Gillespie, John Birks

▪ 1994

      ("DIZZY"), U.S. trumpeter, composer, and bandleader (b. Oct. 21, 1917, Cheraw, S.C.—d. Jan. 6, 1993, Englewood, N.J.), was a brilliant innovator and virtuoso who expanded the harmonic structure of jazz and together with Charlie Parker ushered in bebop, a radically new jazz style that flourished during the 1940s and featured rapidly shifting rhythms, unconventional chords, use of the flatted fifth, and unrestrained tempi. Gillespie, with his goatee, thick horn-rimmed glasses, and beret, created the bebop persona, and his trademarks—a bent trumpet (which took its 45°-angle shape in 1953 after it was accidentally fallen upon), onstage clowning, and a bullfrog-cheeked playing style—made him instantly recognizable. Gillespie's musical training was fostered by his father and advanced at the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina. He was an accomplished musician by the time he was a teenager and got his first break when he replaced (1937) his idol Roy Eldridge in Teddy Hill's band. He composed, arranged, and soloed with Hill and with Cab Calloway's band in the 1930s before performing with groups fronted by Benny Carter and Earl Hines during the early 1940s. Gillespie launched the era he coined bebop while coleader of a group on 52nd Street with bassist Oscar Pettiford. In 1944, when Billy Eckstine's (q.v.) band showcased Gillespie's and Parker's bebop improvisations, the distinctive style became popular. The following year Gillespie formed his own swing-era-sized big band, the first of many, and he was also associated with smaller combos, many of them in association with Parker. As one of the most important figures in the development of jazz, Gillespie influenced such modern jazz trumpeters as Miles Davis, Thad Jones, and Kenny Dorham and such saxophone soloists as John Coltrane, Benny Golson, Dexter Gordon, and James Moody. He was also credited with assimilating Afro-Cuban elements into modern jazz, as evidenced in such standard songs as "Night in Tunisia," "Manteca," and "Con Alma." In 1948, the year before bebop faded, Gillespie and his band made a highly successful tour in Europe. He continued to tour with various reorganized bands, coaxing his trumpet to the highest registers of its range and improvising in unexpected and daring situations. After entering his 70s, he assumed the mantle of elder statesman of jazz, yet he continued to tour until late 1992. Gillespie published his autobiography, To Be or Not to Bop, in 1979.

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