Dizzy Gillespie
The people of today, raised by the sounds of The Beatles and Pearl Jam have forgotten all about the musicians that paved the way for these artists, and the musical styles that evolved into rock and roll, rhythm and blues and rap or hip hop. Unfortunately the music that once dominated the night clubs, restaurants, and radio stations is now heard only in elevators or when we go to a grandparents house to visit. What is left of jazz are small portions of the music that people take and sample with in a new song. Jazz and its historical figures have mistreated and forgotten by today's society. One of the figure most forgotten is John Birks Gillespie, known to the jazz world as "Dizzy" ...
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by saxophonist Charlie Parker, drummer Max Roach, pianist Thelonious Monk and trumpeter "Dizzy" Gillespie. Gillespie was one of the chief innovators of this new style of music as well as an important figure to all musicians to follow him and international figure for the United States.(Kerfeld, 137)
John Birks was born in Cheraw, South Carolina on October 21, 1917. The young prodigy was first introduced to music by his father, a weekend bandleader. Gillespie's father was not as talented as John was to become, he relied on a more stable income as mason around their home ~own. Four years after his fathers death, when Birks was 14, he began learning the trombone and trumpet without any formal instruction. Recognized by the staff at Laurinberg Institute, in North Carolina, as a prodigy, he was given a scholarship to be a member of the band in 1932. Throughout his stay at the Laurinberg Institute he studied vigorously both the trumpet and piano, building him self a long road that would ...
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the band. The audience replied swiftly "yes". He than began introducing the saxophone player to the drummer and the trumpet player to the trombonist and so forth (Wastrous, January 17). He also expressed his incredible humor within his music as well. In his own interpretation of the spiritual, "Swing Low Sweet Chariot," Gillespie develops the song into "Swing low Sweet Cadillac." He had changed the lyrics to suit his comic personality. He sang in the new song these more modern and jest words.
I looked over Jordan, and what did I see,
Come for to carry me home? Oh! an Elderado,
coming after me, Coming for to carry me home.
His jest and relaxed attitude is ...
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Dizzy Gillespie. (2007, March 24). Retrieved April 19, 2024, from http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Dizzy-Gillespie/62262
"Dizzy Gillespie." Essayworld.com. Essayworld.com, 24 Mar. 2007. Web. 19 Apr. 2024. <http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Dizzy-Gillespie/62262>
"Dizzy Gillespie." Essayworld.com. March 24, 2007. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Dizzy-Gillespie/62262.
"Dizzy Gillespie." Essayworld.com. March 24, 2007. Accessed April 19, 2024. http://www.essayworld.com/essays/Dizzy-Gillespie/62262.
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