Dizzy

At the Monterey Jazz Festival there is a venue called “Dizzy’s Den.” It’s named after the one and only Dizzy Gillespie, who would have been 93 years old today (October 21). Dizzy died in 1993 at age 75. But today Google did something delightful, a great doodle with Dizzy’s famous inflatable cheeks, puffing out as he played his trumpet with verve and gusto.

Google’s delightful Dizzy doodle

John Birks Gillespie was born in 1917 in Cheraw, North Carolina.  His father was a band leader and music was all around.  He learnt to play piano at age four, and trombone and trumpet by age twelve.  Music was fused into his being from a very early age.  He made his first recording, “King Porter Stomp,” with the Ted Hill Band in the late 1930s.  He went on to join Cab Calloway‘s band the “Cab Jivers”, but their relationship was sour, ending in a nasty little fight in which a knife “came into play” over a spitball thrown on stage.   Calloway was a bit of a bully, it appears.

Dizzy looking as sweet as pie with a cartoon picture of his boss Cab

But that’s just a naughty piece of gossip.  Let’s just state it plainly:  Dizzy was one of the “kings of bebop.”  No doubt about that.

One other nice fact:  He met his wife Connie Bryson in 1940 and they were together until his death.  Their only daugher, Jeanie Bryson, is a jazz singer and is currently working on a “Dizzy Gillespie Songbook” in honor of her Dad.

The lovely Jeanie, Dizzy’s daughter

“Salt Peanuts.”  “A Night in Tunisia.”  Jamming with Charlie Parker and John Coltrane in smoky jazz clubs.  There is too much to write about his career.  He became involved in Afro-Cuban jazz, a genre which is really still flourishing, and became close friends with the Latin trumpeter Mario Bauza.  He discovered Arturo Sandoval while traveling in Cuba.

In 1989 Dizzy gave 300 performances in 27 countries and 100 cities in the U.S.  Amazing energy.  Other little facts about the great Dizzy:

Did you know he became a follower of the Baha’i faith in 1970?  No more knife fights or drinking after that.

He was the inventor of the “bent” trumpet – which apparently came from someone sitting on it.  But he liked the sound.

The ineffable Dizzy, with his famous puffed cheeks and his bent trumpet

Above all, there was his serious musicianship mixed with a kind of brimming-over humor.  Just beneath the surface.

I am sure you are delighting your friends in the Baha’i heaven, Dizzy!  Play on!

Related Articles

• Dizzy Gillespie Google Doodle: Iconic Cheeks and Bent Trumpet (nowpublic.com)
• Dizzy Gillespie 93rd birthday celebrated with Google doodle: ten things you need to know about jazz legend John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie (mirror.co.uk)