Dizzy+Gillespie+by+Shawn

=John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie=

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was born October 21,1917 in Cheraw, South Carolina. He played the trumpet.

Dizzy's first professional job was with the Frank Farfax Orchestra in 1935. He started to play the piano at the age of four. Dizzy taught himself how to play the trombone as well as the trumpet by the age of twelve. He received a music scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in Laurinburg, North Carolina.

In 1939, Dizzy joined Cab Calloway's orchestra, with which he recorded one of his earliest compositions, the instrumental //Pickin' the Cabbage//, in 1940. During his time in Calloway's band, Dizzy Gillespie started writing big band music for bandleaders like Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey. He then freelanced with a few bands - most notably Ella Fitzgerald's orchestra. He also headlined the 1946 independently-produced musical revue film //Jivin' in Be-Bop.// Dizzy was fired by Calloway in late 1941, after a big fight between the two.

In 1948 Dizzy was involved in a traffic accident when the bike he was riding was bumped by a car. He was slightly injured, and found that he could no longer hit the B-flat above high C.

In 1956 he organized a band to go on a State Department tour of the Middle East and earned the nickname "the Ambassador of Jazz". During this time, he also continued to lead a big band that performed throughout the United States and featured musicians including Pee Wee Moore and others. This band recorded a live album at the 1957 Newport jazz festival that featured Mary Lou Williams as a guest artist on piano. In 1960, he was inducted into the //Down Beat// magazine's [|Jazz Hall of Fame]. During the 1964 United States presidential campaign Dizzy put himself forward as an independent write-in candidate. He promised that if he were elected, the White House would be renamed "The Blues House." In 1971 Dizzy announced he would run again but withdrew before the election for reasons connected to the Baha'i faith.

In 1989 Dizzy gave 300 performances in 27 countries, appeared in 100 U.S. cities in 31 states and the District of Columbia, headlined three television specials, performed with two symphonies, and recorded four albums. He was also crowned a traditional chief in Nigeria, received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; France's most prestigious cultural award. He was named Regent Professor by the University of California, and received his fourteenth honorary doctoral degree.

Dizzy Gillespie died of pancreatic cancer on January 6, 1993 at age 75. He was buried in the Flushing Cemetery, Queens, New York.

Dizzy was also known for the "Bent" trumpet. Dizzy Gillespie with his bent trumpet, performing in 1988. Dizzy's trademark trumpet featured a bell which bent upward at a 45-degree angle rather than pointing straight ahead as a normal trumpet would. In honor of this trademark, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has collected Gillespie's B-flat trumpet. According to Gillespie's autobiography, this was originally the result of accidental damage caused by someone sitting on it during a job on January 6, 1953, but the constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the trumpet, and Gillespie liked the sound effect. Gillespie's biographer Alyn Shipton writes that Gillespie likely got the idea 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.

By: Shawn References: []