Dizzy Gillespie / Sonny Rollins / Sonny Stitt -"The Eternal Triangle"

Published on Mar 8, 2013
Sonny Side Up is an album by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie, and the tenor saxophonists Sonny Stitt and Sonny Rollins, recorded in December 1957 in New York City. It was released the following year on producer Norman Granz' just launched Verve label.

Pianist Ray Bryant, bassist Tommy Bryant, and drummer Charlie Persip provide the rhythm section.

Dizzy Gillespie records "Sonny Side Up"

On this day in 1957, Dizzy Gillespie records "Sonny Side Up" with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt #jazz pic.twitter.com/Bhq5qJUUnP

— The Jazz Gospel (@thejazzgospel) December 19, 2016

#DizzyGillespie

"It’s taken me all my life to learn what not to play." – Dizzy Gillespie #Dizzy #JazzLessons pic.twitter.com/UoLp7yGvdg

— JazzatLincolnCenter (@jazzdotorg) September 14, 2016

Bird & #DizzyGillespie

Bird & Dizzy Gillespie
Town Hall 1945
Harold Doc West, drums
Slam Stewart, basshttps://t.co/YUiSWnGi3P pic.twitter.com/mbShTFnjRB #jazz #bebop

— Sheri Chinen Biesen (@SheriBiesen) August 28, 2016

#UnseenColtrane / #DukeEllington and #DizzyGillespie ....

#UnseenColtrane / #DukeEllington and #DizzyGillespie in new book, Jazz Festival: Jim Marshall. https://t.co/Id1edc0Ts3 #NationalBookLoversDay

— Monterey Jazz (@MontereyJazz) August 9, 2016

Today at JazzWax .....

Today at JazzWax, fantastic video of Dizzy Gillespie and Sonny Stitt in 1958 #jazz #dizzy https://t.co/bsk5whzCFR pic.twitter.com/9YwAoAamMh

— Marc Myers (@JazzWax) August 5, 2016

Dizzy Gillespie les pieds dans l'eau

Dizzy Gillespie les pieds dans l'eau #Summertime #FeteDeLaMusique #ete2016 pic.twitter.com/VDh8lUKqaK

— Jazz in Marciac (@Jazz_in_Marciac) June 21, 2016

Dizzy With Ernie's Almost Big Band

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com

A few weeks ago, a Danish film went up on YouTube featuring Dizzy Gillespie with saxophonist-arranger Ernie Wilkins' Almost Big Band in 1983. What makes this film fascinating is the behind-the-scenes banter and rehearsal in advance of their concert at the Tivoli Gardens in Copenhagen, Denmark. Here's the film...

- See more at: http://www.jazzwax.com/2013/06/dizzy-with-ernies-almost-big-band.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=email&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+Jazzwax+%28JazzWax%29#sthash.ydIUmhmv.dpuf
Used with permission by Marc Myers

Thelonious Monk, Dizzy Gillespie, Giants Of Jazz Copenhagen 1971

Nat Hentoff on Dizzy Gillespie....

Reprinted from http://jazzwax.com/

Nat Hentoff on Dizzy Gillespie

"In the 1980s, there was to be a concert at Lincoln Center honoring [trumpeter] Dizzy Gillespie. He and a big band were, of course, to be at the center of the celebration. A few days before, I went to a rehearsal. Everyone was there except Dizzy. [Photo of Dizzy Gillespie in 1963]

"No music was played. The only sounds were a bitter argument between Max Roach and Gerry Mulligan [pictured]. Each had some compositions on the program, and at the start the argument was about who was to have more of his pieces played. Then it became very personal and poisonous.

"The other musicians, all of them renowned, either looked down at the their music in embarrassment or found a place on the ceiling in order to avoid, God forbid, meeting the eyes of the combatants. The tension in the room got fiercer and fiercer. [Photo: Nat Hentoff]

"In the back, Dizzy, who had not moved, was watching. Then he strode to the front of the band, spread out a score, and said 'Letter B, we'll start at letter B.'

"He had filled the room with reasonableness without getting involved in the battle. Most of the leaders I've known through the years would have scolded the antagonists for wasting valuable rehearsal time and acting like children. But Dizzy, by his very presence, had broken the tension. [Photo: Thelonious Monk and Dizzy Gillespie]

"Of course, he had for so many years earned the respect of the musicians, but so had other leaders, who would have added to the tension. Softly, being able to relax now, an alto saxophonist blew the rest of the bad feelings out the door, as he played, I'll Always Be in Love With You. Even Max and Gerry laughed." [Photo of Max Roach by Richard Laird]

—Nat Hentoff in 1995 from "Dizzy in the Sunlight" from The Nat Hentoff Reader (Da Capo Press)

http://www.jazzwax.com/2010/09/nat-hentoff-on-dizzy-gillespie.html

Used with permission by Marc Myers

Dizzy Gillespie Rhythmic Secret Revealed!

JAZZ RESEARCH NEWS BULLETIN Announcing:
The Release Of A Fantastic New Product That Will Revolutionize The Way You Think About And Play Jazz…Guaranteed!

“What young jazz musicians need now, and more than ever before, is jazz apprenticeship with 'elder statesmen,' outside of the context of the four walls of the collegiate corporate empire and its connected political machine.  Apprenticeship is a wise and frugal way to learn this great music.  Young jazz musicians must seek out wiser and older musicians who will teach them the trade of being a jazz musician as well as the fundamentals of their respective instrument in relation to the tradition, while encouraging individuality in the entire process.”

Although it was intended as a spoof, it nevertheless brought some very thought-provoking insights into the open.  It can be read in its entirety by going to the following website:
(http://www.allaboutjazz.com/php/article.php?id=26239)

There is no question about it, the breakdown of the apprenticeship system that occurred in jazz around the 80s has impacted it in such a way that jazz, as an art form, has virtually lost its audience.  This comes in the wake of jazz clubs around the world going under at an alarming rate due to lack of attendance, while so called “jazz festivals” have resorted to booking acts that more or less resemble rock and roll or hip hop music rather than jazz in the traditional sense, and publications like the Wall Street Journal releasing articles proclaiming jazz to be “dead.”

There are those of course who will argue “the face of jazz has changed…get used to it!”  This, however, fails to take into account the idea that if you are going to replace something, it should be replaced by something that is better.  Not as good is unacceptable!  As the late Igor Stravinsky once stated, “No new music comes from anything but the tradition.”

His point being that music moves forward by musicians digesting the “tradition” while allowing the music to evolve on its own to the next level. The false prophet can always be distinguished from the true prophecy by the fruits produced by their position.   The negative “fruits” outlined in the previous paragraph can be attributed to the argument quoted above stating that “the face of jazz has changed . . . ”

Jazz pianist/composer Mike Longo, who was a student of Oscar Peterson and served for many years as Dizzy Gillespie’s pianist and musical director, has stated “although we have some great jazz educators and wonderful jazz departments across the country, there is a certain ingredient that, in my estimation, needs to be added to the curriculum.” Longo is alluding to the rhythmic concepts espoused by Dizzy Gillespie, and picked up by Longo through his long association with the Master.  Longo has been relating these ideas in master classes at different universities to the delight of students and educators who seem awe struck by the revolutionary ideas he has put forth, as well as the manner in which he presents his program.

This led producer Andrew Schoenfeld to hire a film crew to film one of these lectures at a recent appearance at a Connecticut University which has been now been released as the first in a series of four DVDs which teach the concepts of rhythm that Longo learned from Gillespie and may very well prove to be the missing link in jazz education that will eradicate the problems mentioned earlier.

This provocative and enlightening DVD entitled “The Rhythmic Nature of Jazz” is now available to you through Consolidated Artists Productions, Inc. on their website at http://www.jazzbeat.com/ (Click on “Newsroom.”)

Upon experiencing the demonstrations presented during this lecture you will become aware of the concepts that produced the pulsating, driving rhythms that fueled the music of jazz greats like Diz, Miles, Bird, Coltrane, Cannonball and others. This will aid you greatly in your ability to preserve this rich tradition and reverse a trend towards an impotent sound that results from a metronomic time conception producing music that, although it is jazz influenced, has more of a classical vibe to it.

Longo points out to you the difference between experiential knowledge and intellectual knowledge, which is precisely what is passed on through the “apprenticeship”, alluded to earlier.  What you will now have is a marvelous tool for communicating these principles to your students through the techniques outlined in the course.  Prior attempts at pedagogy relating to rhythm and timing have been approached through “feelings and imagination”, a concept that will be proven to have been innocently false by the material presented in this DVD.

Dizzy Gillespie, when asked what his music was about, replied, “Absolute love for every man woman and child on the planet.”  This was the vibe in his music and now you can find out what forces were in place to produce this vibe.

You actually will learn the physics of producing the “life force” and applying it to produce a most glorious and powerful music Pianist extraordinaire Hal Galper, who is on the faculty at the SUNY/Purchase jazz department, appears in a You Tube master class presentation where he points out that the biggest problem facing jazz education today is the inability to teach the concept of syncopation.  He goes on to point out that there is no pedagogy on the subject and mentions that the closest thing to it is a book by Longo entitled “How to Sight Read Jazz and Other Syncopated Type Rhythms.”  Now, at last, this problem will be solved for you with this provocative set of DVDs.

You can now help yourself and your students return to the passion-arousing music that turned on jazz fans of the past.  By experiencing the sensual gratification produced by the polyrhythmic and polymetric jazz of the great jazz masters such as Bird and Diz, you can pass this experiential knowledge on to your students, protecting them from slipping into much of the lifeless “head” music that has practically eliminated the jazz audience and caused former jazz fans to proclaim that the music they hear in clubs and festivals today often sounds “dead”.

Now you and your students will be exposed to and in contact with the very forces that gave jazz its power in the past, allowing you to bring back the life force associated with the art form that America gave to the world, to the people.

Although there has always been a certain amount of corruption associated with the business of jazz, the jazz of the past had a business ethic of selling the music to the general public.  This was done through record sales, tickets to concerts, cover charges and the sale of food and beverages in jazz venues.

The musicians were paid a wage for providing the music that drew the people to these outlets and entertained them in such a way that brought them back for more.  This environment created what became known as the jazz buff or jazz fan. What this has given way to today is a situation in which jazz education is turning out 6000 new jazz musicians a year and no new listeners or fans.

One of the major reasons for this is the absence of the principles alluded to in this provocative DVD.  The money being made in “jazz” today is primarily being made from the musicians themselves instead of the public.  The various forms this practice has taken is anything from the tuitions paid to various jazz education facilities turning out students with a bleak (if any) prospect of earning a living from what they have learned, to the various “jazz venues” in New York that have musicians playing for free.

There is a prevailing attitude among many club owners there, that these young musicians should be “thankful that they are being provided with a venue to perform their music.”  Even though every business venture carries with it a certain amount of risk and a certain investment in advertising to promote it, these unscrupulous club owners are demanding that musicians assume the risks, that surely should belong to the club owners.

They expect the musicians to spend their own money and efforts to advertise their performances. If the musician is unwilling or unable to do this the risk exists of not drawing people and having the venue withdraw its offer of the “privilege” to play their venue for free, while the owners profit from the door charges and sale of food and beverages. Entrance fees to the various “jazz competitions” is yet another way monies are being made from musicians offering false hopes of a “bright career” that awaits them.

All of this has resulted from music being made that is not satisfying to the people and which would cause them to want to support an art form that used to give them so much pleasure.  The ingredients necessary for restoring this public enthusiasm in jazz are the very principles pointed out in this informational and highly educational DVD.

In these times of musicians clawing to get recognition and acceptance it will be those who stand out from the crowd who will be noticed. Once you and your students begin reaching the people again with the kind of jazz that touches them on a deep level, your odds for having a successful career as a jazz performer will be greatly increased.

During these times, jazz as a performing art has given way to a “jazz in the classroom” scenario whereby the only avenue for an income related to jazz is the teaching profession where the same sterile information that was initially learned in the classroom is passed on to the next generation.  Many of the performance situations these days are played to a handful of people consisting of friends and family with music that may be intellectually stimulating but lacks the energy of jazz that was able to sustain a real fan base in the past.

With the information passed on through this DVD series, the opportunity presents itself for you and your students to move into a healthier existence as performers earning an income that enables one to have a successful family life. Wouldn’t you want to be able to sustain this through performing music that reaches people in a way that they will want to spend money once again to hear it?

Hilary Gardner, vocalist currently appearing on Broadway in the Twyla Tharp musical “Come Fly Away” said, “Working with the drum and Mike’s approach to rhythm has transformed my singing on both conscious and unconscious levels.”

Pianist and singer Anne Maronchik, currently working in the New York City area said, “What Mike’s teaching has done for my playing has profoundly affected my time.”

Alden Banta, multi-woodwind instrumentalist currently working on Broadway, said, “I came to see Mike and had no idea of what I was about to experience. In my first lesson he pulled out a drum and showed me some things I had never heard of before, and that was the beginning of what I feel like was my musical education.”

Trumpeter John LeJoi, recent graduate of the masters program at NYU said, “Mike’s rhythmic idea, I believe is one of the most important things that I’ve learned and has really opened up another whole world in terms of my playing.”

Classical violinist and jazz pianist Gail Reeke said, “Mike Longo has developed a very effective way to teach the ‘swing’ in jazz, which is otherwise so elusive and such a challenge for aspiring artists to master.  The exercises work amazingly well!”

Former student and famous  jazz guitarist Adam Rafferty said, "The knowledge contained in Mike Longo's Rhythmic Concepts DVD is golden and is the foundation of my rhythmic concept.  Touch, time tone and groove are the backbone of my concept as a guitarist.  I owe much of my musical and financial success to Mike and his profound teachings. This is required knowledge for all musicians -- that means you.  Mike's ability to put this groove magic into words and teachable terminology is a gift for all of us mortals.  Don't sleep on this!!!"

World renowned jazz saxophonist Bennie Wallace said, “What Mike brought from working with Dizzy Gillespie is really what makes it jazz and really makes it distinctive and this is the part that is always missing from jazz education.”

NEA Jazz Master James Moody said, “Don’t hesitate one minute…get this NOW!”

You will now be in possession of the very information necessary to return things like the jam session into a fun and successful group interaction instead of the competitive and negative environment it has now become amongst young people.

This is something you simply cannot afford to be without!  For more insights about what is contained in this powerful and provocative series go to the following You Tube pages.


Why waste time and money on a trip downtown to a music store searching for this product when you can have the potent information provided in this DVD series brought right to your door by the postman?
From: Jazz Promo Services
http://www.jazzpromoservices.com/

The following is from an article by pianist James Gordon Williams that appeared as a spoof in All About Jazz-New York magazine, based on the idea that Benjamin Franklin, by means of a time machine, came back and wrote the article from his observations of the current jazz scene.1) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=IUH16d8oEwE2) http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qt70Ewh1Nwg

David Amram with Dizzy Gillespie

David Amram, Dizzy Gillespie, Roy Haynes: PBS Tribute to Thelonius Monk

Dizzy Gillespie, Arturo Sandoval,"Night in Tunisia"

This was a live recording of Dizzy and friends in Havana in 1985. "Night in Tunisia" was composed by Dizzy in 1942.

In 1n 1985, Dizzy Gillespie returned to Cuba after an absence of 40 years. He was one of the first American jazz musicians to add Afro-Cuban elements to his music, and Cubans to his big band. Most notably, in the 40s, was percussionist, Chano Pozo.

A then-young Arturo Sandoval (trumpet) and Gonzalo Rubalcaba (piano) sit in with Dizzy's band. Bari sax player, Sayyd Abdul al-Khabbyr, is remarkable. Walter Davis is on in this number.Great fun!

Dizzy Gillespie - Chega de Saudade

Dizzy Gillespie.....

by Scott Yanow
Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis' emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated. Somehow, Gillespie could make any "wrong" note fit, and harmonically he was ahead of everyone in the 1940s, including Charlie Parker. Unlike Bird, Dizzy was an enthusiastic teacher who wrote down his musical innovations and was eager to explain them to the next generation, thereby insuring that bebop would eventually become the foundation of jazz.

Dizzy Gillespie was also one of the key founders of Afro-Cuban (or Latin) jazz, adding Chano Pozo's conga to his orchestra in 1947, and utilizing complex poly-rhythms early on. The leader of two of the finest big bands in jazz history, Gillespie differed from many in the bop generation by being a masterful showman who could make his music seem both accessible and fun to the audience. With his puffed-out cheeks, bent trumpet (which occurred by accident in the early '50s when a dancer tripped over his horn), and quick wit, Dizzy was a colorful figure to watch. A natural comedian, Gillespie was also a superb scat singer and occasionally played Latin percussion for the fun of it, but it was his trumpet playing and leadership abilities that made him into a jazz giant.

The youngest of nine children, John Birks Gillespie taught himself trombone and then switched to trumpet when he was 12. He grew up in poverty, won a scholarship to an agricultural school (Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina), and then in 1935 dropped out of school to look for work as a musician. Inspired and initially greatly influenced by Roy Eldridge, Gillespie (who soon gained the nickname of "Dizzy") joined Frankie Fairfax's band in Philadelphia. In 1937, he became a member of Teddy Hill's orchestra in a spot formerly filled by Eldridge.

Dizzy made his recording debut on Hill's rendition of "King Porter Stomp" and during his short period with the band toured Europe. After freelancing for a year, Gillespie joined Cab Calloway's orchestra (1939-1941), recording frequently with the popular bandleader and taking many short solos that trace his development; "Pickin' the Cabbage" finds Dizzy starting to emerge from Eldridge's shadow. However, Calloway did not care for Gillespie's constant chance-taking, calling his solos "Chinese music." After an incident in 1941 when a spitball was mischievously thrown at Calloway (he accused Gillespie but the culprit was actually Jonah Jones), Dizzy was fired.

By then, Gillespie had already met Charlie Parker, who confirmed the validity of his musical search. During 1941-1943, Dizzy passed through many bands including those led by Ella Fitzgerald, Coleman Hawkins, Benny Carter, Charlie Barnet, Fess Williams, Les Hite, Claude Hopkins, Lucky Millinder (with whom he recorded in 1942), and even Duke Ellington (for four weeks). Gillespie also contributed several advanced arrangements to such bands as Benny Carter, Jimmy Dorsey, and Woody Herman; the latter advised him to give up his trumpet playing and stick to full-time arranging.

Dizzy ignored the advice, jammed at Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House where he tried out his new ideas, and in late 1942 joined Earl Hines' big band. Charlie Parker was hired on tenor and the sadly unrecorded orchestra was the first orchestra to explore early bebop. By then, Gillespie had his style together and he wrote his most famous composition "A Night in Tunisia." When Hines' singer Billy Eckstine went on his own and formed a new bop big band, Diz and Bird (along with Sarah Vaughan) were among the members. Gillespie stayed long enough to record a few numbers with Eckstine in 1944 (most noticeably "Opus X" and "Blowing the Blues Away"). That year he also participated in a pair of Coleman Hawkins-led sessions that are often thought of as the first full-fledged bebop dates, highlighted by Dizzy's composition "Woody'n You."

1945 was the breakthrough year. Dizzy Gillespie, who had led earlier bands on 52nd Street, finally teamed up with Charlie Parker on records. Their recordings of such numbers as "Salt Peanuts," "'Shaw Nuff," "Groovin' High," and "Hot House" confused swing fans who had never heard the advanced music as it was evolving; and Dizzy's rendition of "I Can't Get Started" completely reworked the former Bunny Berigan hit. It would take two years for the often frantic but ultimately logical new style to start catching on as the mainstream of jazz. Gillespie led an unsuccessful big band in 1945 (a Southern tour finished it), and late in the year he traveled with Parker to the West Coast to play a lengthy gig at Billy Berg's club in L.A. Unfortunately, the audiences were not enthusiastic (other than local musicians) and Dizzy (without Parker) soon returned to New York.

The following year, Dizzy Gillespie put together a successful and influential orchestra which survived for nearly four memorable years. "Manteca" became a standard, the exciting "Things to Come" was futuristic, and "Cubana Be/Cubana Bop" featured Chano Pozo. With such sidemen as the future original members of the Modern Jazz Quartet (Milt Jackson, John Lewis, Ray Brown, and Kenny Clarke), James Moody, J.J. Johnson, Yusef Lateef, and even a young John Coltrane, Gillespie's big band was a breeding ground for the new music. Dizzy's beret, goatee, and "bop glasses" helped make him a symbol of the music and its most popular figure. During 1948-1949, nearly every former swing band was trying to play bop, and for a brief period the major record companies tried very hard to turn the music into a fad.

By 1950, the fad had ended and Gillespie was forced, due to economic pressures, to break up his groundbreaking orchestra. He had occasional (and always exciting) reunions with Charlie Parker (including a fabled Massey Hall concert in 1953) up until Bird's death in 1955, toured with Jazz at the Philharmonic (where he had opportunities to "battle" the combative Roy Eldridge), headed all-star recording sessions (using Stan Getz, Sonny Rollins, and Sonny Stitt on some dates), and led combos that for a time in 1951 also featured Coltrane and Milt Jackson. In 1956, Gillespie was authorized to form a big band and play a tour overseas sponsored by the State Department.

It was so successful that more traveling followed, including extensive tours to the Near East, Europe, and South America, and the band survived up to 1958. Among the young sidemen were Lee Morgan, Joe Gordon, Melba Liston, Al Grey, Billy Mitchell, Benny Golson, Ernie Henry, and Wynton Kelly; Quincy Jones (along with Golson and Liston) contributed some of the arrangements. After the orchestra broke up, Gillespie went back to leading small groups, featuring such sidemen in the 1960s as Junior Mance, Leo Wright, Lalo Schifrin, James Moody, and Kenny Barron.

He retained his popularity, occasionally headed specially assembled big bands, and was a fixture at jazz festivals. In the early '70s, Gillespie toured with the Giants of Jazz and around that time his trumpet playing began to fade, a gradual decline that would make most of his '80s work quite erratic. However, Dizzy remained a world traveler, an inspiration and teacher to younger players, and during his last couple of years he was the leader of the United Nation Orchestra (featuring Paquito D'Rivera and Arturo Sandoval). He was active up until early 1992. Dizzy Gillespie's career was very well documented from 1945 on, particularly on Musicraft, Dial, and RCA in the 1940s; Verve in the 1950s; Philips and Limelight in the 1960s; and Pablo in later years.

"...what carried the show is this sharp-eared outfit's easy communication, it's seemingly offhanded mastery of some of jazz's trickiest and most stimulating music". Gene Santoro - New York Daily News
"It was a showcase of virtuosity and personality, as the Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars blew and scatted their way through 'the man' and his music... When this outfit trades solos in cruise-control, it's a total slice of heaven." Jay Meehan - The Park Record
"They started off with 'Salt Peanuts' and never looked back. It was tight and loose and in your face." Valerie Cruice - New York Times
http://dizzygillespie.org/
www.allmusic.com

Dizzy Gillespie - One Note Samba

Dizzy's Club Coca Cola

marvelous meeting....

Dizzy Gillespie
Woody Herman
Harry "Sweets" Edison
Al Cohn
Urbie Green
Buddy Tate