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
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