Dizzy Gillespie Research Paper

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Dizzy Gillespie John Birks Gillespie, known to most as Dizzy Gillespie, was one of the most imaginative bebop jazz artists in the industry. When he was born in South Carolina, no one expected they were looking at someone who would help form a new style of jazz. As we go back through Gillespie’s life, one can’t help but be astonished at the pure creativity and innovation that lead him to be one of the great jazz legends. Dizzy Gillespie was born on October 21, 1917 in Cheraw, South Carolina to quite a large family. He had eight other siblings and was the youngest of them all. Unfortunately, his family life was not very calm. His father was considered to be abusive. His father, who was also a musician, passed away at a very young age. I believe…show more content…
This gave him enough experience to finally get his first real job as part of the Frankie Fairfax Orchestra. As his ability to play the trumpet increased, so did his tendency to clown around, giving him his nickname, Dizzy. In the late 1930s, Dizzy moved to New York City in order to increase his notoriety as a jazz performer. Because he continued to play with many different local bands, he was able to land a job with Teddy Hill’s jazz band. Amazingly, he was taking the seat on the band for Roy Eldridge, one of his childhood idols and a very talented musician. This band started Gillespie’s rise to fame. They toured Europe for three months and came back to New York where he began to work with even more…show more content…
Because of this dilemma, Gillespie became the figure of the bebop style. As his style and creativity became better known, he joined the Billy Echstine’s band along with Charlie Parker. In this band, he was a music director and was able to record some of his first bebop songs. This arrangement did not last long because Echstine’s band was falling apart at the seams. Through his skills learned as a music director, he was able to fuse Cuban and African American jazz rhythms. This combination of rhythms created several unique songs that influenced Gillespie’s style in the jazz

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