Latest Release
- MAR 8, 2024
- 18 Songs
- Groovin' High · 1955
- Bird and Diz · 1954
- Dizzy's Big 4 (Original Jazz Classics Remasters) · 1974
- Greatest Hits · 1947
- Ken Burns Jazz: The Definitive Dizzy Gillespie · 1957
- Groovin' High · 1955
- Groovin' High · 1955
- Timeless: Dizzy Gillespie · 1954
- Bebop Professor · 1946
- Café Jazz · 1945
Essential Albums
- By the time Charlie Parker and Dizzy Gillespie recorded the sessions that became Bird and Diz, the two had been playing together for about a decade—first in Earl Hines’ big band, and later in the small groups incubating bebop in Harlem during the mid-1940s. By Gillespie’s own admission, Parker was the sound’s architect—not that Parker had found many players who could hold their own with him, especially at the speed and complexity of stuff like “Leap Frog.” In hindsight, part of what made Parker so remarkable, as both composer and soloist, was how easily he balanced the abstractions of modernism with the familiar comforts of the blues (a talent best evidenced here by “Mohawk” and “Bloomdido”). And as groundbreaking as Parker’s sessions for Savoy and Dial were, his albums for Verve—present material included—benefitted from a quality of sound and attendance to production (courtesy of Norman Granz) that you wish all of his work had received. Then there’s the unusual inclusion of Thelonious Monk, whose slanted rhythms and melodic pratfalls provide a kind of slapstick counterpart to Parker’s finesse—the drizzle of lemon that makes you pucker, then smile (“My Melancholy Baby”).
- 2004
Artist Playlists
- His talent carried jazz from the old school to the new school.
- Jazz-orchestra opuses, romantic reveries, and brassy flair.
Singles & EPs
- 2007
About Dizzy Gillespie
Trumpeter John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie was a crucial figure in the advent of bebop in the 1940s, playing alongside Charlie Parker as they pivoted from the swing era toward a small jazz group built around breakneck tempos and technically demanding improvisations. Born in 1917 in Cheraw, North Carolina, Gillespie was already a strong musician when his family moved to Philadelphia in 1935. He went on to play in bands led by Teddy Hill, Cab Calloway, and Billy Eckstine, reconnecting with Parker in the final band and sparking a revolution. During the 1940s he alternated between leading his own big band and playing in smaller settings with Max Roach, Thelonious Monk, and Milt Jackson, among others. In the late 1940s he helped develop a high-energy Cuban jazz fusion, working with percussionist Chano Pozo and arranger Mario Bauzá. Gillespie’s humorously avuncular presence, bent trumpet, and blown-out cheeks elevated him to jazz royalty by the 1950s, where he continued to switch between small combos and big bands. In 1988 he formed the United Nation Orchestra, embracing and promoting the global spread of jazz. His achievements retain their mix of technical ferocity and ebullient humanity. He died from pancreatic cancer in 1993, aged 75.
- GENRE
- Jazz