Birks works trombone position chart4/21/2024 “I have always been inspired by his way of playing the trumpet,” says Morrison. “When, at the age of 8, I first heard a recording of his music, I was just astonished by what the trumpet could do,” says James Morrison, the celebrated Australian musician who was at the helm of an anniversary tribute concert held at London’s Royal Albert Hall on 4 August 2017, as part of the world-famous BBC Proms concert season. That vibrant persona and sheer technical virtuosity-with Gillespie’s trademark cheeks ballooning out bullfrog-like around the mouthpiece of his distinctive bent trumpet-make him a hard act for trumpeters to follow today. “The photographs that typify the bebop era are of Dizzy, with his beret and goatee beard,” says Gayford. “While Charlie Parker came up with the phrasing and the rhythmic approach, Gillespie’s contribution was more the technical side of the harmony and great showmanship.” Trumpeter James Morrison performs with the James Morrison Trio and the BBC Concert Orchestra under conductor John Mauceri at the 2017 BBC Proms. “Gillespie’s technique alarmed other trumpet players, particularly because he was playing so high.” “They were doing very difficult things,” explains British jazz and art critic Martin Gayford. Bebop is characterized by its high energy tempos and rapid key changes, complex chord progressions, and dazzling improvisations around a melody. Gillespie’s deep commitment to unity and justice expressed itself through the inclusive spirit that characterized his music and his interactions with people of all walks of life.īorn John Birks Gillespie in Cheraw, South Carolina, on 21 October 1917, Dizzy Gillespie was at the cutting edge of the bebop jazz phenomenon in the 1940s, often considered the most radical and vital music of its time. And Dizzy’s music specifically, when they say that the Prophet unleashes a new power in the universe, Dizzy’s concept of bebop…is a reflection of that.” Dizzy described jazz as a marriage between African rhythm and European harmony and so, if you look at that from a broader perspective, that’s a marriage between the black race and the white race. “Interracial mixing was way back when jazz first started. “Jazz is based on the same principles as the Baha’i Faith,” says Longo. I believed we all come from the same source, that no race of people is inherently superior to any other.” “When I encountered the Baha’i Faith, it all went along with what I had always believed. When Gillespie encountered the Baha’i Faith for the first time, after a concert in Milwaukee, he discovered that it immediately resonated with his thinking-and his music. “The night I joined the band was the night he heard about the Baha’i Faith,” says Longo. Both men were attracted to Baha’u’llah’s message of oneness and unity-principles that would lead them to embrace the Baha'i Faith. RSS | Spotify | Apple Podcasts | SoundCloud | Tunein | iHeart | Stitcherīut jazz was not the only uniting factor in Gillespie and Longo’s enduring friendship. Subscribe to the BWNS podcast for additional audio content. All music featured on the podcast comes from a concert Longo and Gillespie performed at in Osaka, Japan, in 1987 and was provided by Mike Longo. Robert Weinberg is a journalist who recently sat down with Dizzy Gillespie’s longtime friend and bandmate Mike Longo to talk about Gillespie’s life as a pioneering jazz musician and a member of the Baha’i Faith. IN DEPTH: Listen to an interview with Mike Longo Framed photographs capture the decades of a musical partnership that ranged from playing sold-out concerts in major venues to private practice sessions at Gillespie’s home in Englewood on the other side of the Hudson River. “His music is from such a deep place,” Longo says, scanning the walls of his apartment on Riverside Drive on Manhattan’s upper west side. “Dizzy represented an organic breakthrough in music,” asserts jazz pianist Mike Longo about Dizzy Gillespie, his late collaborator and friend. Reflecting on the life and accomplishments of this iconic figure 100 years after his birth would be incomplete without reflecting on the Baha’i belief that seemed most to inspire and drive his work-that all human beings are part of one family. NEW YORK - Dizzy Gillespie is remembered not only for his genius as a trumpeter who broke new ground in jazz but also for his long-standing dedication to the teachings of Baha’u’llah.
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