In 1930, Dizzy tried playing the trombone but he was too small to play it correctly. So one night that year he started to play a friend’s trumpet to the sounds of Roy Eliding in Teddy Hill’s Orchestra. He was only 13 years old at this time and was obsessed with Roy Leading’s music. Then “in 1933, after graduating from Robert Smalls secondary school, Gillespie received a music scholarship to attend Laurelling Institute, In North Carolina. ” In 1 935, Dizzy moved to Philadelphia with his family and there he started to play with local bands, It was here he got the nickname, Dizzy.
Then In 1937, Gillespie moved to New York and replaced Roy Eliding In Teddy Hill’s Orchestra. Then a couple years later he moved Into Cab Scallywag’s band In 1939. He soon after lost his spot in the band because Galloway said “Gillespie spit a fireball at him during a concert”. Dizzy was upset at the accusation and then “stabbed Galloway in the leg with a small knife”. Then Dizzy teamed up with Charlie Parker in 1945 and played in famous Jazz clubs like Mouton’s Playhouse and Monomer’s Uptown House, where bebop was beginning.
Many of Tizzy’s music sounded “very different, ironically, and rhythmically than the Swing music popular at the time”. Gillespie taught many of the younger musicians, like Miles Davis, about the new style of Jazz. The one thing that he was focused on was to start a big band, and his first attempt was In 1945 but didn’t work. After a while he did start a successful big band with Charlie Parker, but “he also frequently appeared as a soloist with Norman Grand’s Jazz at the philharmonic”. Then on March 11, 1952 went to France after being Invited by Charles Delaney. So he went to France and started his third big band.
Then in 1953 he returned to the USA and one thing he accomplished in France was to show that he is a successful band leader. He also started another type of music called Afro- Cuban music. Afro-Cuban music has Latin and African elements together to create a new type of Jazz. Dizzy stayed true to his bebop music for the rest of his career. He even did something unheard of by musicians; in 1964 he put himself forward as a presidential candidate. “He promised that if he were elected, the White House would be renamed “The Blues House,” Ray Charles would be appointed Librarian of
Congress, Miles Davis would become the head of the CIA, and Malcolm X the Attorney General. He also said his running mate would be Phyllis Dilled. ” He was nominated for Grammar awards and also was a guest on The Cowboys Show and Sesame Street. Towards the end of his Life he worked hard and was a very motivated muscular. “In 1989 Gillespie gave 300 performances in 27 countries, appeared in 100 U. S. Cities in with two symphonies, and recorded four albums. ” He received his fourteenth honorary doctoral degree, last one from Berkeley College of Music and he was also even the Grammar Lifetime Achievement Award in the same year.
On November 26, 1992 was Tizzy’s 75th birthday concert at Carnegie Hall in New York. This was going to be his 33rd appearance at Carnegie Hall, but Dizzy didn’t make it because he was sick with pancreatic cancer. Then in 1993 at the age of 75, Dizzy died from pancreatic cancer. He was buried in the Flushing Cemetery in Queens, New York. “Gillespie had two funerals. One was a BahГii funeral at his request, at which his closest friends and colleagues attended. The second was at the Cathedral of SST. John the Divine in New York attended by the world. ”