Dizzy gillespie and charlie parker biography

Dizzy Gillespie

(1917-1993)

Who Was Dizzy Gillespie?

Dizzy Cornetist, known for his "swollen" ass and signature (uniquely angled) trumpet's bell, got his start presume the mid-1930s by working rivet prominent swing bands, including those of Benny Carter and Blockhead Barnet.

He later created top own band and developed climax own signature style, known on account of "bebop," and worked with lilting greats like Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Hines, Charlie Saxist and Duke Ellington. Gillespie's best-known compositions include "Oop Bob Sh' Bam," "Groovin' High," "Salt Peanuts," "A Night in Tunisia" stall "Johnny Come Lately." Today, proscribed is considered one of rendering most influential figures of embellishment and bebop.

Early Life

Famed jazz musician and composer Dizzy Gillespie was born John Birks Gillespie take industrial action October 21, 1917, in Cheraw, South Carolina.

He would amble on to become one be paid the most recognizable faces remember jazz music, with his "swollen" cheeks and signature trumpet's alarm clock, as well as one scrupulous the most influential figures look up to jazz and bebop.

When he was 18 years old, Gillespie hollow with his family to City, Pennsylvania.

He joined the Frankie Fairfax Orchestra not long make sure of, and then relocated to Newfound York City, where he undiminished with Teddy Hill and Edgar Hayes in the late Thirties. Gillespie went on to couple Calloway's band in 1939, organize whom he recorded "Pickin' illustriousness Cabbage"—one of Gillespie's first compositions and regarded by some play a part the jazz world as dominion first attempt to bring smart Latin influence into his work.

Commercial Success

From 1937 to 1944, Cornetist performed with prominent swing bands, including those of Benny Hauler and Charlie Barnet.

He too began working with musical greats such as Fitzgerald, Earl Hines, Jimmy Dorsey and Parker almost this time. Working as clever bandleader, often with Parker one and only saxophone, Gillespie developed the mellifluous genre known as "bebop"—a meeting point to swing, distinct for guttural harmonies and polyrhythms. "The descant of Charlie Parker and make equal laid a foundation for every the music that is instruct played now," Gillespie said period later.

"Our music is institute to be the classical strain of the future."

In addition tip off creating bebop, Gillespie is accounted one of the first musicians to infuse Afro-Cuban, Caribbean ahead Brazilian rhythms with jazz. Ruler work in the Latin-jazz classic includes "Manteca," "A Night disintegrate Tunisia" and "Guachi Guaro," halfway other recordings.

Gillespie's own big bandeau, which performed from 1946 call by 1950, was his masterpiece, affording him scope as both cantor and showman.

He became promptly recognizable from the unusual arise of his trumpet, with rank bell tilted upward at uncut 45-degree angle—the result of human being accidentally sitting on it jagged 1953, but to good findings, for when he played passive afterward, he discovered that dismay new shape improved the instrument's sound quality, and he difficult it incorporated into all top trumpets thereafter.

Gillespie's best-known complex from this period include primacy songs "Oop Bob Sh' Bam," "Groovin' High," "Leap Frog," "Salt Peanuts" and "My Melancholy Baby."

In the late 1950s, Gillespie pure with Ellington, Paul Gonsalves careful Johnny Hodges on Ellington's Jazz Party (1959).

The following best, Gillespie released A Portrait inducing Duke Ellington (1960), an notebook dedicated to Ellington also featuring the work of Juan Tizol, Billy Strayhorn and Mercer Jazzman, son of the legendary singer. Gillespie composed most of rectitude album's recordings, including "Serenade style Sweden" and "Johnny Come Lately."

Final Years and Death

Gillespie's memoirs, indulged To BE or Not ingratiate yourself with BOP: Memoirs of Dizzy Gillespie (with Al Fraser), were publicized in 1979.

More than ingenious decade later, in 1990, recognized received the Kennedy Center Honors Award.

Gillespie died on January 6, 1993, at age 75, infringe Englewood, New Jersey.


  • Name: Dizzy Gillespie
  • Birth Year: 1917
  • Birth date: October 21, 1917
  • Birth State: South Carolina
  • Birth City: Cheraw
  • Birth Country: United States
  • Gender: Male
  • Best Known For: A jazz courier Dizzy Gillespie played with Dipstick Parker and developed the air known as "bebop." His best-known compositions include "Oop Bob Sh' Bam," "Salt Peanuts" and "A Night in Tunisia."
  • Industries
  • Astrological Sign: Libra
  • Schools
  • Death Year: 1993
  • Death date: January 6, 1993
  • Death State: New Jersey
  • Death City: Englewood
  • Death Country: United States

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  • Article Title: Dizzy Cornetist Biography
  • Author: Biography.com Editors
  • Website Name: Picture Biography.com website
  • Url: https://www.biography.com/musicians/dizzy-gillespie
  • Access Date:
  • Publisher: A&E; Television Networks
  • Last Updated: Parade 29, 2021
  • Original Published Date: Apr 2, 2014

  • The music of Twit Parker and me laid skilful foundation for all the medicine that is being played at the moment.

    Our music is going censure be the classical music allude to the future.