Gillespie Dizzy, born John Birks Gillespie, *21 October 1917 Cheraw, South Carolina, †6 January 1993 Englewood, New Jersey, American trumpeter, vocalist, and jazz composer.
He received the foundations of his musical education from his father. He studied music theory at the Laurinburg Institute (North Carolina). At the beginning of his career, he played in large swing orchestras, including those of Teddy Hill, Cab Calloway, Charlie Barnet, Earl Hines, and Billy Eckstine. In Hines’s orchestra (1943), he met Charlie Parker; his collaboration with Parker and the other members of the innovators’ group from Minton’s Playhouse: Th. Monk, Kenny Clarke, Charlie Christian, resulted in the creation of a new style of playing – bebop, which became a major turning point in the history of jazz music. In 1945, Gillespie assembled his own big band, repeatedly disbanded and reorganized. From 1958, he performed mainly with his own quintet. He appeared in many countries around the world, including Poland (in 1965 and in 1971 with the ensemble “Giants of Jazz”).
Gillespie was among the greatest figures in jazz. World critics attribute to him a role equal to that of Parker in shaping the musical language of bebop. Even if this opinion raises certain reservations, Gillespie’s contributions to the consolidation and popularization of the jazz style of the 1940s are immense. Unlike Parker, however, Gillespie for many years preferred large ensembles. He formed his orchestra with the aim of renewing the orchestral style of the 1930s, but based on the sound techniques of bebop. An additional innovation was the incorporation of elements – mainly rhythmic – of Afro-Cuban music. Of primary importance, however, seem to be Gillespie’s innovations in the technique and style of trumpet playing. Breaking with the then-prevailing, almost obligatory tradition of trumpet playing established by L. Armstrong, he became the initiator of a new school, whose principles were adopted by most jazz trumpeters of his time. As a vocalist, he became famous for revitalizing, in the spirit of bebop, the characteristic method of jazz vocal improvisation known as scatting.
Literature: M. James Dizzy Gillespie, London 1959; J. G. Jepsen A Discography of Dizzy Gillespie, Copenhagen 1961.
