Dizzy Gillespie (Oct 21, 1917 – Jan 6, 1993)

This feeling of Dizzy-ness has come over me.

Photo by Michael Wilderman

Miles Davis, Dizzy, Max Roach
courtesy of Jazz Reflections

Dizzy Gillespie, Harold West, Slam Stewart and Charlie Parker performing at a Town Hall concert in NYC, circa 1945
courtesy of Jazz Reflections

I always try to teach by example and not force my ideas on a young musician. One of the reasons we’re here is to be a part of this process of exchange.

There have been two great revelations in my life: The first was bebop, the second was homeopathy.

The idea of life is to give and receive.

photo by Allan Grant, 1948

Photo by Karlheinz Klüter

Dizzy thinkin’ ’bout Louis…
http://lsm.crt.state.la.us/
photo source: Louisiana State Museum
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizzy_Gillespie

Monterey Jazz Fest, 1964

In 1964, Dizzy Gillespie ran as a candidate for the presidential election. Promised that if elected the White House would be renamed Blues House. And he introduced his future government: he said he would have Duke Ellington secretary of state, Miles Davis CIA director, Max Roach secretary of defense, Charles Mingus secretary of peace, Ray Charles librarian of Congress, Louis Armstrong secretary of agriculture), Mary Lou Williams ambassador to the Vatican, Thelonious Monk traveling ambassador and Malcolm X Attorney General.

Lyndon B. Johnson won the election.
Thanks to Marco Molendini  for the info.