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"I'M DIZ THE WHIZ"
--Dizzy's line in the Cab Calloway Classic song: I'm a Cat that's in the Know
C. Calloway Brooks on Dizzy Gillespie:
Used to talk on the phone with him all the time he was always calling
granddad. Especially around Christmas. He got a whole lot out of being
with my granddad. Chu Berry used to blow him and everybody else away on a
regular basis. Dizzy says in his autobiography that everything in his
later music comes out of his Calloway years. Especially his very first
chart ever recorded, "Pickin' the Cabbage" recorded with the
Granddad's band in 1940. Dizzy growth through the band proves the
Granddad's band was a great cradle of Bebop, albeit with a thin mattress.
--CB
Dizzy was born John Birks Gillespie in
Cheraw, South Carolina in 1917 to a family of ten. His father, a local
bandleader, encouraged Gillespie's musical progress and made instruments
available to the child early on. At four years old, John was already playing
the piano. He then taught himself to play the trombone but switched to the
trumpet before the age of twelve. He received a music scholarship to the small
agricultural school, the
Laurinburg
Institute, Laurinburg, North Carolina.
He left the school in 1935 to pursue a
career as a musician, following his idol,
Roy
"Little Jazz" Eldridge, the great early bop trumpeter who pioneered black
musicianship in a white band. He joined the Frankie Fairfax Band in
Philadelphia and soon earned the nickname "Dizzy" for his comical stage antics.
In 1937, he took Roy Eldridge's old position in the Teddy Hill Band and made his
first recording in Hill's rendition of "King Porter Stomp." After a short stay
with the band including a tour through Europe, Dizzy freelanced for a year and
found his way to
Cab Calloway in 1939. It was with this premier band that Dizzy began to
develop a style more his own and less like Roy Eldridge, as you can hear in "Pickin'
the Cabbage." Calloway, annoyed by Dizzy's risky style, was not particularly
fond of Dizzy and called his solos "Chinese music." Despite this, Dizzy stayed
with the band until 1941, when there was an on-stage occurrence that, although
resolved, prompted Dizzy to leave the band.
During a concert, a band member shot
spitballs at Cab's back when he faced the audience. Cab accused Dizzy of being
the culprit and upon Dizzy's vehement denial, the two began to fight. Dizzy
grabbed a knife and actually cut Cab. Although the two made up after Jonah
Jones and Milt Hinton came
forward as the perpetrators, Dizzy was fired. The real legacy of his time in
the band would only be realized decades later for, having roomed the whole time
with Mario Bauza,
Dizzy had begun to take an interest in Afro-Cuban music...
Passing from band to band for the next few
years, among which were those led by
Ella Fitgerald,
Coleman
Hawkins, Benny Carter, Charlie
Barnet, Fess Williams, Les Hite, Claude Hopkins, Lucky Millinder and even the
great Duke Ellington for a short
while, Dizzy met and began a long friendship with
Charlie Parker.
During this transient period, Dizzy began
appearing at Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House where he could try out
his new ideas and styles. Often joining him was
Thelonious
Monk, another fine native of the Carolinas, and the two began to experiment
with the complex chord changes that would soon characterize the Bebop Era...not
to mention familiarizing jazz with the black horn-rimmed glasses, beret and
goatee that would be just as much a part of the era.
Late in 1942, Dizzy joined the Earl Hines's
band with Charlie Parker joined on tenor and the band was the first to explore
the bebop style. From this band was born "Night In Tunisia," Dizzy's famous
piece that ushered in the Bebop Era.
When
Billy Eckstine
left the Earl Hines Band to form his own big band, Dizzy, Charlie and
Sarah Vaughan defected as
well to make the first bebop big band.
After staying with Eckstine a while and
recording such notable hits as "Opus X" and "Blowin' The Blues Away", Dizzy
again joined up with Coleman Hawkins for several bebop sessions. These early
years of bebop were hard on Dizzy because the style was still not completely
accepted by mainstream jazz. He led his own band on the ill-fated "Hepsations
of 1945" southern tour and went to the West Coast with Parker, only to return to
New York early after discouraging turnouts for his gigs.
Finally, as bebop became more accepted, Dizzy rose
to prominence as one of its stars. Bebop proponany and producer
Leonard Feather
held sessions to assemble the leaders of the 52nd Street scene, Dizzy's band
being a frontrunner. The year had seen the creation of a successful orchestra,
drawing on such talent as vibist Milt Jackson, bassist Ray Brown, pianist
Al Haig, tenor
saxophonist
Don Byas, drummer J.C. Heard, and guitarist Bill De Arango. The resulting
music was sensational: "52nd Street Theme," named this by Feather for its
representation of the scene, featured Byas and Gillespie playing frenzied
choruses based on other pieces and a cycle of fifths..."Night in Tunisia"also
featured Dizzy's double-time runs, bringing boundless energy to the Gillespie
classic..."Anthropology" even featured lines from "We're In The Money," serving
as a reminder of what freedom the music allowed. After these orchestrations,
Dizzy Gillespie stood atop what was a powerful jazz movement, finally taking its
place as the frontrunning jazz style.
Testament to the power of the music was
the ease with which the orchestra moved past obstacles. Time and Life
both ran critical articles, but Dizzy's band didn't even stumble. In fact, it
was still charting the path for bebop jazz, adding to its lineup tenor
saxophonist James Moody, baritone saxophonist Cecil Payne, and pianist John
Lewis. Fuelled by his rising popularity, Dizzy became increasingly interested
in cultivating
Afro-Cuban music and began to experiment in the area. He turned to his old
friend, Mario Bauza, who in turn introduced him to Chano Pozo. The union of the
two musicians bore "Cubana Be," a duet that constitutes the first half of "Cubana
Be/Cubana Bop," Dizzy's collaboration with George Russell. He would later work
closely with Arturo Sandoval, who he fondly called "my first son."
Dizzy continued playing for years more, all
the while experimenting with new music styles, and just new things in general.
In 1964, he ran for
president of the United States on a platform of Vietnam withdrawal,
desegregation, and a national lottery. In 1977, continuing his interest in
Cuban music, he visited Cuba and had his picture taken with
Fidel Castro. Although this did not make him a favorite around the State
Department, President Jimmy Carter invited him to the
White House. This seemed to
end Dizzy's time in the political limelight and he continued touring, but not as
extensively as before.
In 1987, Dizzy played in a band with his
protege, Jon Faddis, but made few appearances after that.
Dizzy died of pancreatic cancer in
Englewood, New Jersey with his wife Lorraine in 1993. He is survived by his
jazz legacy. He is, after all, in Ira Gitler's words, a jazz immortal.
Chu Berry Cozy
Cole Jonah Jones
Milton Hinton
Ben Webster
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