Dizzy Gillespie

The youngest of nine children, Dizzy Gillespie was playing piano by the age of four and trumpet and trombone by 12. His father was a bandleader but, once he'd heard Roy Eldridge on the radio, Dizzy was fully committed to jazz. His first professional job was with the Frank Fairfax Orchestra in 1935 and he made his first recording, King Porter Stomp, with Teddy Hill's band in 1937. He went on to join Cab Calloway's band, but his adventurous playing style caused tensions between them and he was fired in 1941 after the pair of them had a fight. Gillespie's virtuoso style ensured a big demand for his services, however, and he worked with Ella Fitzgerald, Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine and wrote for the likes of Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey. He became a seminal figure as swing music evolved into be-bop, influencing many important younger musicians like Miles Davis and Max Roach. He went on to form his own big band which became one of jazz's foremost live attractions through the 1950s, while his musical ambition extended to other styles; he pioneered the Afro-Cuban movement and championed Latino music, writing the classics Manteca and Tin Tin Deo. In 1979 Gillespie wrote his autobiography To Be Or Not To Bop and toured constantly through the 1980s, leading the United Nation Orchestra and playing with Stevie Wonder on his 1982 hit Do I Do. He remained a popular and widely respected figure until his death from pancreatic cancer in 1993, aged 75.

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