Today Celebrate Bebop Dizzy’s Birthday
🍾 Dizzy Gillespie (Aka John Birks Gillespie) born October 21, 1917, was an innovative jazz trumpeter, composer, bandleader, educator, and singer who was iconized by his uniquely shaped trumpet with the bell of the horn pointed upward. (The idea came about after someone accidentally sat on his trumpet.) He was one of the innovative musicians credited for having created the milestone sound called Bebop. It was the forerunner in the Afro Cuban Jazz or Cubop movement. Known to be a jokester (hence the nickname Dizzy) on the bandstand, he once so irritated his bandleader Billy Eckstine that they actually got into a fist fight. His unique singing voice and scats are most memorable, especially his compositions and performances of “Swing Low Sweet Cadillac”, “Night in Tunisia” and “Salt Peanuts” (in rapid bebop style). Dizzy Gillespie is one of the most influential trumpeters in the annals of jazz history. Photo: Anthony Barboza.
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