DIZZY GILLESPIE

[paul secor]

Perhaps I've missed it, but I did a search and didn't find any topic devoted to Dizzy Gillespie. There have been threads devoted to specific Dizzy recordings, and to his early career, but nothing devoted to the man's music as a whole. (If I've missed something, please post the link and I'll delete this topic.) I do have to say that I find it odd that Dizzy Gillespie seems to be somewhat overlooked these days - even on this Board.

Anyway, I'll start things by listing a couple of favorite - relatively later - Dizzy recordings:

An Electrifying Evening with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet (Verve) - This was the first Dizzy that I heard. (Actually, that's not true. The first Dizzy I heard was the 1945 Clyde Hart session that I bought on some budget label, but that wasn't really a Dizzy Gillespie record, and I didn't know what to make of it at the time.)

A friend belonged to a record club, forgot to return the do not send card one month, and ended up with a Dizzy Gillespie record that he didn't want. I bought it for 2 or 3 bucks, and it was love at first listen. Fireworks, intense emotions, and joyful spirits - what more could I ask from music when I was 17? What more could I ask from music now? I wore out that record playing it on a crappy turntable when I was in college - the good old days when I didn't have so many records and truly knew the music in my collection -

replaced it with a Japanese vinyl copy in the 80's, and still listen to it and enjoy it now.

Benny Carter & Dizzy Gillespie: Carter, Gillespie, Inc. (Pablo) - Unfortunate that the title reads like it should be on the door of a law firm. This is a record that has been overlooked, and when not overlooked, undervalued. Fine playing by two giants & elder statesmen of the music - especially fine playing by Dizzy. The fireworks are gone, replaced by more tempered playing - (exuberance giving way to thoughtfulness and gracefulness isn't necessarily a bad thing, except to young people), and the spirit and intense emotions are still there.

I'd also recommend reading Larry Kart's essay on Dizzy Gillespie in Jazz in Search of Itself to gain something of an understanding of the man in the music. Fine writing - the opening story is classic.

[Shrdlu]

Two more albums to check out:

"Charlie Parker 10th Memorial Concert", March 1965, Limelight label. The first two tracks are by Dizzy's quintet (a fine lineup at the time, too!) and he plays with a lot of energy. There are moments when he makes the hair on the back of my neck stand up - some high register passages that others could only imply. A lot of trumpeters can screech up high, but Diz (and Pops) could do it with a good tone. [There is a Japanese CD of this, with two extra tracks by the quintet, but the LP has the prime stuff.]

"Jambo Caribe", also Limelight (and there's a U.S. CD), from about the same time, with the same quintet. There is enough serious stuff on this to satisfy, and it is also a great sampler of Diz the entertainer.

[Hot Ptah]

Dizzy is a favorite of mine. It was relatively easy to see him live in the mid to late 1970s and 1980s. By then his chops were not consistently what they had once been, but he could still play quite well. I saw him once at the Jazz Showcase in Chicago in the spring of 1978 when he was just on fire, and playing with intensity and creativity for the entire evening--the equal of his recorded works from much earlier in his career. Other live sets from that time featured more of a relaxed performance with a good deal of clowning. I recall some great, beautiful ballad playing at Milwaukee's Summerfest outdoor festival in 1981, to a largely indifferent, beer swilling crowd.

His albums became uneven and not all that noteworthy some time in the later 1970s.

So, at the time when many posters on this board seem to have come to jazz, he was not at his career peak.

Some of my favorite Dizzy albums include:

1973's "The Giant" (with Johnny Griffin, Kenny Drew, NHOP and Kenny Clarke);

the aforementioned "Carter, Gillespie, Inc.", which is lovely and excellent;

"Afro Cuban Jazz Moods" with Machito, on Pablo from 1975--one of my all time favorite listens, especially the long first song which was Side 1 of the record;

the 1957 sessions with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt;

1961's "Perceptions";

the 1940s studio sessions with big band and small combo (some with Bird);

various live big band albums from the 1950s and 1960s--often very exciting.

Dizzy should not be ignored!

[marcello]

I've always been partial to Portait Of Jenny

Edited May 22, 2007 by marcello

[Dan Gould]

1973's "The Giant" (with Johnny Griffin, Kenny Drew, NHOP and Kenny Clarke);

Never heard of this one, since I love the Griff/Kenny Drew recordings I have, it sounds like one to seek out.

[mjzee]

An atypical date that I've always loved is "Digital At Montreaux 1980." A unique lineup: Dizzy, Toots Thielmans on guitar (only; no harmonica), and Pretty Purdie, drums. That's it. Bluesy, funky, unpretentious, and a lot of fun.

[Free For All]

I highly recommend this Jazz Icons DVD. Dizzy in 1958 with Stitt, Ray Brown, Lou Levy and Gus Johnson. Also a set from 1970 with the Clarke/Boland big band. The band is exceptionally tight and really nails the music. Ronnie Scott also plays his ass off.

[marcello]

1973's "The Giant" (with Johnny Griffin, Kenny Drew, NHOP and Kenny Clarke);

Never heard of this one, since I love the Griff/Kenny Drew recordings I have, it sounds like one to seek out.

There were two of them The Giant and The Source.

I have both and they are very good.

Maybe the last great Gillespie record was Bahiana.

[kh1958]

A few of my favorites not mentioned are:

The Cool World

Roy and Diz

Dizzy Gillespie in Paris (a 1952 live concert with Wage Legge on piano), and

The New Continent.

One of the first concerts I ever saw (in 1975, I think) was Dizzy Gillespie, leading a quartet featuring Al Gafa and Mickey Roker.

[marcello]

[Shawn]

One of my faves...

Both Griffin & Lockjaw on this one...

[king ubu]

Strange thing about Dizzy, somehow... I have plenty of discs and still... not many really live up, for me, even though all of them are at least good or very good, including all the material with the Moody/Barron and teh Wright/Schifrin bands (mostly mentioned already).

The meeting with Eldridge is indeed good fun. Also the date(s?) with Benny Carter (all of whom's Verve stuff is collected on "3,4,5", "Cosmopolite" and "Urbane" - would have made a great little box set, too!) are fine.

Then there's the late 40s big band (RCA, the Pleyel concert that was part of the Original Vogue Masters series, there's a US concert too, but that one I don't have), the small groups, the earlier stuff with Bird (where always Bird is much more interesting to me, Bird the genius, Dizzy the great companion, sort of). The early 50s stuff isn't all that great, though the small groups on the "Cognac Blues" Jazz in Paris disc are pretty nice (there's some more similar stuff on another Original Vogue Masters disc).

Anyway, I have all the Bird stuff, the Dizzy Odyssey 3CD set, the RCA 2CD set (some of that is great, but dull sound), the three Vogue discs (third is from 1952 or 53, mentioned above, I don't like it that much), plus the two Jazz in Paris (second one is a w/strings date, both of them have been compiled on a nice-looking 2CD by Universal France - amazon.fr via big-o link). All of this has some nice stuff, but none really is up on the level of, say, the Bud BN/Verve material, or the Bird Savoy/Dial stuff...

Then all the james - favourite is probably "Duets" (old Verve CD, not part of the Master Edition), but the others have their moments, too. "Sittin' In" (LPR) is a good one, and the date on the "Norman Granz Jam Sessions" box w/Dizzy is great, too. Never liked the Diz/Getz and Diz/Getz/Stitt that much, "Sonny Side Up" is better, I think.

THe 1957 big band: great, GREAT band, with Melba Liston, Al Grey, Billy Mitchell, Benny Golson, Wynton Kelly, Lee Morgan, and Charlie Persip showing how great a big band drummer he was - the 2CD set from Verve is nice, but again doesn't live up for me, the live set on Jazz Unlimited is much better, longer tunes, more room to breathe for the soloists (there's a second companion disc to that, don't have it, both are boots - fire away, I know JU is associated with a cherished label, but looks pretty booty to me, still... been there...)

(I just only got hold of a copy of the Newport '57 set, so I can't comment on that one, but I'm looking forward to hearing it - and the presence of Mary Lou Williams on two bonus cuts was an unexpected surprise!)

Then "Have Trumpet, Will Exite" (Verve Master Edition) is a rather unlikely one, with no other horn but that Spann chap on guitar (and maybe - second horn - on flute on a couple of tunes, don't remember). Not bad, either.

Then on to the Leo Wrigth/Lalo Schifrin band - "Gillspiana", "Carnegie Hall" (a twofer on Verve from the 90s when they still did it right), pretty nice. Also a live date from Paris in that series (likely at least 3 editions of that around, cheapest on that LaserLight label, I assume, pairing it with a set of the James Moody/Kenny Barron band).

After that maybe came his greatest working band, with Kenny Barron and the great James Moody (who can be heard on a couple of earlier dates already). Most of their albums have also been mentioned already, teh twofer with the soundtracks is indeed pretty good, the live one from Paris may be my favourite, though. And for kicks, shrdlu has mentioned it already, there's always the fun one on Limelight - some great latin stuff on that, and it's indeed good enough not to be just stoopid fun! (It's a Verve by Request - no idea about availability).

Then there's the great "Perceptions" - quite a departure from usual fare, a suite composed/arranged for Dizzy the star soloist by J.J. Johnson. This one came out as part of the great "Verve Elite Edition", was one of the more difficult ones for me to find, but definitely worth looking for! A great set of big band music with indeed a stellar soloist!

After all that, I'm not that Dizzy savvy anymore - "The Giant" (Griff is just on one tune, btw) came out in the Jazz in Paris series and is alright indeed, then there's the Impulse one that magniloquent Goldberg loves that much.

Another fine one recently came out in that euro Universal cheapo series, the Berlin 1968 big band set ("Live in Berlin", orig. on MPS, this recent series seems to be called "Jazz Club"), again a stellar band, but there's far too little music and far too few occasions for all the great musicians to step in front and play a solo.

As for Dizzy with the Clarke-Boland Big Band, I'll definitely have to get that DVD (having Lou Levy shall be fine, too!) some day. All I've heard of Diz w/CBBB is some live cuts here and there (boots, or rather R.O.I.O.'s as they're seem to be called nowadays).

Anyway, lunch break is over now. Summing up a few favourites:

- the two Dizzy dates w/Bird (part of the 8CD Savoy/Dial Bird box) & the Uptown Bird/Dizzy CD

- the Pleyel set of the late 40s be bop big band (John Brown - who was he, where went he?)

- Perceptions

- the Jazz Unlimited live set of the 1957 big band

- the Paris concert of the Moody/Barron quintet

- the session with Stuff Smith (part of the Smith Mosaic, also released on a great Verve 2CD set Smith/Gillepie/Oscar Peterson)

[king ubu]

oh yeah, and the Coltrane band belongs to the drab years between roughly 1950 and 1957 when he caught fire with the new big band again... (I'm sure the Getz/Diz will have its fans, sorry, no offense meant, I like the disc, like both headliners, but both did much better stuff on their own...)

some of it is on the "Odyssey" 3CD set, and there's about 2CDs full of live stuff from 51/52 as well, but that, too, is not exactly that great...

[Brad]

I'd recommend Dizzy Gillespie and His Sextets and Orchestra on Musicraft. It's been reissued as part of the 3 CD Savoy set.

For Musicians Only with Getz is classic, one of his best I think of the post bebop era.

Also Birk's Works, a double cd on Verve, is a must in my book.

Of his later work, there's Dizzy Gillespie's Big 4, which is not bad.

And there's always the Mosaic from last year. Great stuff.

[Hot Ptah]

I also think that Dizzy's duo album with Oscar Peterson on Pablo works well. He had the chops to keep from being wiped out by Oscar, and they achieved a sort of working truce on the recording, to good results. I do not think that the other Oscar duet albums on Pablo are nearly as good.

Dizzy solos well on Duke Ellington's "Jazz Party", on a few songs, most notably for me on "UMMG".

I think that one thing with Dizzy is that, like Art Tatum, his usual playing is so great, his chops and rhythmic conceptions are so off the charts, that you can get numb to it. If nearly any other trumpet player executes a run which is ho-hum for Dizzy, the listener sits up and thinks, "holy cow! what was that!"

[B. Clugston]

Those Diz-Sam Rivers Quintet dates on WCKR were great. I like a lot of Dizzy's small groups of the '80s.

One off-the-beaten-path Dizzy date I like is the Village Vanguard jam with Chick Corea, Pepper Adams, Ray Nance, Elvin Jones, etc.

[Hot Ptah]

A great, very exciting live big band album is "The Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Big Band Anniversary", recorded 1968 at the Berlin Jazz Festival, released 1969 as MPS 15207.

It was reissued in 1978 as "The Incredible Dizzy Gillespie" (MPS Jazz Time Vol. 6).

I heard a cut from it on the radio in 1978 and had to pull over and stop the car so that I could write down the name of the song and album.

[marcello]

[king ubu]

One off-the-beaten-path Dizzy date I like is the Village Vanguard jam with Chick Corea, Pepper Adams, Ray Nance, Elvin Jones, etc.

I just recently got hold of that one, finally!

A great, very exciting live big band album is "The Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Big Band Anniversary", recorded 1968 at the Berlin Jazz Festival, released 1969 as MPS 15207.

It was reissued in 1978 as "The Incredible Dizzy Gillespie" (MPS Jazz Time Vol. 6).

I heard a cut from it on the radio in 1978 and had to pull over and stop the car so that I could write down the name of the song and album.

That's the one I mentioned above, it's easily available on CD at this time, here it is on US Amazon via big-o: http://www.amazon.com/Live-Berlin-Dizzy-Gi...1711&sr=8-1

cover of the current edition:

[Shawn]

A great, very exciting live big band album is "The Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Big Band Anniversary", recorded 1968 at the Berlin Jazz Festival, released 1969 as MPS 15207.

Is this the date with Mickey Roker on drums?

[Niko]

A great, very exciting live big band album is "The Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Big Band Anniversary", recorded 1968 at the Berlin Jazz Festival, released 1969 as MPS 15207.

Is this the date with Mickey Roker on drums?

it has Candy Finch on drums iirc

[Shawn]

Oh yeah, good ole Otis on drums. Not sure what part of my brain I pulled Roker from...

[Peter Friedman]

There is so much great recorded music by Dizzy that it is hard to know what to say. But a great starting point would be the 2 cd set called "Dizzy Gillespie - The Complete RCA Victor Recordings".

I don't think anyone mentioned the very good 3 cd volumes on the CAP label of Dizzy's big band called "Dizzy in South America".

"Sonny Side Of The Street" on Verve is a strong favorite of mine. I also very much like the "Roy Eldridge and Dizzy Gillespie" date on Verve.

Have been listening of late to the recently released Dizzy Gillespie set on Mosiac which has reacquainted me with a lot of lovely music. Don't pass this one by!

[king ubu]

I've been playing loads of Dizzy recently, starting out with the earliest date in the Mosaic (with some mighty fine Mobley!), and then playing many of the Granz dates not part of the Mosaic, including the two long Granz Jam Sessions, the album with Getz, the one with Getz and Stitt, Afro, the Verve Big Band 2CD set, the boots from that band, and the great Newport 1957 album, Modern Jazz Sextet, the jam album with Hawkins, Getz and Gonsalves etc... and right now, I'm giving "Duets" a repeated spin... while I have finally connected with both Diz/Getz and "For Musicians Only", I still find "Duets" great and possibly the best of the lot, particularly for several terrific contributions by Sonny Rollins. 1956 certainly was a prime year of his!

[medjuck]

I'd recommend Dizzy Gillespie and His Sextets and Orchestra on Musicraft. It's been reissued as part of the 3 CD Savoy set.

For Musicians Only with Getz is classic, one of his best I think of the post bebop era.

Also Birk's Works, a double cd on Verve, is a must in my book.

Of his later work, there's Dizzy Gillespie's Big 4, which is not bad.

And there's always the Mosaic from last year. Great stuff.

I was driving in my car and on the radio heard "Bebop" from "For Musicians Only" and though "I gotta get that". Discovered it was o.o.p. but was able to find it from an Amazon seller at a reasonable price. Great record. Strangely Getz's playing on it reminds me of his playing on Focus though that's highly orchestrated and this seems like a jam session.