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About Portland observer. (Portland, Or.) 1970-current | View Entire Issue (Jan. 28, 1982)
Page 6 Portland Observer, January 28, 1982 entertainment HAPPENINGS ENTERTAINMENT Jazz man brings bent horn to town Dizzy Gillespie, the man with the tilted trumpet, the swooning sounds and the bubbled cheeks, said that he may not be the best trumpet player there is, but he does have a way with words. “ H ow can you judge the best when you have not seen the best,'* he questioned in a gravelly voice. “ I may not be the best trumpet player in the world, but I can match bull with anybody else." For more than $0 years, Gillespie has been trumpeting the jazz sound and innovating new ones. Gillespie, born in Cherwaw, S .C ., said that jazz was the music o f Black culture, born from A fric a n heritage and adapted to the days o f slavery. Jazz was also evolutionary and progressive; more than that, it was a m ixture o f everything, G illespie said. John Birks Gillespie’s music has Cuban spice because o f its similarity to African music, he said. D izzy, w ell-know n fo r his "bebop,” which he said is still pres ent in whatever form o f music he plays, said he would like to play more arrangements w ith* sym phonies. He said, “ T h a t’ s to let them know there is something else besides 1800 music. DIZZY GILLESPIE “ I t ’s no bother to us because we Dizzy Gillespie will be at the Sheraton Showplace Feb. 1 thru Feb. arc groovers. We can go along with 6. 1982. He will give 2 (two) shows nightly. 8 pm and 11 pm, Mon. them, they can’t go along with us.” thru Sat. Tickets $9 and $10. For information call 288-7171. Gillespie said his music was part The 1940s were the years when his From the opening number, Gilles o f the American culture, but not a reputation as a player and arranger pie provided the tasteful phrasing, multi-million-dollar success story. made their mark. Gillespie has been the blazing pyrotechnics and the " It would surprise me dearly. I ’d associated w ith many bands, in rhythm ic and melodic com plexity be happy to sell half a m illion," he cluding those o f E lla Fitzg erald , that jazz lovers have come to expect said. C ab C allo w ay , Les H ite , W oody from this trumpet virtuoso. He has Instead o f millions. Gillespie said Herman, and Billy Eckstein. astonishing technical facility, but, he sought something more lasting. He was linked with saxophonist more than th a t, he knows what " I ’ll be a great humanitarian. A Charlie "Yardbird” Parker, pianist notes to play, when to play them, legacy o f oneness, oneness o f man Thelonius Monk and Kenny Clarke and where to put them. Gillespie can kind," he said. in this time period also. fill the air with a flurry o f sound, or Jazz. What would Dizzy be with Gillespie, Parker and M onk are he can bide his time, playing short out it? At age two and a half he was mentioned most as the innovators phrases or single notes only he could playing single notes on the piano. At who rejuvenated the dance beats o f have imagined and yet which, once 13 he won a music scholarship to Swing into the fast and flatted fifth played, seem absolutely perfect, as Laurinburg Institute in Laurinburg, note chords o f be-bop. He also in if they could not have been played N .C . troduced Afro-Cuban rhythms with any other way. Gillespie said that as he grew old compositions like " A Night in Tuni In short, the Dizzy Gillespie Band er, it got harder to keep ahead o f sia” and “ Salt Peanuts.” was b rillian t, entertaining and de jazz. In 1956 Gillespie was honored as lightful. Gillespie’s young sidemen “ You never catch up to your the first jazz leader to represent the are fine, skilled musicians, and. o f s e lf,’ ’ he said. “ You learn every U n ited States D epartm ent on an course, Gillespie him self is every d ay." And you say, why didn’t I do overseas tour o f goodwill. His band thing one would expect a living leg that 50 years ago?” conducted two tours that year in the end to be. And a little bit more. Gillespie has been touted as the Far East and in Latin America. Even though G illespie is a p composer and virtuoso player who H e has continued to tou r since proaching what most people con revolutionized the jazz world in the then. H is honors and awards in sider to be retirement age, his pow 1940s and ’ 50s with his “ be-bop” clude doctorate degrees from Rut ers show no sign o f diminishing. His music. gers U n iversity and the Chicago three great qualities— intelligence, Incidentally, the 63-year-old Che Conservatory o f Music. He has re technique and energy— remain in raw native has entitled his autobiog ceived the H andel M e d a llio n , tact, and by surrounding him self raphy, " T o Be or not to Bop.” G ram m y A w ard 1975, N atio n al w ith spirited young musicians he The nicknam e “ D izzy ” stuck M usic A w a rd , and the D ownbeat guarantees that he will not soon ab when Gillespie carried his trumpet C ritics P oll A w a rd . G illespie has dicate his preem inent position around in a paper bag. The horn ac also made appearances at the Tenth among trumpeters. quired its unusual shape, with the A n niversary o f Independence in The only com plaint one could bell pointing at a near 90-degree Kenya and at the W hite House for have about his performance is that, angle when someone sat on it. G il the President. because they are so good, he a l lespie liked the end result. " A musician who says he doesn’t lowed his colleagues too much solo His father, who was an amateur need the audience is either crazy or space. The more Gillespie the better. musician, introduced Gillespie to too high.” Dizzy Gillespie is to jazz as Sig ja zz at an early age. D izzy began Having made that statement from mund Freud is to psychology and playing trombone when he was 14 the stage, the legendary Dizzy G il Albert Einstein is to physics. and switched to trum pet a year lespie went on to prove that we need He was and continues to be a rev later when he received a scholarship him as much as he needs us. olutionary who, like Freud and Ein- to the Laurinburg Institute. A fter decades on the jazz scene, sten, changed his chosen field fo r He has been tooting his horn ever Gillespie can still provide a special ever. Every jazz musician since the since. brand o f music which is th rillin g , early 1940s has had to come to terms In the late 1930s when he was 19 masterful and joyous. There is no he played trumpet with the Teddy with him and with his work. M o d one quite like him. H ill Band. ern music would not be what it is if Dizzy Gillespie had never picked up a trumpet and decided to play jazz. John Birks G illespie has been a musician since 1935, and over the years he has played w ith all the greats o f jazz. W ith the legendary C harlie “ B ird” Parker, Bud Pow ell, Charles Mingus and others, he helped to create the music which was to be called “ bop,” a new kind o f jazz based on the original music o f New Orleans but which placed new demands on musicians and lis teners alike. While the traditional jazz o f Jelly Roll Morton and Louis Armstrgong was fairly simple, bop was harmoni cally and rhythmically complex, and it called for virtuosity on the part of those who played it. W hen G illespie and P arker started playing their music in the early ’40s, many critics and musi cians could not "hear” it; to the ear that was accustomed to Armstrong or H arry James and Benny G ood man, bop seemed to make no sense. And unlike earlier jazz forms, bop was not dance music; like the "seri ous” classics, G ille s p ie ’ s music called for careful listening. M ost revolutions begin slowly and with difficulty, and the bop rev olution was no exception. Talking by phone from his home in New Jer sey, G illespie spoke about those The Education Department of I.B.P.O.E. ita early days. " W e d id n ’ t really th in k about making some kind o f revolution at that tim e. W e were just trying to ‘ find a new way o f phrasing the mu sic. you know, and we didn’t expect anybody to be upset. But when you have a new idea, you always get 10th Annual Mardi Gras Ball S a tu rd a y, Feb. 13th H o lid ay In n , 10 N . W ie d le r flack." G illespie and P a rker did “ get fla c k ,” even from the m ild -m a n nered Louis A rm s tro n g , who claimed that bop was not music. Through the late ’30s and early ’40s, Gillespie moved from one band to ano th er, from Teddy H ill to Cab Calloway to C harlie Barnet to Les H ite . But it was only in the E arl “ F a ,h a ” Hines big band o f 1943 that he was allowed to be himself. Hines encouraged the younger musi cians, and in that band, G illespie joined Parker, Benny Harris. Benny Green and others who were trying to play jazz in a new way. After work ing with the Billy Eckstine big band the following year. Dizzy formed his own small combo and later his own orchestra. These bands cut the firs, classic bop records, and by the 1950s, G illespie and P arker were acknowledged masters, and their music was jazz. Everyone was listen ing. Since that tim e. G illespie has played with small combos and big bands, and many younger musicians have gotten their start under his leadership. He has w ritten many classic jazz tunes, and he has done everything a jazz musician could do, from film soundtracks to symphon ic concerts. He was the firs , ja zz musician to tour for the U .S . State Department as a good will ambassa dor, and he has played in almost ev ery country in the world. Gillespie's talent is so all-encom passing that he can incorporate the music o f others into his own style without compromising his own in tegrity or that o f his source. His ar rangement o f the Israeli folk tune, “ The Land o f M ilk and H o n e y ,” was brilliant, as was his rendition o f W .C . H an d y’ s classic, “ St. Louis Blues.” Looking back over his career, G il lespie talked about some o f his fa vorite moments, most o f them pre- served on records Donation: 16.00 Music by Tha Staple Brothers hair designs T f Presents Revlon Platform A rtis t Marie Edwards fro m : Paris London Los Angeles ■■■■■■■■■■■■■■ PRO STYLE SHOP 917 S.W. 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