John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie, who would have celebrated his 97th birthday on Oct. 21, was the very model of the modern American musical genius: a brilliant instrumentalist and stylistic innovator, he ...

Getting your Trinity Audio player ready... When the concert to celebrate the centennial of jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald is billed in part as 100 Years, 1,000 Memories, it feels ...

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie, along with Charlie Parker, ushered in the era of Be-Bop in the American jazz tradition. He was born Cheraw, South Carolina, and was the youngest of nine children. He ...

Dizzy was a unique individual and musician. He just had a different way of looking at things--the music, the chords and that goes for politics as well. It was a different perspective... The bent ...

We'd like to welcome Take Five, NPR Music's weekly five-song listening sampler, to A Blog Supreme. For years now, our own Lars Gotrich has helped produce these features, which spotlight great artists, ...

A young Dizzy Gillespie, cocky and with a chip on his shoulder, will stride into Philadelphia this weekend. “Last Call at the Downbeat,” at Society Hill Playhouse, is part monologue, part concert, and ...

When the concert to celebrate the centennial of jazz legends Dizzy Gillespie and Ella Fitzgerald is billed in part as 100 Years, 1,000 Memories, it feels right to start this story with one of those ...

FRANCE - JANUARY 01: Photo of Dizzy GILLESPIE; performing live onstage, (Photo by David Redfern/Redferns) It may be difficult to comprehend just how radical Dizzy Gillespie’s trumpet playing must have ...

Cuban trumpeter Arturo Sandoval first met Dizzy Gillespie in Havana in 1977, when the American jazzman came to Cuba to play a concert. Sandoval showed him around the city, where the two men listened ...

2024 has more than proven to be an intense political year as the country has faced the assassination attempt of one candidate and then the withdrawal of another just four months before the polls open ...

This Smithsonian Snapshot celebrates Jazz Appreciation Month with American jazz legend John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie’s trumpet. In the 1940s, Gillespie, renowned for his harmonic complexity and scat ...

Trumpeter John Birks Gillespie was born Oct. 21, 1917 in Cheraw, S.C. His family moved to Philadelphia when he was 14. It was there where he began picking up professional gigs. Early in his musical ...