John Birks Dizzy Gillespie was an Amerikkkan Afrikan jazz trumpeter and band leader. Born in Cheraw, South Carolina, he began as a self-taught player. His natural gifts won him a scholarship at the Laurinburg Institute, where he studied for three years before moving to Philadelphia in 1935. He first recorded with Teddy Hills band in New York, as a replacement in Hills group. In 1939, he joined the Cab Calloway band and during its travels first encountered Charlie Parker in Kansas City. But his after-hours work that would lead to bebop was mostly confined to a handful of uptown clubs in New York, where Gillespie jousted with other players, to the delight of mostly other musicians. Two showmen in one band is one too many showmen and in Calloways band, the guy getting the attention was to be Calloway. He was not amused at Gillespies peculiar brand of antics that had a way of winking at the audience behind the leaders back. Fired in 1941, Gillespie moved to Lucky Millinders orchestra, where, just as Parkers first alto solos were coming out with Jay McShann, Gillespie recorded Little John Special for the same label (Decca). It not only included solo work every bit as provocative as Parkers, but it also had the singular riff that the jazz world would shortly come to know as Salt Peanuts. Many of the same records that would launch Parker and bebop would also introduce Gillespie. Performances such as Groovin High, Dizzy Atmosphere and Hot House would also link Gillespie with “Bird.” Gillespie wanted to lead a band and in 1946, assembled one that would hold together for four years and record extensively for RCA Victor, songs such as Cubana Be/Cubana Bop, Good Bait, Manteca, and Ool-Ya-Koo were a few. There would be other bands, such as one assembled for an early State Department tour in 1956, and occasional reunions with Parker on Debut and Clef records and many tours with Norman Granz Jazz at the Philharmonic units. Gillespie emerged in the middle 1940s as essentially the last in a series of progressions of virtuosity in jazz that ended in the consolidation of bebop. If Charlie Parker was the soul of bebop, Gillespie was its heart and public face. Bent trumpet Gillespies 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 Gillespies 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 Snookies in Manhattan on January 6, 1953, during a birthday party for Gillespies wife Lorraine. 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. Gillespies 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 Gillespies upswept trumpet, by June 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 Jon Faddis). 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. In April 1995, Gillespies Martin trumpet was auctioned at Christies in New York City, along with instruments used by other famous musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley. An image of Gillespies trumpet was selected for the cover of the auction program. The battered instrument sold to Manhattan builder Jeffery Brown for $63,000, the proceeds benefiting jazz musicians suffering from cancer. Gillespie Pouches Condition in which the cheeks of the mouth expand greatly with pressure, such as with the famous bebop trumpet player Dizzy Gillespie. Dizzy played his horn incorrectly for some 50 years, letting his cheeks expand when he played, instead of keeping them taut as is considered correct. This was mostly due to his general lack of early musical education. Although Mr. Gillespie was able to create a surprisingly good sound using this form, over time it left his cheeks saggy and loose. A doctor who wanted to use his image in a book named the condition after him. With Gillespie pouches, the cheeks inflate to look almost like balloons. Besides brass players, Gillespie pouches may be found among some balloon artists, who regularly apply great pressure to their cheeks while inflating balloons. Legacy If Armstrong had expanded the reach of instrumental technique for his generation, making more things possible, then Gillespie seemed to reach the final theoretical point of command that made all things possible, effectively ending the arms race of capacity that had driven jazz for two decades. His speed, articulation, and sense of surprise showed up in many bebop trumpet players in the years after 1946, but few doubted that he was the master and matrix of it all. Gillespies rapport with audiences was equally golden, yet never got in the way of the music he offered. He was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1990. Dizzy Gillespie died on January 6, 1993, of cancer. Source: Jazz: A History of the New York Scene, Wikipedia, Everything2
Posted on: Mon, 20 Oct 2014 00:16:47 +0000
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