Learn About Dizzy Gillespie’s Life and Influence on Jazz Music

John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie was an American jazz trumpeter, singer, composer, and band leader. Gillespie is one of a few musicians credited with introducing the masses to bebop music, a new style of jazz which was very different from swing music, which was popular in the 1940s. He is known for his flamboyant performance style and on-stage clowning, which would earn him the nickname “Dizzy.”

Along with his contemporaries like Thelonious Monk, Kenny Clarke, and Charlie Parker, Gillespie helped give rise to the bebop jazz style, which is considered the first wave of modern jazz. Here is a brief overview of Dizzy Gillespie’s life:

• Early life: Gillespie was born in 1917 in Cheraw, South Carolina. His father was a local bandleader who taught him the basics of several instruments, including the piano. Following the death of his father, a ten-year-old Gillespie started teaching himself the trumpet and trombone. Gillespie decided to become a jazz musician after hearing Roy Eldridge on the radio, and attended the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina.
• Early career: In 1935, Gillespie joined the Frankie Fairfax Orchestra, which was his first professional job. Within a year, Gillespie would leave to play in the bands of other notable musicians like Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Earl Hines.
• Heyday in the 1940s and 1950s: In the mid-1940s, Gillespie organized big bands where he often performed as a soloist. Gillespie would play at jazz club venues like Minton’s Playhouse in New York City, and appeared in recordings by Billy Eckstine’s big band, an experience he shared with jazz legends like Miles Davis and Charlie Parker.
• Late twentieth century: Gillespie continued to record new music and perform successfully into the late-twentieth century, eventually leading the United Nations Orchestra and acting in the film The Winter in Lisbon (1991). In 1989, Gillespie was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award, as well as an honorary doctorate from the Berklee College of Music. Gillespie is revered as one of the greatest jazz trumpet players of all time, with fellow legends like Louis Armstrong and Duke Ellington.

Dizzy Gillespie’s music has a number of recognizable characteristics, such as:

1. 1. Flatted Fifth: Gillespie is credited with popularizing the use of the augmented 11th (or flat fifth) interval, which has become one of the hallmarks of modern jazz. Depending on the pace, this can make his music sound suspenseful, or give it a characteristic groove.
   
2. 2. Afro-Cuban: Gillespie’s music blended elements of standard jazz like saxophones, trumpets, and trombones, along with Afro-Latin elements such as bongos and claves for a varied, hybrid fusion of sound. One of his bands in the 1940s featured Chano Pozo, a percussionist from Cuba, which was a union that sparked interest in the Afro-Cuban jazz style. Gillespie helped bring Afro-Latin American music elements into jazz and pop, and would change the course of jazz for the rest of history.
   
3. 3. Showmanship: Gillespie’s nickname “Dizzy” came from his flair for performance, because he was known for his on-stage clowning. He famously puffed his cheeks out as he blew into his horn, which added physical comedy to his fast and intricate playing. His signature horn-rimmed glasses, beret, and goatee became the visual template for “hipness” in the 1960s.

Dizzy Gillespie had a huge influence on many other influential jazz musicians like Miles Davis, Arturo Sandoval, and Jon Faddis. Gillespie contributed to the development of bebop jazz, and was one of the earlier musicians to infuse it with an Afro-Latin style.

Gillespie was a risk-taker and innovator. He played on a trumpet that was bent at a 45-degree angle, a modification he claimed improved its sound. His style of dress—beret, glasses, beard trimmed into a goatee—became known as the “bebop uniform.” The influence of his performance style extended beyond the jazz scene and into the Beatnik scene of the 1960s, influencing writers like Jack Kerouac, as well as many others who were a part of the Beat Generation.

Some of Gillespie’s most recognizable songs include:

1. 1. “A Night in Tunisia” (1942). This song contains a number of strong Afro-Cuban rhythms, and features a powerful trumpet solo from Gillespie. This early work was thought to be a prime introduction to bebop for those who were not used to hearing it, and eventually became a jazz standard in its own right.
2. 2. "Salt Peanuts'' (1942). Created in collaboration with Charlie Parker and Kenny Clarke, this nonsensical bebop scat tune is based on “I Got Rhythm” (1930)—a Gershwin standard—became the foundation of many other popular jazz songs.
3. 3. "Woody 'n' You" (1944). This song was one of three arrangements Gillespie created for American clarinetist Woody Herman’s band, that was not used. However, it was finally introduced on record in 1944 through Coleman Hawkins and Budd Johnson, and has become a jazz standard.
4. 4. "Groovin' High" (1946). This song is a medium-tempo tune based on the chord changes of a 1920 recording of “Whispering,” a piece of music originally composed by John Schonberger. It is one of Gillespie’s best-known hits,
5. 5. “Manteca” (1947). “Manteca” was first performed at Carnegie Hall in 1947, where it was received positively. Along with “A Night in Tunisia,” this song is considered one of Gillespie’s most important—and most famous—recordings. It is considered one of the earliest foundational works of Afro-Cuban jazz.

Become a better musician with the MasterClass Annual Membership. Gain access to exclusive video lessons taught by the world’s best, including Herbie Hancock, Itzhak Perlman, St. Vincent, Sheila E., Timbaland, Tom Morello, and more.