Dizzy Gillespie arranged and taught many bebop melodies to other musicians. He wrote out lines, riffs, interludes, and sometimes complete arrangements and often dictated what each instrument would play, even the rhythm section. Nevertheless, after everyone learned a part, he or she was given the freedom to add individual touches. He taught by giving examples of what could be done with the material at hand, but the vocabulary he helped develop was being worked out by musicians in many places.
How did swing relate to the popular song form of the 1930s and 1940s?
How is bebop influencing the artists of today's jazz, such as Wynton Marselis?
Dizzy Gillespie said in order to play your horn, you had to be able to play piano. Is that true?
Photographer Akos Szilvasi produced this portrait of Dizzy Gillespie in 1992.
