Results for "Dizzy Gillespie"

Dizzy Gillespie

Born: October 21, 1917

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, along with Charlie Parker, ushered in the era of Be-Bop in the American jazz tradition. He was born Cheraw, South Carolina, and was the youngest of nine children. He began playing piano at the age of four and received a music scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina. Most noted for his trademark "swollen cheeks", Gillespie admitted to copying the style of trumpeter Roy Eldridge early in his career.

He replaced Eldridge in the 'Teddy Hill' Band after Eldridge's departure. He eventually began experimenting and creating his own style which would eventually come to the attention of Mario Bauza, the Godfather of Afro-Cuban jazz who was then a member of the Cap Calloway Orchestra, joining Calloway in 1939, Gillespie was fired after two years when he cut a portion of the Calloway's buttocks with a knife after Calloway accused him of throwing spitballs (the two men later became lifelong friends and often retold this story with great relish until both of their deaths).

Jasur Khalilov: From Falak to Fusion

by Anastasia Bogomolets
September 18, 2026

Jazz has always been a music of dialogue, shaped by encounters between cultures, traditions, and individual voices. In Tajikistan, a post-Soviet country in Central Asia, one of the spaces where this dialogue has taken place is the Dushanbe International Jazz Festival (Dushanbe is the capital of Tajikistan), an initiative that brought together musicians from Central Asia, ...

Mark Gross: Jazz for Teens

by B.D. Lenz
September 8, 2026

For many young musicians, learning jazz is about much more than learning how to play an instrument. It's about developing confidence, learning to listen, finding your own voice, and discovering how to work with others.Few people understand that better than Mark Gross. As Director of Jazz Instruction at NJPAC, Gross has spent years helping ...

John Coltrane in Detroit: A Brief History

by Paul Rauch
September 8, 2026

When the calendar turned to 2026, a spirit of celebration was sparked in the jazz community. It marked one hundred years from the birth dates of two jazz titans in John Coltrane and Miles Davis. Coltrane departed us in 1967 from cancer, a life of barely more than forty years that changed the course of jazz. ...

Roberto Magris e il Questionario di Proust

by Paolo Peviani
September 8, 2026

Pianista, triestino, classe 1959. Forse perché proveniente da una terra di confine, è sempre stato più attivo e conosciuto all'estero che in Italia. Cittadino del mondo, ha collaborato con musicisti dell'Est Europa quando la cortina di ferro era ancora saldamente in piedi, mentre dall'altra parte dell'oceano Kansas City gli ha riconosciuto la cittadinanza onoraria per meriti ...

Charlie Haden: Anatomy of a Jazz Classic

by John Ephland
August 31, 2026

It was a phoner from the suburban Chicago offices of DownBeat to bassist Charlie Haden in L.A. Our talk, which was held on September 15, 1991, was periodically interrupted by his needing to say, “Hold on one second." The occasion? The 30th anniversary of the release of saxophonist Ornette Coleman's groundbreaking LP Free Jazz: A Collective ...

Clara Wedel Quartet at Jazzclub Hürth

by Matty Bannond
August 23, 2026

Clara Wedel, Simon Pesch, Gabriel Spindler, Jiaxiang Jack Wang Jazzclub Hürth Hürth, Germany August 14, 2026 Vegetation had yellowed in the farmland and meadows huddled around Hürth, with greenery blanched to a sandy color by successive summer heatwaves. Shady forests were off-limits after local politicians urged the public to cut the ...

Linda May Han Oh & Melissa Aldana: Beneath Lifted Skies

by Andrew Schinder
August 22, 2026

Bassist Linda May Han Oh and tenor saxophonist Melissa Aldana, two modern jazz powerhouses, have recorded one of 2026's most delightful jazz surprises, the duet album Beneath Lifted Skies (Biophilia Records, 2026). Oh and Aldana are two of the music's strongest contemporary players, potent in both overall skill as well as sound, and that intensity serves them ...

Alan Greenspan, 1926–2026: The Reedman Who Conducted the Economy

by Kofi Adjepong-Boateng
June 26, 2026

He kept the clarinet. Sixty years after he last played for money, the central banker still had the instrument from his dance-band days; when a television crew trooped in, he turned it over in his hands but would not play it, remembering too well how it was supposed to sound. Alan Greenspan, who died ...

Louis Hayes at Jazz Alley

by Paul Rauch
June 26, 2026

Louis HayesJazz Alley Seattle WA June 23, 2026  At eighty-nine years old, the fact that drummer Louis Hayes is still touring as a bandleader is remarkable in itself. The fact that he is still playing so well, and playing with great energy is downright inspiring. With the sun burning bright, ...