Introduction:
John Birks Gillespie, better known by his stage name Dizzy Gillespie, was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader. Gillespie is regarded as one of the most important jazz performers of the 20th century and was crucial to the growth of the bebop jazz movement, which began in the middle of the 1940s. Gillespie recorded and wrote hundreds of songs over his career, many of them are now regarded as jazz standards.
Early Life and Musical Beginnings
Dizzy Gillespie was born and raised in Cheraw, South Carolina on October 21, 1917. He was the youngest of nine children and at the age of 12, Gillespie started playing the trumpet and soon displayed musical potential. Gillespie's father taught his son the fundamentals of various
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Jazz began to divide during the war into two musical philosophies: traditional jazz "Revivalism" and modern jazz, known as bebop. In New York, where youthful creatives like Gillespie, created new revolutionary methods, the name "bebop" was first used. Charlie Parker, a player of the alto saxophone, was Bebop's most renowned icon along with Gillespie. Complex, quick-paced melodic lines, fresh rhythmic concepts, adventurous harmonic improvisation techniques, and ferocious instrumental prowess characterized the music. Bebop evolved into a variety of current jazz forms after the war. The Club Eleven, a group of musicians from London that included saxophonists John Dankworth and Ronnie Scott, served as the country's first musical foundation. Several players learned bebop by signing up to perform in dance bands on transatlantic …show more content…
Flora Purim toured with the orchestra for three years. She says Gillespie helped her comprehend jazz better. In 1982, he was sought up by Motown musician Stevie Wonder to play his solo on Wonder's 1982 hit single, "Do I Do". Gillespie experienced a crisis in December 1991 while performing at Kimball's East in Emeryville, California, which turned out to be pancreatic cancer. After one more performance, he postponed the remainder of the tour due to health concerns, ending his 56-year career as a touring musician. On January 25, 1992, he oversaw his final recording session and in 1993, Gillespie died of pancreatic cancer on January 6, at the age of