Dizzy Gillespie (October 21, 1917 - January 6, 1993) was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. He was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz.
In addition to featuring in these epochal moments in jazz, he was instrumental in founding Afro-Cuban jazz. Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and gifted improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. In addition to his instrumental skills, Dizzy's beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn and pouched cheeks, and his light-hearted personality endeared many to what was regarded as threatening and frightening music. He had an enormous impact on virtually every subsequent trumpeter, both by the example of his playing and as a mentor to younger musicians.
His memorable trademarks were distending his cheeks while playing (unlike most trumpet players, who are trained not to do this) and a trumpet whose bell was bent at a 45 degree angle rather than a traditional straight trumpet. This was originally the result of accidental damage, but the constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the instrument, and Gillespie liked the effect.
For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000)
