Happy Birthday, Dizzy Gillespie

Jazz trumpeter John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (1917-1993) was born on October 21 in Cheraw, South Carolina. Gillespie was the intellectual force behind bebop and played brilliant solo lines. His showmanship and ability to communicate with his audiences also made him perhaps the greatest single force in leading the public to accept bebop.

Wynton Marsalis said of Gillespie, "Dizzy was so quick-minded, he could create an endless flow of ideas at unusually fast tempi. 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 ..."

In his book, The 101 Best Jazz Albums, Len Lyons recommends two of Gillespie's albums:

• In the Beginning (Prestige). This album is only available in vinyl, but Jim Determan recommends as an alternative, Shaw Nuff (Discovery), which has all but one cut from In the Beginning. (Purchase the CD, Shaw Nuff, at Barnes & Noble.)
  
• The Original Dizzy Gillespie Big Band: In Concert (GNP), which is available on CD. (Purchase the CD, The Original Dizzy Gillespie Big Band: In Concert, at Amazon.com.)
  

Gillespie and his band play one of his compositions, "A Night in Tunisia," here:

Robert
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