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Dizzie Gillespie was born into a large family in Cheraw, South Carolina on October 21, 1917. He began playing the trombone when he was 12 years old and took up the trumpet a year later. Largely self-taught, he won a musical scholarship but preferred playing to theory and formal study. In 1935, he left university and went to live in Philadelphia, where he began playing in local bands. He was dubbed "Dizzy" by a fellow trumpeter, Fats Palmer, because of his lively behaviour. In 1937, he auditioned for the Lucky Millinder band in New York. Although he was unsuccessful, he stayed in town. Soon afterwards, Teddy Hill hired him as a replacement for Roy Eldridge (Dizzie's idol) for a European tour.
Dizzie Gillespie's first encounter with Oscar Peterson is described in detail in Gene Lees's biography of Peterson: "One night Oscar walked through the crowd up to the bandstand. The piano was at the front left of the stage. Very soon, when Dizzy's band had just finished a number, the crowd began clapping rhythmically and calling: 'We want Oscar, we want Oscar.' Dizzy looked around as if to say: 'Who the hell is Oscar?' It got so loud that finally Dizzy beckoned him to come upon the stage. Oscar sat at the piano. They decided to play 'What Is This Thing Called Love?' Oscar took about sixteen bars of introduction, and Dizzy's eyes were like saucers with disbelief. They got into the tune and then Oscar took a long solo. The guys in Dizzy's band just wigged out. The audience was screaming and yelling. (Afterwards) he went somewhere with Dizzy and he played for him until eight o'clock in the morning." 1
Lees continues: "Oscar of course remembers well his first encounter with John Hirks Gillespie, one of the founders of the bebop movement and one of the most important figures in the evolution of jazz, the master trumpeter who with saxophonist Charlie Parker vastly enriched, if not revolutionized, jazz in the 1940s. Dizzy has all his life been an antic humorist, which bears on Oscar's memory of their meeting.
Chuckling, Oscar said, 'Dizzy was as Dizzy is. He was very off-handed about everything. He came down to the lounge....I came off after the set. I said, 'Hello, Mr. Gillespie.' He said, "You know something funny? You're crazy.' And he kept laughing. 'You're crazy.' The next day he came to my house for dinner, and my Mum was very taken with him. That evening we went out to a club on Mountain Street, with Arabian decor. It had a fountain. Dizzy said, 'Come on, I want you to play for me.' I said, 'Dizzy, I don't play in here.' He said, 'I want you to play for me. And he walked straight through the fountain, right through the water, clothes and everything! It was around twelve-thirty at night, after we had been out listening to some other people. He sat down near the piano, and said, 'Play something, play anything at all.' And I played for him." 2
In later years, Dizzy and Oscar made several recordings together. Dizzy said that Oscar, as well as being one of his favourite pianists to listen to, was one of his favourites to play with. Once, during a Jazz at the Philharmonic intermission, Oscar and Bill Harris reversed the mouthpieces on Roy Eldridge's and Dizzy Gillespie's trumpets. "When Roy and Dizzy came out on stage, late as usual," Oscar said, "Dizzy picked up his horn and blew. Nothing. Absolutely nothing came out of his horn; it was unbelievable. He told Roy to play. And Roy came out with this horrible sound. He went crazy, and he was yelling, 'But it wasn't me, I swear, it wasn't me!" 3
In 1944, Dizzie Gillespie joined Billy Eckstine's big band. Later, he formed his own big band. Although its commercial success was limited, it marked the beginning of big band bebop. In much of Dizzie's earlier playing the dazzling speed of his execution frequently gave an impression of a purely technical bravura. Later, it was clear that he also brought original ideas and emotion to his playing. Beneath the spectacular high note flourishes, the raw excitement and the exuberant vitality, there was a depth of feeling akin to that of the most romantic balladeers. One of the giants of jazz, he frequently played with Oscar Peterson between 1960 and 1974.
Selected Recordings
Stuff Smith - Dizzy Gillespie - Oscar Peterson (Verve 314 521 676-2, 1957)
Duets with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt (Verve 8260, 1957)
Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie (Pablo, 1974)
Gillespie / Hubbard / Peterson - The Trumpet Summit Meets the Oscar Peterson Big 4 (Pablo OJCCD-603, 1980)
Footnotes
1 Lees, Gene. Oscar Peterson: The Will to Swing. Rocklin, California: Prima Publishing & Communications, 1990.
2 Kernfeld, Barry. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1988.
3 Kernfeld, Barry. The New Grove Dictionary of Jazz. London: Macmillan Press Ltd, 1988.
O.P. & Friends
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