risk of accidentally launching nuclear weapons. The short film won the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film in 1963.

During the 1964 U.S. presidential campaign, Gillespie ran as an independent write-in candidate. He promised that if elected, the White House would be renamed the Blues House, and his cabinet would include famous musicians such as Duke Ellington (Secretary of State), Miles Davis (Director of the CIA), and Louis Armstrong (Secretary of Agriculture). His running mate would be comedian Phyllis Diller. Campaign buttons had been made years earlier by Gillespie’s booking agency as a joke, but the money from selling them went to civil rights groups like the Congress of Racial Equality and Martin Luther King Jr.’s organizations. These buttons later became valuable collector’s items. In 1971, Gillespie announced he would run again but withdrew before the election.

After the death of Charlie Parker, Gillespie had a conversation with an audience member about the idea of all people being equal and ending racism, as taught by the Baháʼí Faith. He was deeply affected by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968 and joined the Baháʼí Faith that same year. The faith’s focus on unity and equality encouraged Gillespie to see himself as a global citizen and humanitarian, expanding his interest in his African heritage. His spiritual beliefs inspired generosity and inner strength, as described by author Nat Hentoff.

Gillespie’s decision to join the Baháʼí Faith was influenced by Bill Sears’ book Thief in the Night. He often spoke about the Baháʼí Faith during his travels abroad. He is honored with weekly jazz performances at the New York Baháʼí Center’s memorial auditorium. A concert celebrating his 75th birthday was held at New York City’s Carnegie Hall on November 26, 1992, during the second Baha’i World Congress. However, Gillespie was too ill to attend the event in person.

Personal life

Gillespie married dancer Lorraine Willis in Boston on May 9, 1940. They stayed married until his death in 1993. In 1957, Lorraine converted to Catholicism with Mary Lou Williams. Lorraine handled his business and personal matters. The couple did not have children, but Gillespie had a daughter, jazz singer Jeanie Bryson, born in 1958 from a relationship with songwriter Connie Bryson. Gillespie met Bryson, a Juilliard-trained pianist, at the jazz club Birdland in New York City. In the mid-1960s, Gillespie moved to Englewood, New Jersey, to live with his wife. The local Englewood public high school, Dwight Morrow High School, named its auditorium after him: the Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium.

Artistry

Gillespie is known as the "sound of surprise." The Rough Guide to Jazz describes his musical style:

In an article about Gillespie's death, Peter Watrous described how he played:

Wynton Marsalis explained Gillespie's role as a musician and teacher:

Gillespie's trumpet had a bell that bent upward at a 45-degree angle, unlike the usual straight design. According to Gillespie's autobiography, this happened by accident when dancers named Stump and Stumpy fell onto the trumpet while it was on a stand during a birthday party for Gillespie's wife, Lorraine, on January 6, 1953, at Snookie's in Manhattan. The bending changed the sound of the instrument, and Gillespie liked it. He had the trumpet fixed the next day but kept the altered shape. Gillespie asked Martin to make a new trumpet with the bent design based on a sketch by Lorraine. From then on, he played trumpets with this unique shape.

By June 1954, Gillespie was using a professionally made trumpet with this design. It became a lasting feature of his music. Martin made these trumpets for him starting in 1954, King Musical Instruments from 1972, and Renold Schilke from 1982, which was a gift from Jon Faddis. Gillespie preferred mouthpieces made by Al Cass. In December 1986, Gillespie gave his 1972 King "Silver Flair" trumpet with a Cass mouthpiece to the National Museum of American History.

In April 1995, Gillespie's Martin trumpet was sold at an auction in New York City alongside instruments used by Coleman Hawkins, Jimi Hendrix, and Elvis Presley. A picture of Gillespie's trumpet was on the cover of the auction program. The worn instrument was bought by Manhattan builder Jeffery Brown for $63,000. The money from the sale helped jazz musicians with cancer.

Awards and honors

In 1989, Gillespie was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The following year, during ceremonies at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts that celebrated the 100th anniversary 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 accomplishments as a composer, performer, and bandleader.

In 1989, Gillespie was also given an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music.

In 1991, Gillespie was honored with the Golden Plate Award from the American Academy of Achievement, which was presented by Awards Council member Wynton Marsalis.

In 1993, Gillespie received the Polar Music Prize in Sweden. In 2002, he was inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame after he passed away for his contributions to Afro-Cuban music. On December 31, 2006, Gillespie was honored during A Jazz New Year's Eve: Freddy Cole & the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2014, Gillespie was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame.

In popular culture

In the movie Bird (1988), which tells the story of Charlie Parker, Samuel E. Wright acted as Dizzy Gillespie. In the film Born to Be Blue (2015), which is about Chet Baker, Kevin Hanchard portrayed Dizzy Gillespie. In For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000), Charles S. Dutton played the role of Dizzy Gillespie.