Dizzy Gillespie

4/5

Biography

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, along with 'Charlie Parker , a Bronx, NY-born Nuyorican percussionist, composer, educator, bandleader and expert in the Afro-Cuban musical tradition. Indeed, many Latin jazz classics such as "Manteca", "A Night in Tunisia" and "Guachi Guaro Soul Sauce" were composed by Gillespie and his musical collaborators. With a strong sense of pride in his Afro-American heritage, he left a legacy of musical excellence that embraced and fused all musical forms, but particularly those forms with roots deep in Africa such as the music of Cuba, other Latin American countries and the Caribbean. Additionally, he left a legacy of goodwill and good humor that infused jazz musicians and fans throughout the world with a genuine sense of jazz's ability to transcend national and ethnic boundaries--for this reason, Gillespie was and is an international treasure.

  • Active years
  • 76
  • Primary profession
  • Soundtrack·music_department·actor
  • Country
  • United States
  • Nationality
  • American
  • Gender
  • Male
  • Birth date
  • 21 October 1917
  • Place of birth
  • Cheraw· South Carolina
  • Death date
  • 1993-01-06
  • Death age
  • 76
  • Place of death
  • Englewood· New Jersey
  • Cause of death
  • Natural causes
  • Education
  • Laurinburg Institute
  • Knows language
  • English language
  • Member of
  • American Academy of Arts and Letters

Music

Lyrics

Movies

TV

Books

Awards

Trivia

Following his death, he was interred at Flushing Cemetery in Flushing, Queens, New York.

Jazz trumpeter, the driving force behind bebop with Charlie Parker.

He was awarded the Polar Music Prize, the Royal Swedish Academy of Music Award, in 1993.

Inducted into the Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame in 1982.

He joined the American Society of Composers, Authors and Publishers (ASCAP) in 1957.

He was awarded the American National Medal of the Arts in 1989 by the National Endowment for the Arts in Washington D.C.

He was posthumously awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for Recording at 7057 Hollywood Boulevard in Hollywood, California on October 20, 1995.

When playing, Dizzie Gillespies cheeks would expand to extraordinary size, ballooning out far more than the average horn players do. This feature is so pronounced that there is now a medical condition named after this anomaly. Because he was the first, for all practical purposes, to have demonstrated this condition, and because since its recognition by the medical community there have been others who now exhibit similar symptoms, this condition has been officially named "Gillespies Pouches".

Had played the trumpet solo on "Do I Do" from Stevie Wonder s compilation album "Musiquarium".

He was nominated for the 2012 New Jersey Hall of Fame for his contributions to Arts and Entertainment.

He was nominated for a 2013 New Jersey Hall of Fame for Arts and Entertainment.

He was inducted into the 2014 New Jersey Hall of Fame in the Arts and Entertainment Category.

Quotes

Know him know me.

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