A major figure in jazz history, trumpeter, composer, arranger, bandleader and
performer Dizzy Gillespie is not only one of the finest soloists on his
instrument, but also a pioneer of bebop and Afro-Cuban jazz. Born John Birks
Gillespie in Cheraw, North Carolina, on October 21, 1917, he began learning the
piano before trying the trombone, and then preferring the trumpet in his teens.
In Philadelphia, where his family moved in 1935, he joined Frank Fairfax's band
and was nicknamed "Dizzy" by pianist Bill Doggett, before replacing his idol Roy
Eldridge in Teddy Hill's band. After a...