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Dizzy Gillespie        

*  Helped develop the bebop movement in jazz,

 * Nicknamed "Dizzy" because of his zany on-stage antics

* set new standards for trumpet players during the 1940's period

*Created a change in American Jazz music from swing to bebop.

 * In 1930, Gillespie tried learning how to play the trombone but his arms were too short to play it well.

* He started playing a friend's trumpet

* One night he heard a broadcast of Roy Eldridge playing trumpet over the radio

* Young Gillespie, then 13, loved Eldridge's playing and the entire band. From that day on, he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician.

*  Gillespie wrote some of the greatest jazz tunes of his era: " Groovin' HIgh" , " A Night in Tunisia"  and " Manteca" are concidered jazz classics today.

With his Trumpet and its upturned, golden bell, goatee, black horn rimmed glasses and beret, Gillespie became a symbol of both jazz and rebellious, independent spirit during the 40's and 50's. 

His interest in Cuban and African music helped to introduce those music's to a mainstream American audience.

*  When he died he was famous and beloved everywhere and had influenced entire generations of trumpet players all over the world. 

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie

* Born in Cheraw, South Carolina and died in Englewood, New Jersey. 

* The last of nine children, his father, James, was a bricklayer, pianist and band leader: Dizzy's mother was named Lottie.

* Dizzy's father kept all the instruments from his band in the family home .

* Dizzy's father died when he was ten and never heard his youngest son play trumpet

 *  In 1933, after graduating from Robert Smalls secondary school, Gillespie received a music scholarship to attend Laurinburg Institute, in North Carolina.

*  His family moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, in 1935.

*  In Philadelphia, Gillespie began playing trumpet with local bands,

 *  It was in Philadelphia that he picked up his nickname of "Dizzy.".

*  In 1937, "Dizzy" moved to New York and replaced Eldridge in Teddy Hill's Orchestra.

*  Gillespie moved on to Cab Calloway's band in 1939.

 *  In 1937, Gillespie met his future wife, Lorraine, a chorus dancer at the famed Apollo Theater: they were married in 1940 and remained together until his death.

*  Gillespie worked with many bands during the early 1940's  before teaming up with Charlie Parker in 1945.

*  Their revolutionary band ushered in the bebop era and was one of the greatest small bands of the 20th century.