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106-496: The trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie (a member of Hines's big band , along with Charlie Parker ) wrote, The piano is the basis of modern harmony. This little guy came out of Chicago, Earl Hines. He changed the style of the piano. You can find the roots of Bud Powell , Herbie Hancock , all the guys who came after that. If it hadn't been for Earl Hines blazing the path for the next generation to come, it's no telling where or how they would be playing now. There were individual variations but

212-558: A Juilliard -trained pianist, at the jazz club Birdland in New York City. In the mid-1960s, Gillespie settled down in Englewood, New Jersey , with his wife. The local Englewood public high school, Dwight Morrow High School , named its auditorium after him: the 'Dizzy Gillespie Auditorium'. Gillespie has been described as the "sound of surprise". The Rough Guide to Jazz describes his musical style: The whole essence of

318-532: A 28-piece band (17 men, 11 women), including strings and French horn . Despite these wartime difficulties, Hines took his bands on tour from coast to coast, but was still able to take time out from his own band to front the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1944 when Ellington fell ill. It was during this time (and especially during the recording ban during the 1942–44 musicians' strike ) that late-night jam sessions with members of Hines's band sowed

424-448: A Gillespie solo was cliff-hanging suspense: the phrases and the angle of the approach were perpetually varied, breakneck runs were followed by pauses, by huge interval leaps, by long, immensely high notes, by slurs and smears and bluesy phrases; he always took listeners by surprise, always shocking them with a new thought. His lightning reflexes and superb ear meant his instrumental execution matched his thoughts in its power and speed. And he

530-399: A beautiful, beautiful band with Earl Hines. He's a master and you learn a lot from him, self-discipline and organization." In July 1946, Hines suffered serious head injuries in a car crash near Houston which, despite an operation, affected his eyesight for the rest of his life. Back on the road again four months later, he continued to lead his big band for two more years. In 1947, Hines bought

636-539: A broad audience; recordings of it were released in 2005. He started to organize big bands in late 1945. Dizzy Gillespie and his Bebop Six, which included Parker, started an extended gig at Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles in December 1945. Reception was mixed and the band broke up. In February 1946 he signed a contract with Bluebird , gaining the distribution power of RCA for his music. He and his big band headlined

742-495: A case of 'mistaken identity' of who I might shoot." He was classified 4-F . In 1943, he joined the Earl Hines band. Composer Gunther Schuller said, ... In 1943 I heard the great Earl Hines band which had Bird in it and all those other great musicians. They were playing all the flatted fifth chords and all the modern harmonies and substitutions and Gillespie runs in the trumpet section work. Two years later I read that that

848-472: A crisis from what turned out to be pancreatic cancer . He performed one more night but cancelled the rest of the tour for medical reasons, ending his 56-year touring career. He led his last recording session on January 25, 1992. On November 26, 1992, Carnegie Hall , following the Second Baháʼí World Congress , celebrated Gillespie's 75th birthday concert and his offering to the celebration of

954-589: A few bands, most notably Ella Fitzgerald 's orchestra, composed of members of the Chick Webb 's band. Gillespie did not serve in World War II . At his Selective Service interview, he told the local board, "in this stage of my life here in the United States whose foot has been in my ass?" and "So if you put me out there with a gun in my hand and tell me to shoot at the enemy, I'm liable to create

1060-482: A gift from Jon Faddis ). Gillespie favored mouthpieces made by Al Cass . In December 1986 Gillespie gave the National Museum of American History his 1972 King "Silver Flair" trumpet with a Cass mouthpiece. In April 1995, Gillespie's Martin trumpet was auctioned at Christie's in New York City with instruments used by Coleman Hawkins , Jimi Hendrix , and Elvis Presley . An image of Gillespie's trumpet

1166-481: A half or two hours and we just knocked each other out because we had no idea it was gonna turn out as good as it did." The Sunset Cafe closed in 1927. Hines, Armstrong, and the drummer Zutty Singleton agreed that they would become the "Unholy Three" – they would "stick together and not play for anyone unless the three of us were hired". But as Louis Armstrong and His Stompers (with Hines as musical director), they ran into difficulties trying to establish their own venue,

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1272-789: A jazz cruise to Havana. Sandoval toured with Gillespie and defected in Rome in 1990 while touring with Gillespie and the United Nations Orchestra . In the 1980s, Gillespie led the United Nations Orchestra. For three years Flora Purim toured with the Orchestra. She credits Gillespie with improving her understanding of jazz. In 1982, he was sought out by Motown musician Stevie Wonder to play his solo in Wonder's 1982 hit single, " Do I Do ". He starred in

1378-707: A jazz musician. He won a music scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina which he attended for two years before accompanying his family when they moved to Philadelphia in 1935. Gillespie's first professional job was with the Frank Fairfax Orchestra in 1935, after which he joined the respective orchestras of Edgar Hayes and later Teddy Hill , replacing Frankie Newton as second trumpet in May 1937. Teddy Hill's band

1484-483: A joke but proceeds went to Congress of Racial Equality , Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King Jr. ; in later years they became a collector's item. In 1971, he announced he would run again but withdrew before the election . Shortly after the death of Charlie Parker, Gillespie encountered an audience member after a show. They had a conversation about the oneness of humanity and

1590-680: A leading popularizer of the new music called bebop . His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing , bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality have made him an enduring icon. In the 1940s, Gillespie, with Charlie Parker , became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis , Jon Faddis , Fats Navarro , Clifford Brown , Arturo Sandoval , Lee Morgan , Chuck Mangione , and balladeer Johnny Hartman . He pioneered Afro-Cuban jazz and won several Grammy Awards. Scott Yanow wrote: "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of

1696-608: A markedly more modern lineup than the aging All Stars: Bennie Green , Art Blakey , Tommy Potter , and Etta Jones . In 1954, he toured his then seven-piece group nationwide with the Harlem Globetrotters . In 1958, he broadcast on the American Forces Network but by the start of the jazz-lean 1960s, the aging Hines settled "home" in Oakland , California, with his wife and two young daughters, opened

1802-776: A more conservative bent warned Hines that he had recruited much too well and was sitting on a powder keg. As early as 1940, saxophone player and arranger Budd Johnson had "re-written the book" for Hines's band in a more modern style. Johnson and Billy Eckstine , Hines's vocalist between 1939 and 1943, have been credited with helping to bring modern players into the Hines band in the transition between swing and bebop. Apart from Parker and Gillespie, other Hines 'modernists' included Gene Ammons , Gail Brockman, Scoops Carry , Goon Gardner, Wardell Gray , Bennie Green , Benny Harris , Harry 'Pee-Wee' Jackson, Shorty McConnell, Cliff Smalls , Shadow Wilson and Sarah Vaughan , who replaced Eckstine as

1908-586: A night at the Grand Terrace, four shows every Saturday and sometimes Sundays. According to Stanley Dance , "Earl Hines and The Grand Terrace were to Chicago what Duke Ellington and The Cotton Club were to New York – but fierier." The Grand Terrace was controlled by the gangster Al Capone , so Hines became Capone's "Mr Piano Man". The Grand Terrace upright piano was soon replaced by a white $ 3,000 Bechstein grand. Talking about those days Hines later said: ... Al [Capone] came in there one night and called

2014-524: A party for his wife Lorraine at Snookie's, a club in Manhattan, where his trumpet's bell got bent upward in an accident, but he liked the sound so much he had a special trumpet made with a 45-degree raised bell, a customization that would become his trademark. In 1956 Gillespie organized a band to go on a State Department tour of the Middle East which was well-received internationally and earned him

2120-415: A reluctant farewell to jazz's first golden age. Since Hines is also magnificent on these discs (and their insouciant exuberance is a marvel on the duet showstopper " Weather Bird ") the results seem like eavesdropping on great men speaking almost quietly among themselves. There is nothing in jazz finer or more moving than the playing on " West End Blues ", "Tight Like This", "Beau Koo Jack" and "Muggles". In

2226-545: A result, the Kremlin cancelled his Moscow and Leningrad concerts as being "too culturally dangerous". Arguably still playing as well as he ever had, Hines displayed individualistic quirks (including grunts) in these performances. He sometimes sang as he played, especially his own "They Didn't Believe I Could Do It ... Neither Did I". In 1975, Hines was the subject of an hour-long television documentary film made by ATV (for Britain's commercial ITV channel), out-of-hours at

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2332-511: A solo by Hines. He entered the studio again with Deppe a month later to record spirituals and popular songs, including " Sometimes I Feel Like a Motherless Child " and "For the Last Time Call Me Sweetheart". He also accompanied Ethel Waters, describing his strategy as playing "under what the artist is doing" by listening "to the changes she made." In 1925, after much family debate, Hines moved to Chicago , Illinois, then

2438-699: A symbol of the new music. His big bands of the late 1940s also featured Cuban rumberos Chano Pozo and Sabu Martinez , sparking interest in Afro-Cuban jazz. He appeared frequently as a soloist with Norman Granz 's Jazz at the Philharmonic . Gillespie and his Bee Bop Orchestra was the featured star of the 4th Cavalcade of Jazz concert held at Wrigley Field in Los Angeles which was produced by Leon Hefflin Sr. on September 12, 1948. The young maestro had recently returned from Europe where his music rocked

2544-587: A tobacconist's, and came close to giving up the profession. In 1964, Stanley Dance , Hines's determined friend and unofficial manager, convinced Hines to perform a series of recitals at the Little Theatre in New York. They were the first piano recitals Hines had ever given; they caused a sensation, leading Hines to be "suddenly rediscovered". "What is there left to hear after you've heard Earl Hines?", asked John Wilson of The New York Times . Hines then won

2650-518: A tune again in some other way, often completely different. From 1964 on, Hines often toured Europe, especially France. He toured South America in 1968. He performed in Asia, Australia, Japan and, in 1966, the Soviet Union, in tours funded by the U.S. State Department. During his six-week tour of the Soviet Union, in which he performed 35 concerts, the 10,000-seat Kyiv Sports Palace was sold out. As

2756-418: A whole chorus of right-hand chords in between beats. He will vault into the upper register in the next chorus and wind through irregularly placed notes, while his left hand plays descending, on-the-beat, chords that pass through a forest of harmonic changes. (There are so many push-me, pull-you contrasts going on in such a chorus that it is impossible to grasp it one time through.) In the next chorus—bang!—up goes

2862-750: A year, then left and freelanced with other bands. In 1939, with the help of Willis, Gillespie joined Cab Calloway 's orchestra. He recorded one of his earliest compositions, "Pickin' the Cabbage", with Calloway in 1940. After an altercation between the two, Calloway fired Gillespie in late 1941. The incident is recounted by Gillespie and Calloway's band members Milt Hinton and Jonah Jones in Jean Bach 's 1997 film, The Spitball Story . Calloway disapproved of Gillespie's mischievous humor and his adventuresome approach to soloing. According to Jones, Calloway referred to it as "Chinese music". During rehearsal, someone in

2968-544: Is a complete creation in itself, and yet each is lashed tightly to the next. Hines recorded solo tributes to Armstrong, Hoagy Carmichael , Ellington, George Gershwin and Cole Porter in the 1970s, sometimes on the 1904 12-legged Steinway given to him in 1969 by Scott Newhall , the managing editor of the San Francisco Chronicle . In 1974, when he was in his seventies, Hines recorded sixteen LPs. "A spate of solo recording meant that, in his old age, Hines

3074-753: Is based on traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms. Gillespie was introduced to Chano Pozo in 1947 by Mario Bauza , a Latin jazz trumpet player. Chano Pozo became Gillespie's conga drummer for his band. Gillespie also worked with Mario Bauza in New York jazz clubs on 52nd Street and several famous dance clubs such as the Palladium and the Apollo Theater in Harlem . They played together in the Chick Webb band and Cab Calloway's band, where Gillespie and Bauza became lifelong friends. Gillespie helped develop and mature

3180-630: The American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Duke Ellington Award for 50 years of achievement as a composer, performer, and bandleader. In 1989, Gillespie was awarded with an honorary doctorate of music from Berklee College of Music . In 1991, Gillespie received the Golden Plate Award of the American Academy of Achievement presented by Awards Council member Wynton Marsalis . In 1993 he received

3286-648: The Blues Alley nightclub in Washington, DC . The International Herald Tribune described it as "the greatest jazz film ever made". In the film, Hines said, "The way I like to play is that ... I'm an explorer, if I might use that expression, I'm looking for something all the time ... almost like I'm trying to talk." In 1979, Hines was inducted into the Black Filmmakers Hall of Fame . He played solo at Duke Ellington's funeral, played solo twice at

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3392-557: The Carroll Dickerson Orchestra at the Sunset Cafe in 1926, with Earl Hines on piano. In July of that year, Percy Venable staged and produced Jazzmania, which had a finale with the whole cast supporting Armstrong as he sang "Heebie Jeebies." Venable would also later design a show with a "prime attraction," or Armstrong, singing "Big Butter and Egg Man" with Mae Alix. The band with Hines as musical director

3498-547: The Ink Spots , Peggy Lee , Helen Merrill , Charles Mingus , Oscar Pettiford , Vi Redd , Betty Roché , Caterina Valente , Dinah Washington , and Ry Cooder (on the song "Ditty Wah Ditty"). But the most highly regarded recordings of this period are his solo performances, "a whole orchestra by himself". Whitney Balliett wrote of his solo recordings and performances of this time: Hines will be sixty-seven this year and his style has become involuted, rococo , and subtle to

3604-879: The Polar Music Prize in Sweden. In 2002, he was posthumously inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame for his contributions to Afro-Cuban music. He was honored on December 31, 2006 in A Jazz New Year's Eve: Freddy Cole & the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts. In 2014, Gillespie was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame . Samuel E. Wright played Dizzy Gillespie in

3710-588: The Saint Valentine's Day Massacre ), Hines opened at Chicago's Grand Terrace Cafe leading his own big band, a prestigious position in the jazz world at the time. "All America was dancing", Hines said, and for the next 12 years and through the worst of the Great Depression and Prohibition , Hines's band was the orchestra at the Grand Terrace. The Hines Orchestra – or "Organization", as Hines preferred it – had up to 28 musicians and did three shows

3816-713: The White House , for the President of France and for the Pope . Of this acclaim, Hines said, "Usually they give people credit when they're dead. I got my flowers while I was living". Hines's last show took place in San Francisco a few days before he died of a heart attack in Oakland. As he had wished, his Steinway was auctioned for the benefit of gifted low-income music students, still bearing its silver plaque: Hines

3922-626: The 1920s, 1930s and 1940s. It was one of the most important jazz clubs in America, especially during the period between 1917 and 1928 when Chicago became a creative capital of jazz innovation and again during the emergence of bebop in the early 1940s. From its inception, the club was a rarity as a haven from segregation, since the Sunset Cafe was an integrated or "Black and Tan" club where African Americans, along with other ethnicities, could mingle freely with white Americans without much fear of reprisal. Many important musicians developed their careers at

4028-499: The 1946 film Jivin' in Be-Bop . After his work with Parker, Gillespie led other small combos (including ones with Milt Jackson , John Coltrane , Lalo Schifrin , Ray Brown , Kenny Clarke , James Moody , J. J. Johnson , and Yusef Lateef ) and put together his successful big bands starting in 1947. He and his big bands, with arrangements provided by Tadd Dameron , Gil Fuller , and George Russell , popularized bebop and made him

4134-458: The 1966 International Critics Poll for DownBeat magazine's Hall of Fame. DownBeat also elected him the world's "No. 1 Jazz Pianist" in 1966 (and did so again five more times). Jazz Journal awarded his LPs of the year first and second in its overall poll and first, second and third in its piano category. Jazz voted him "Jazzman of the Year" and picked him for its number 1 and number 2 places in

4240-573: The Afro-Cuban jazz style. Afro-Cuban jazz was considered bebop-oriented, and some musicians classified it as a modern style. Afro-Cuban jazz was successful because it never decreased in popularity and it always attracted people to dance. Gillespie's most famous contributions to Afro-Cuban music are "Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo" (both co-written with Chano Pozo); he was responsible for commissioning George Russell 's "Cubano Be, Cubano Bop", which featured Pozo. In 1977, Gillespie met Arturo Sandoval during

4346-514: The Grand Terrace, Hines and his band broadcast on "open mikes" over many years, sometimes seven nights a week, coast-to-coast across America – Chicago being well placed to deal with live broadcasting across time zones in the United States. The Hines band became the most broadcast band in America. Among the listeners were a young Nat King Cole and Jay McShann in Kansas City, who said his "real education came from Earl Hines. When 'Fatha' went off

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4452-496: The Police used to come in ... looking for a fall guy and say, "Earl what were they talking about?" ... but I said, "I don't know – no, you're not going to pin that on me," because they had a habit of putting the pictures of different people that would bring information in the newspaper and the next day you would find them out there in the lake somewhere swimming around with some chains attached to their feet if you know what I mean. From

4558-551: The Police, the experience proved so harrowing that Hines in the 1960s recalled that, "You could call us the first Freedom Riders ". For the most part, any contact with whites, even fans, was viewed as dangerous. Finding places to eat or stay overnight entailed a constant struggle. The only non-musical 'victory' that Hines claimed was winning the respect of a clothing-store owner who initially treated Hines with derision until it became clear that Hines planned to spend $ 85 on shirts, "which changed his whole attitude". In 1942, Hines provided

4664-552: The Sunset. A few years later Calloway followed his mentor Armstrong to NY, and before long found himself headlining at The Cotton Club , while back in Chicago, Hines inherited the Sunset Cafe mantle. In 1928, the 25-year-old Earl Hines opened what was to become a twelve-year residency at what was now renamed The Grand Terrace Cafe - by now "controlled" [or 25% 'controlled'] by Al Capone . With Hines as its bandleader, what used to be

4770-718: The Sunset/Grand Terrace Cafe. The building that housed the Cafe still stands at 315 E 35th St in the Bronzeville neighborhood of Chicago. Originally built in 1909 as an automobile garage, after a 1921 remodelling it became a venue with around 100 tables, a bandstand and dance floor. While the historic structure that once housed New York's original Cotton Club was torn down decades ago for urban renewal , Chicago's original Sunset/Grand Terrace Cafe building still stands, and still has some of its original murals on

4876-521: The Vamp of New Orleans"). Hines said of her, "She'd been at The Sunset too, in a dance act. She was a very charming, pretty girl. She had a good voice and played the violin. I had been divorced and she became my common-law wife. We lived in a big apartment and her parents stayed with us". Perry recorded several times with Hines, including " Body and Soul " in 1935. They stayed together until 1940, when Hines "divorced" her to marry Ann Jones Reed, but that marriage

4982-614: The Warwick Hall Club, which they rented for a year with the management help of Lil Hardin Armstrong. Hines went briefly to New York and returned to find that Armstrong and Singleton had rejoined the rival Dickerson band at the new Savoy Ballroom in his absence, leaving Hines feeling "warm". When Armstrong and Singleton later asked him to join them with Dickerson at the Savoy Ballroom, Hines said, "No, you guys left me in

5088-815: The White House would be renamed the Blues House, and he would have a cabinet composed of Duke Ellington (Secretary of State), Miles Davis (Director of the CIA), 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 (Travelling Ambassador) and Malcolm X (Attorney General). He said his running mate would be Phyllis Diller . Campaign buttons had been manufactured years before by Gillespie's booking agency as

5194-423: The age of eleven he was playing the organ in his Baptist church. He had a "good ear and a good memory" and could replay songs after hearing them in theaters and park concerts: "I'd be playing songs from these shows months before the song copies came out. That astonished a lot of people and they'd ask where I heard these numbers and I'd tell them at the theatre where my parents had taken me." Later, Hines said that he

5300-809: The air, I went to bed." Hines's most significant "student" was Art Tatum . The Hines band usually comprised 15–20 musicians on stage, occasionally up to 28. Among the band's many members were Wallace Bishop , Alvin Burroughs , Scoops Carry , Oliver Coleman, Bob Crowder, Thomas Crump, George Dixon , Julian Draper, Streamline Ewing , Ed Fant, Milton Fletcher, Walter Fuller , Dizzy Gillespie , Leroy Harris, Woogy Harris, Darnell Howard , Cecil Irwin , Harry 'Pee Wee' Jackson, Warren Jefferson, Budd Johnson , Jimmy Mundy , Ray Nance , Charlie Parker , Willie Randall, Omer Simeon , Cliff Smalls , Leon Washington , Freddie Webster , Quinn Wilson and Trummy Young . Occasionally, Hines allowed another pianist sit in for him,

5406-399: The band singer in 1943 and stayed for a year. Dizzy Gillespie said of the music the band evolved: People talk about the Hines band being 'the incubator of bop' and the leading exponents of that music ended up in the Hines band. But people also have the erroneous impression that the music was new. It was not. The music evolved from what went before. It was the same basic music. The difference

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5512-546: The band threw a spitball. Already in a foul mood, Calloway blamed Gillespie, who refused to take the blame. Gillespie stabbed Calloway in the leg with a knife. Calloway had minor cuts on the thigh and wrist. After the two were separated, Calloway fired Gillespie. A few days later, Gillespie tried to apologize to Calloway, but he was dismissed. During his time in Calloway's band, Gillespie started writing big band music for Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey . He then freelanced with

5618-419: The bebop era like Charlie Parker , Thelonious Monk , Bud Powell , Kenny Clarke , Oscar Pettiford , and Gillespie. Through these musicians, a new vocabulary of musical phrases was created. With Parker, Gillespie jammed at famous jazz clubs like Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House . Parker's system also held methods of adding chords to existing chord progressions and implying additional chords within

5724-475: The better to allow him to conduct the whole "Organization". Jess Stacy was one, Nat "King" Cole and Teddy Wilson were others, but Cliff Smalls was his favorite. Each summer, Hines toured with his whole band for three months, including through the South – the first black big band to do so. He explained, "[when] we traveled by train through the South, they would send a porter back to our car to let us know when

5830-448: The biggest nightclub in Chicago, The El Grotto, but with the declining popularity of big-band music, it soon foundered and Hines lost $ 30,000 ($ 468,737 today). In early 1948, Hines joined up again with Armstrong in the " Louis Armstrong and His All-Stars " "small-band". It was not without its strains for Hines. A year later, Armstrong became the first jazz musician to appear on the cover of Time magazine (on February 21, 1949). Armstrong

5936-1538: The category Piano Recordings. Hines was invited to appear on TV shows hosted by Johnny Carson and Mike Douglas . From then until his death twenty years later, Hines recorded endlessly, both solo and with contemporaries like Cat Anderson , Harold Ashby , Barney Bigard , Lawrence Brown , Dave Brubeck (they recorded duets in 1975), Jaki Byard (duets in 1972), Benny Carter , Buck Clayton , Cozy Cole , Wallace Davenport , Eddie "Lockjaw" Davis , Vic Dickenson , Roy Eldridge , Duke Ellington (duets in 1966), Ella Fitzgerald , Panama Francis , Bud Freeman , Stan Getz , Dizzy Gillespie , Paul Gonsalves , Stéphane Grappelli , Sonny Greer , Lionel Hampton , Coleman Hawkins , Milt Hinton , Johnny Hodges , Peanuts Hucko , Helen Humes , Budd Johnson , Jonah Jones , Max Kaminsky , Gene Krupa , Ellis Larkins , Shelly Manne , Marian McPartland (duets in 1970), Gerry Mulligan , Ray Nance , Oscar Peterson (duets in 1968), Russell Procope , Pee Wee Russell , Jimmy Rushing , Stuff Smith , Rex Stewart , Maxine Sullivan , Buddy Tate , Jack Teagarden , Clark Terry , Sarah Vaughan , Joe Venuti , Earle Warren , Ben Webster , Teddy Wilson (duets in 1965 and 1970), Jimmy Witherspoon , Jimmy Woode and Lester Young . Possibly more surprising were Alvin Batiste , Tony Bennett , Art Blakey , Teresa Brewer , Barbara Dane , Richard Davis , Elvin Jones , Etta Jones ,

6042-539: The centenary of the passing of Baháʼu'lláh . Gillespie was to appear at Carnegie Hall for the 33rd time. The line-up included Jon Faddis , James Moody , Paquito D'Rivera , and the Mike Longo Trio with Ben Brown on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. Gillespie was too unwell to attend. "But the musicians played their real hearts out for him, no doubt suspecting that he would not play again. Each musician gave tribute to their friend, this great soul and innovator in

6148-418: The continent. The program description noted "the musicianship, inventive technique, and daring of this young man has created a new style, which can be defined as off the chord solo gymnastics." Also on the program that day were Frankie Laine , Little Miss Cornshucks , The Sweethearts of Rhythm , The Honeydrippers , Big Joe Turner , Jimmy Witherspoon , The Blenders, and The Sensations. In 1948, Gillespie

6254-423: The conventional design. According to Gillespie's autobiography, this was originally the result of accidental damage caused by the dancers Stump and Stumpy falling onto the instrument while it was on a trumpet stand on stage at Snookie's in Manhattan on January 6, 1953, during a birthday party for Gillespie's wife Lorraine. The constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the instrument, and Gillespie liked

6360-565: The days of 78 rpm records , recording engineers were unable to play back a take without rendering the wax master unusable for commercial release, so the band did not hear the final version of "West End Blues" until it was issued by Okeh a few weeks later. "Earl Hines, he was surprised when the record came out on the market, 'cause he brought it by my house, you know, we'd forgotten we'd recorded it", Armstrong recalled in 1956. But they liked what they heard. "When it first came out", Hines said, "Louis and I stayed by that recording practically an hour and

6466-615: The dining room was cleared, and then we would all go in together. We couldn't eat when we wanted to. We had to eat when they were ready for us." In Duke Ellington 's America , Harvey G. Cohen writes: In 1931, Earl Hines and his Orchestra "were the first big Negro band to travel extensively through the South". Hines referred to it as an "invasion" rather than a "tour". Between a bomb exploding under their bandstage in Alabama (" ...we didn't none of us get hurt but we didn't play so well after that either") and numerous threatening encounters with

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6572-532: The effect. He had the trumpet straightened out the next day, but he could not forget the tone. Gillespie sent a request to Martin to make him a "bent" trumpet from a sketch produced by Lorraine, and from that time forward played a trumpet with an upturned bell. By June 1954 he was using a professionally manufactured horn of this design, and it was to become a trademark for the rest of his life. Such trumpets were made for him by Martin (from 1954), King Musical Instruments (from 1972) and Renold Schilke (from 1982,

6678-542: The elimination of racism from the perspective of the Baháʼí Faith . Impacted by the assassination of Martin Luther King Jr. in 1968, he became a Baháʼí that same year. The universalist emphasis of his religion prodded him to see himself more as a global citizen and humanitarian, expanding on his interest in his African heritage. His spirituality brought out generosity and what author Nat Hentoff called an inner strength, discipline, and "soul force". Gillespie's conversion

6784-628: The film Bird (1988), about Charlie Parker . Kevin Hanchard portrayed Gillespie in the Chet Baker biopic Born to Be Blue (2015). Charles S. Dutton played him in For Love or Country: The Arturo Sandoval Story (2000). Sunset Cafe The Sunset Cafe , also known as The Grand Terrace Cafe or simply Grand Terrace , was a jazz club in Chicago , Illinois operating during

6890-596: The film The Winter in Lisbon that was released as El invierno en Lisboa in 1992 and re-released in 2004. The soundtrack album, featuring him, was recorded in 1990 and released in 1991. The film is a crime drama about a jazz pianist who falls for a dangerous woman while in Portugal with an American expatriate's jazz band. In December 1991, during an engagement at Kimball's East in Emeryville, California, he suffered

6996-474: The greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up being similar to those of Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated [....] Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time". The youngest of nine children of Lottie and James Gillespie, Dizzy Gillespie

7102-404: The improvised lines. Gillespie compositions like " Groovin' High ", " Woody 'n' You ", and " Salt Peanuts " sounded radically different, harmonically and rhythmically, from the swing music popular at the time. " A Night in Tunisia ", written in 1942, while he was playing with Earl Hines's band, is noted for having a feature that is common in today's music: a syncopated bass line. "Woody 'n' You"

7208-556: The metre of the piece being played, accent off-beats, introduce sudden stops and brief silences. In other hands this might sound clumsy or all over the place but Hines could keep his bearings with uncanny resilience. Armstrong and Hines became good friends and shared a car. Armstrong joined Hines in Carroll Dickerson's band at the Sunset Cafe . In 1927, this became Armstrong's band under the musical direction of Hines. Later that year, Armstrong revamped his Okeh Records recording-only band, Louis Armstrong and His Hot Five , and hired Hines as

7314-558: The nickname "the Ambassador of Jazz". During this time, he also continued to lead a big band that performed throughout the United States and featured musicians including Pee Wee Moore and others. This band recorded a live album at the 1957 Newport jazz festival that featured Mary Lou Williams as a guest artist on piano. In the late 1940s, Gillespie was involved in the movement called Afro-Cuban music , bringing Afro-Latin American music and elements to greater prominence in jazz and even pop music, particularly salsa . Afro-Cuban jazz

7420-421: The pianist, replacing his wife, Lil Hardin Armstrong , on the instrument. Armstrong and Hines then recorded what are often regarded as some of the most important jazz records ever made. ... with Earl Hines arriving on piano, Armstrong was already approaching the stature of a concerto soloist, a role he would play more or less throughout the next decade, which makes these final small-group sessions something like

7526-501: The point of elusiveness. It unfolds in orchestral layers and it demands intense listening. Despite the sheer mass of notes he now uses, his playing is never fatty. Hines may go along like this in a medium tempo blues. He will play the first two choruses softly and out of tempo, unreeling placid chords that safely hold the kernel of the melody. By the third chorus, he will have slid into a steady but implied beat and raised his volume. Then, using steady tenths in his left hand, he will stamp out

7632-597: The rain and broke the little corporation we had". Hines joined the clarinetist Jimmie Noone at the Apex, an after-hours speakeasy , playing from midnight to 6 a.m., seven nights a week. In 1928, he recorded 14 sides with Noone and again with Armstrong (for a total of 38 sides with Armstrong). His first piano solos were recorded late that year: eight for QRS Records in New York and then seven for Okeh Records in Chicago, all except two his own compositions. Hines moved in with Kathryn Perry (with whom he had recorded "Sadie Green

7738-483: The road full-time for the next eight years, resisting renewed offers from Benny Goodman to join his band as piano player. Hines's band encountered trouble when several of its members were drafted into the armed forces in World War II . Six were drafted in 1943 alone. As a result, on August 19, 1943, Hines had to cancel the rest of his Southern tour. He went to New York and hired a "draft-proof" 12-piece all-woman group, which lasted two months. Next, Hines expanded it into

7844-600: The same year as the Cuban Missile Crisis , it uses audio from an improvised conversation between the two debating the causes of accidents and the possibility of accidentally launching nuclear weapons . The short went on to win the Academy Award for Best Animated Short Film the following year. During the 1964 United States presidential campaign , Gillespie put himself forward as an independent write-in candidate . He promised that if he were elected,

7950-487: The saxophonist Charlie Parker with his big break, although Parker was subsequently fired soon after for his "time-keeping" – by which Hines meant his inability to show up on time – despite Parker resorting to sleeping under the band stage in his attempts to be punctual. Dizzie Gillespie joined the same year. The Grand Terrace Cafe had closed suddenly in December 1940; its manager, Ed Fox, disappeared. The 37-year-old Hines, always famously good to work for, took his band on

8056-497: The seeds for the emerging new style in jazz, bebop . Ellington later said that "the seeds of bop were in Earl Hines's piano style". Charlie Parker's biographer Ross Russell wrote: The Earl Hines Orchestra of 1942 had been infiltrated by the jazz revolutionaries. Each section had its cell of insurgents. The band's sonority bristled with flatted fifths, off triplets and other material of the new sound scheme. Fellow bandleaders of

8162-474: The significance of rhythm there and all about how music can transport people spiritually." In Gillespie's obituary, Peter Watrous describes his performance style: In the naturally effervescent Mr. Gillespie, opposites existed. His playing—and he performed constantly until nearly the end of his life—was meteoric, full of virtuosic invention and deadly serious. But with his endlessly funny asides, his huge variety of facial expressions and his natural comic gifts, he

8268-430: The style of … the modern piano came from Earl Hines. The pianist Lennie Tristano said, "Earl Hines is the only one of us capable of creating real jazz and real swing when playing all alone." Horace Silver said, "He has a completely unique style. No one can get that sound, no other pianist." Erroll Garner said, "When you talk about greatness, you talk about Art Tatum and Earl Hines." Count Basie said that Hines

8374-401: The trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums. Dizzy recommended Fats Navarro for the job with Eckstine, who proved to be an ample replacement. Bebop was known as the first modern jazz style. However, it was unpopular in the beginning and was not viewed as positively as swing music was. Bebop was seen as an outgrowth of swing, not a revolution. Swing introduced a diversity of new musicians in

8480-593: The volume again and Hines breaks into a crazy-legged double-time-and-a-half run that may make several sweeps up and down the keyboard and that are punctuated by offbeat single notes in the left hand. Then he will throw in several fast descending two-fingered glissandos , go abruptly into an arrhythmic swirl of chords and short, broken, runs and, as abruptly as he began it all, ease into an interlude of relaxed chords and poling single notes. But these choruses, which may be followed by eight or ten more before Hines has finished what he has to say, are irresistible in other ways. Each

8586-916: The walls. The Sunset/Grand Terrace Cafe building returned to its modest roots after the then Grand Terrace Cafe closed in 1950, serving as a political office for a short time, and then an Ace Hardware store. The building received Chicago Landmark status on September 9, 1998. Owned by Louis Armstrong 's manager, Joe Glaser , the venue played host to such performers as Louis Armstrong , Adelaide Hall , Billie Holiday , Dinah Washington , Fletcher Henderson , Cab Calloway , Lionel Hampton , Johnny Dodds , Bix Beiderbecke , Jimmy Dorsey , Benny Goodman , Woody Herman , Gene Krupa and Earl "Fatha" Hines and his orchestra's members: Billy Eckstine , Dizzy Gillespie , Charlie Parker and Sarah Vaughan . On September 23, 1939, Ella Fitzgerald made her Chicago debut on this famous stage. Shortly after beginning to record his Hot Five records, Louis Armstrong began playing in

8692-483: The whole band and show together and said, "Now we want to let you know our position. We just want you people just to attend to your own business. We'll give you all the Protection in the world but we want you to be like the 3 monkeys : you hear nothing and you see nothing and you say nothing". And that's what we did. And I used to hear many of the things that they were going to do but I never did tell anyone. Sometimes

8798-587: The world of jazz." A longtime resident of Englewood , New Jersey, Gillespie died of pancreatic cancer on January 6, 1993, at the age of 75 and was buried in Flushing Cemetery , Queens, New York City. His grave is unmarked. Mike Longo (who was present the night of Gillespie's death) delivered a eulogy at his funeral. In 1962, Gillespie and actor George Mathews starred in The Hole , an animated short film by John and Faith Hubley . Released

8904-631: The world's jazz capital, the home of Jelly Roll Morton and King Oliver . Hines started in Elite No. 2 Club but soon joined Carroll Dickerson 's band, with whom he also toured on the Pantages Theatre Circuit to Los Angeles and back. Hines met Louis Armstrong in the poolroom of the Black Musicians' Union, local 208, on State and 39th in Chicago. Hines was 21, Armstrong 24. They played the union's piano together. Armstrong

9010-449: The young Hines as his concert accompanist and took him on his concert trips to New York. In 1921, Hines and Deppe became the first African Americans to perform on radio. Hines's first recordings were accompanying Deppe – four sides recorded for Gennett Records in 1923, still in the very early days of sound recording. Only two of these were issued, one of which was a Hines composition, "Congaine", "a keen snappy foxtrot", which also featured

9116-653: Was "the greatest piano player in the world". Earl Hines was born in Duquesne , Pennsylvania, 12 miles from the center of Pittsburgh , in 1903. His father, Joseph Hines, played cornet and was the leader of the Eureka Brass Band in Pittsburgh, and his stepmother was a church organist. Hines intended to follow his father on cornet, but "blowing" hurt him behind the ears, whereas the piano did not. The young Hines took lessons in playing classical piano . By

9222-418: Was 'bop' and the beginning of modern jazz ... but the band never made recordings. Gillespie said of the Hines band, "[p]eople talk about the Hines band being 'the incubator of bop' and the leading exponents of that music ended up in the Hines band. But people also have the erroneous impression that the music was new. It was not. The music evolved from what went before. It was the same basic music. The difference

9328-448: Was as much a pure entertainer as an accomplished artist. Wynton Marsalis summarized Gillespie as a player and teacher: His playing showcases the importance of intelligence. His rhythmic sophistication was unequaled. He was a master of harmony—and fascinated with studying it. He took in all the music of his youth—from Roy Eldridge to Duke Ellington—and developed a unique style built on complex rhythm and harmony balanced by wit. Gillespie

9434-469: Was astounded by Hines's avant-garde "trumpet-style" piano playing, often using dazzlingly fast octaves so that on none-too-perfect upright pianos (and with no amplification) "they could hear me out front". Richard Cook wrote in Jazz Encyclopedia that [Hines's] most dramatic departure from what other pianists were then playing was his approach to the underlying pulse: he would charge against

9540-408: Was being comprehensively documented at last, and he rose to the challenge with consistent inspirational force". From his 1964 "comeback" until his death, Hines recorded over 100 LPs all over the world. Within the industry, he became legendary for going into a studio and coming out an hour and a half later having recorded an unplanned solo LP. Retakes were almost unheard of except when Hines wanted to try

9646-466: Was born in Cheraw, South Carolina . His father was a local bandleader, so instruments were made available to the children. Gillespie started to play the piano at the age of four. Gillespie's father died when he was only ten years old. He taught himself how to play the trombone as well as the trumpet by the age of twelve. From the night he heard his idol, Roy Eldridge , on the radio, he dreamed of becoming

9752-608: Was buried in Evergreen Cemetery in Oakland, California . Dizzy Gillespie John Birks " Dizzy " Gillespie ( / ɡ ɪ ˈ l ɛ s p i / gil- ESP -ee ; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter , bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser , building on the virtuosic style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him

9858-488: Was by then on his way to becoming an American icon, leaving Hines to feel he was being used only as a sideman in comparison to his old friend. Discussing the difficulties, mainly over billing, Armstrong stated, "Hines and his ego, ego, ego ..." Three years later and to Armstrong's annoyance, Hines left the All Stars in 1951. Next, back as leader again, Hines took his own small combos around the United States. He started with

9964-442: Was concerned at all times with swing—even taking the most daring liberties with pulse or beat, his phrases never failed to swing. Gillespie's magnificent sense of time and emotional intensity of his playing came from childhood roots. His parents were Methodists, but as a boy he used to sneak off every Sunday to the uninhibited Sanctified Church. He said later, "The Sanctified Church had deep significance for me musically. I first learned

10070-457: Was in how you got from here to here to here ... naturally each age has got its own shit. The links to bebop remained close. Parker's discographer, among others, has argued that " Yardbird Suite ", which Parker recorded with Miles Davis in March 1946, was in fact based on Hines's "Rosetta", which nightly served as the Hines band theme-tune. Dizzy Gillespie described the Hines band, saying, "We had

10176-439: Was in how you got from here to here to here ... naturally each age has got its own shit." Gillespie joined the big band of Hines's long-time collaborator Billy Eckstine , and it was as a member of Eckstine's band that he was reunited with Charlie Parker , a fellow member. In 1944, Gillespie left Eckstine's band because he wanted to play with a small combo. A "small combo" typically comprised no more than five musicians, playing

10282-452: Was involved in a traffic accident when the bicycle he was riding was bumped by an automobile. He was slightly injured and found that he could no longer hit the B-flat above high C. He won the case, but the jury awarded him only $ 1000 in view of his high earnings up to that point. In 1951, Gillespie founded his record label, Dee Gee Records ; it closed in 1953. On January 6, 1953, he threw

10388-575: Was most affected by Bill Sears ' book Thief in the Night . Gillespie spoke about the Baháʼí Faith frequently on his trips abroad. He is honored with weekly jazz sessions at the New York Baháʼí Center in the memorial auditorium. A concert in honor of his 75th birthday was held in New York City's Carnegie Hall, 26 November 1992, in conjunction with the second Baha'i world congress, however, he

10494-472: Was playing piano around Pittsburgh "before the word ' jazz ' was even invented". With his father's approval, Hines left home at the age of 17 to take a job playing piano with Lois Deppe and His Symphonian Serenaders in the Liederhaus, a Pittsburgh nightclub. He got his board, two meals a day, and $ 15 a week. Deppe, a well-known baritone concert artist who sang both classical and popular songs, also used

10600-525: Was recorded in a session led by Coleman Hawkins with Gillespie as a featured sideman on February 16, 1944 ( Apollo ), the first formal recording of bebop. He appeared in recordings by the Billy Eckstine band and started recording prolifically as a leader and sideman in early 1945. He was not content to let bebop sit in a niche of small groups in small clubs. A concert by one of his small groups in New York's Town Hall on June 22, 1945, presented bebop to

10706-665: Was selected for the cover of the auction program. The battered instrument was sold to Manhattan builder Jeffery Brown for $ 63,000, the proceeds benefiting jazz musicians with cancer. In 1989, Gillespie was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award . The next year, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ceremonies celebrating the centennial of American jazz, Gillespie received the Kennedy Center Honors Award and

10812-441: Was so quick-minded, he could create an endless flow of ideas at unusually fast tempo. Nobody had ever even considered playing a trumpet that way, let alone had actually tried. All the musicians respected him because, in addition to outplaying everyone, he knew so much and was so generous with that knowledge... Gillespie's trademark trumpet featured a bell which bent upward at a 45-degree angle rather than pointing straight ahead as in

10918-452: Was soon "indefinitely postponed". Hines married singer 'Lady of Song' Janie Moses in 1947. They had two daughters, Janear (born 1950) and Tosca. Both daughters died before he did, Tosca in 1976 and Janear in 1981. Janie divorced him on June 14, 1979, and died in 2007. However, two other children from Laurice Penn exist: Michael Gordon Penn (1960) and Sandra Penn Wilson (1962 - 2023). On December 28, 1928 (his 25th birthday and six weeks before

11024-440: Was soon renamed Louis Armstrong and his Stompers . Cab Calloway got his professional start onstage under Louis Armstrong at the Sunset Cafe. Calloway eventually became one of only a few big band leaders to come up under Armstrong and, of course, Earl Hines . When Louis departed the Cafe for New York - it was the young Cab Calloway - 20-year-old "kid from Baltimore" whom Armstrong and Glazer picked to take over from Louis at

11130-506: Was too ill to personally attend. Gillespie married dancer Lorraine Willis in Boston on May 9, 1940. They remained together until his death in 1993; Lorraine converted to Catholicism with Mary Lou Williams in 1957. Lorraine managed his business and personal affairs. The couple had no children, but Gillespie fathered a daughter, jazz singer Jeanie Bryson , born in 1958 from an affair with songwriter Connie Bryson. Gillespie met Bryson,

11236-482: Was where Gillespie made his first recording, "King Porter Stomp". In August 1937 while gigging with Hayes in Washington D.C., Gillespie met a young dancer named Lorraine Willis who worked a Baltimore–Philadelphia–New York City circuit which included the Apollo Theater . Willis was not immediately friendly but Gillespie was attracted anyway. The two married on May 9, 1940. Gillespie stayed with Teddy Hill's band for

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