Dizzy Gillespie – Verve Jazz Masters 10 (1993)
Dizzy Gillespie was a name I'd known since childhood, and a boy called Gillespie at school was nicknamed Dizzy, but until investigating jazz, I believed him to be an early rock and roller like Chubby Checker.
Looking at the cover photo, it reminds me that one of the reasons my mum cited for not letting me learn the trumpet was the permanent deformation of the cheeks it would cause (rather than the awful din she'd have to put up with). I can see where she got that idea.
So, this is a cheap compilation, that I've no idea where I got it. It's recordings from 1954 - 1963, all of fairly good quality. I wasn't expecting too much but I've been pleasantly surprised by how much I've enjoyed it. Much of it is quite generic jazz, the earlier recordings having more of a big band sound, with more of a bebop style to the later. There are pieces reminiscent of the pounding beat of early Sun Ra (Manteca) African influences (A Night In Tunisia, Africana and Swing Low Sweet Cadillac) and a Latin jazz feel to all of them.
But my definite favourite is Con Alma, a beautiful samba type beat and fantastic soloing round some intricate key changes, from Gillespie on trumpet, eclipsed by Sonny Stitt on saxophone. It's the one Gillespie composition that stands out as a jazz great here, having become a standard throughout the jazz scene.
This is something I'll certainly return to, and probably seek out more of Gillespie's work.
3* - an excellent introduction to Gillespie's work
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