Today’s blog was written by Kaitlin Rogers, Archives Technician at the National Archives at College Park
“Jazz will be the classical music of the future” -Dizzy Gillespie
John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie was born on October 21st, 1917, in Cheraw, South Carolina to parents Lottie and James Gillespie. A giant in the world of jazz music, Dizzy Gillespie is known as one of the the fathers of bebop. He had eight siblings and developed a penchant for music at a young age. His father was the leader of a local band and fostered a musical atmosphere in their household, teaching Gillespie how to play several instruments at a basic level. James Gillespie tragically died when Dizzy was ten years old, but this early exposure to music laid a foundation for his musical genius to flourish. Gillespie taught himself to play trumpet, and received further musical training at the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina. After two years at Laurinburg, he began to play for big bands professionally.
Gillespie first played for the Frankie Fairfax Band when he was eighteen years old. During this time, his wily and boisterous personality earned him the nickname “Dizzy”. Gillespie played for several other big bands throughout his twenties, including Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, and Duke Ellington. In his ever changing context, he met many musicians who influenced his musical style. Saxophonist Charlie Parker was one such musician who Gillespie met through a mutual friend while on tour. Parker and Gillespie had similar musical intuitions and in the coming years they started playing together at Minton’s Playhouse in New York City. Their collaborations during this time are legendary and gave way to what is now known as bebop music.
Bebop was avant garde. A style of jazz music where individual solos were emphasized over ensemble playing, and where a high level of improvisational musicianship was required. This innovative approach demarcated two eras of jazz history: the one before bebop and the one after it. Parker’s house and Minton’s Playhouse are now on the National Register of Historic Places to memorialize the significant contributions of these musicians (NAID 75319823 and NAID 75319736). By 1945, Parker and Gillespie recorded several of their enduring bebop hits including “Salt Peanuts” and “Groovin’ High”. Gillespie started his own jazz orchestra that same year, touring with several future jazz greats such as Jimmy Heath, James Moody, Milt Jackson, John Coltrane, Ray Brown, and others. The band stayed together for four years and then Gillespie started freelancing again.
In 1956, Dizzy Gillespie went on US State Department concert tours with several different bands around the world. The funding and recognition the federal government offered to jazz musicians during these tours was significant for the genre as a whole. During these tours Gillespie was influenced by international musical elements and began to incorporate them into his own music. After the State Department concert tours, Gillespie continued to collaborate and perform with other artists well into the 1980s. Today, Dizzy Gillespie is still known as one of the best jazz trumpeters of all time. Playing at the top of the trumpet register, and executing improvisational notes with unbelievable speed, he helped make use of the augmented eleventh interval mainstream in jazz music. Nearly every jazz trumpeter to come after him has been influenced by and adopted his techniques, and his music is widely considered to be jazz canon.
The National Archives and the Presidential Libraries hold several documents, photographs, moving images, and sound recordings on Dizzy Gillespie. Below are a few selections:
- RG 286, Photographs of Marshall Plan Programs, Exhibits, and Personnel (NAID20012480)
- RG 286, Photographs of Marshall Plan Programs, Exhibits, and Personnel (NAID20013304)
- RG 286, Photographs of Marshall Plan Programs, Exhibits, and Personnel (NAID19992754)
- RG 286, Photographs of Marshall Plan Programs, Exhibits, and Personnel (NAID19992750)
- Collection JC-WHSP Jimmy Carter’s Presidential Photographs (NAID6783228)
Additional information about Dizzy Gillespie can be found on the Rediscovering Black History Blog, including African American Artists & the Kennedy Center Honors by Tina L. Ligon