A Royal Trumpeter: Dizzy Gillespie

Photo Source: bet.com

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was a great Black American musician who is created with beginning the wave of Be-Bop Jazz. As the youngest of nine children, Dizzy turned to music early in his children.  As a four year old, he began playing the piano and was soon accepted to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina.  Gillespie would go on to join the Eldridge band, the Calloway band, and was noted as one of the founders of the Afro-Cuban/Latina Hazz tradition of Jazz. As a musical ambassador to the US State Department, Dizzy toured Africa, the Middle East, and Latin America playing his trumpet and collecting innovative ideas.  Gillespie also mentored several proteges that went on to be famous in Afro-Cuban and Caribbean realms of Jazz music.  His legacy is one that will consist of his famous "swollen cheeks", humorous stage show, and his ability to foster a talent in a musical genre that would and still does transcend cultures, countries, and generations.  

Dizzy Gillespie: A Royal Trumpter

Photo Source: youtube.com

Source

1) The Official Site of Dizzy Gillespie; http://www.dizzygillespie.com/index.html