The Bell of the Ball Dizzy Gillespie
Every musician begins their career as an unknown. John Birk Gillespie, Dizzy's birth name, started out the same way. Dizzy was youngest of nine children, and was born on October 11, 1917 in Cheraw, South Carolina to James and Lottie Gillespie. His father, James was a pianist and a local band leader. As a band leader, Dizzy’s father James always had many instruments such as trombones, trumpets, guitar, and saxophones scattered around their home. Dizzy had instant access to these instruments along with a large upright piano. At an early age of 4 his father taught him how to play the upright piano. The piano was so large that they had to break down one of the walls of the small house to get the…show more content… Two years after his father's death, at the age of twelve he taught himself how to play the trombone, but because of his short arms it was quite difficult to him to play. In the same year he found that the trumpet was much easier to play than the trombone. Over the next few years he played in and around local bands to white and black audiences. In 1933, John graduated from Robert Smalls’ Secondary School and won a music scholarship to Laurinburg Institute in Carolina. During his two years at the institute he studied harmony and theory. In 1935 he decided quit university and with his family to move to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania.
From the night he heard the radio broadcasts of “The Little Jazz” or Roy Eldridge playing his trumpet at Savoy Ballroom in New York City, he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician. Inspired and greatly influenced by them, Dizzy joined the Frankie Fairfax band in 1935. He learned all of Eldridge's solos from radio broadcasts and records during his time at Fairfax. It was in Philadelphia where he earned his funny name “Dizzy”. Dizzy carried his trumpet in a paper bag which caused one of his fellow musicians, Bill Doggett, to call him…show more content… For his ballooning cheeks and the 45 degree bell while playing the trumpet, he mastered and created rhythmic shifts and ceaseless tremors with harmonic explorations during the 1940s. Dizzy made rememberable change in American Jazz music from swing to the modern jazz to Bebop. Today we celebrate Dizzy and all the black artists that are part of our music heritage. At the end of a long day he would say “thank you ladies and gentlemen for your magnificent
