John Birks Gillespie got the name “Dizzy” because of his offhand manner and outlandish antics. He got the unusual-looking bent-bell trumpet in 1953, when someone accidentally fell on his trumpet stand backstage. Gillespie liked the sound of the altered instrument so much that his trumpets were specially made in that configuration from then on. More than a jazz trumpet virtuoso, bandleader, composer, educator and singer, he was a civil rights advocate who participated in marches and protests … and even ran for president as a write-in candidate in 1964!
No More Blues (top) was taken from a 1966 BBC television show, and features Dizzy on trumpet, James Moody on alto, Kenny Barron at the piano, Chris White on bass, and Rudy Collins playing drums. In the (middle) we have Dizzy with the United Nations Orchestra playing Tin Tin Deo in 1989 at the Royal Festival Hall in London. Also included in the mix are such notables as trombonist Slide Hampton, saxophonists James Moody & Paquito D’Rivera, trumpet player Arturo Sandoval, and guitarist Ed Cherry. Finally (bottom) is a tune called Brother K. It was named by Gillespie in1968 as a response to the assassinations of Martin Luther King, Jr. and Robert F. Kennedy that year.
