Dizzy Gillespie - "And Then She Stopped" (1966)

With the great James Moody on flute!

Vintage Dizzy

Dizzy Gillespie: Live in '58 & '70 (2006), part of the Jazz Icons series of DVDs, presents another gem with these two concerts of Dizzy Gillespie. In the earlier date from Belgium, Gillespie is in a small group setting - a fantastic quintet with Sonny Stitt on sax, Lou Levy on piano, Ray Brown on bass, and Gus Johnson on drums. The hip repertoire includes “Blues After Dark” (penned by Benny Golson), “Blues Walk” (Clifford Brown’s ultra-cool favorite), and the standard “Cocktails for Two.” Gillespie is his ebullient self throughout, but it is Stitt who gets the chance to shine, blowing some powerful solos on tenor. He is featured on a wonderful torchy version of “Lover Man.” Dizzy and Sonny belt out a comical vocal on “On the Sunny Side of the Street.”

The 1970 date is from Denmark, where we see Dizzy fronting the Francy Boland/Kenny Clarke Big Band. In addition to Boland on piano and Clarke on drums, the group included, among others, Billie Mitchell and Ronnie Scott on tenor sax; Art Farmer and Idrees Sulieman on trumpet; Jimmy Woode on bass; and Sahib Shihab on baritone. The band may be big, but they produce a wonderfully tight sound on some complex blues and bop arrangements. Gillespie is at ease blowing on all. A couple of Gillespie originals are featured, his Afro-Cuban influenced “Con Alma” and “Manteca.” A special highlight is a smoky, noirish version of Jimmy Woode’s “Now Hear My Meanin’.”

Throughout, the visuals are excellent and intimately close to the performers. The sound is crisp and crackling. Here's a sample - "Blues After Dark" from the 1958 gig.

Dizzy Gillespie - "No More Blues" (1966)

Featuring the late, great James Moody on sax.

A Groovier Thing - Dizzy for President!

With the midterm elections behind us and the rumors and prognostications already starting for the presidential election of 2012, let’s hope and pray for an inspiring candidate like the one we had in 1964. No, not Barry Goldwater or Lyndon B. Johnson - I mean John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie!

     Dizzy’s presidential run began as something of a lark, and it never really developed much beyond that stage. A bunch of “Dizzy Gillespie for President” buttons had been created several years before for an unrelated publicity campaign. Jean Gleason, the wife of jazz critic Ralph Gleason, seems to have been the chief instigator of the campaign, mainly out of a desire for an alternative to the arch-conservative Goldwater other than LBJ. As Dizzy stated, “I was the only choice for the thinking man.”

     She organized college rallies in California - at the University of the Pacific, San Francisco State, U.C. Berkeley, and elsewhere - and attempted to get Dizzy’s name on the ballot. There was even a “Dizzy for President” birthday ball on October 21, 1963, at Basin Street West in San Francisco. At a rally in East Menlo Park, Dizzy’s official campaign song was unveiled. Sung to the tune “Salt Peanuts,” it included the following lyrics:

Your politics ought to be a groovier thing

Vote Dizzy! Vote Dizzy!

So get a good President who’s willing to swing

Vote Dizzy! Vote Dizzy!

     By 1964, his fans formed the John Birks Society, a takeoff on the radical right-wing John Birch Society, which was prominent at the time. The John Birks Society was active in 25 states. Asked why he, a jazz musician, was running for president, Dizzy replied, “Because we need one.” But as the civil rights movement began to pick up steam, Dizzy and his followers saw the campaign as something a little more substantial - a chance, at least, to show support. Proceeds from Dizzy’s presidential paraphernalia went to civil rights groups like CORE (Congress of Racial Equality) and the Southern Christian Leadership Conference.

     “Anybody coulda made a better President than the ones we had in those times,” wrote Gillespie in To Be, or Not ... to Bop, “dillydallying about protecting blacks in the exercise of their civil and human rights and carrying on secret wars against people around the world.”

     His platform included strengthening equal opportunity laws, free education for everybody, diplomatic recognition of China (he was way ahead of his time on this one), a national lottery to replace the income tax, and an end to the war in Vietnam. He thought NASA should have at least one black astronaut. On the less serious side, Dizzy promised that his first executive order if elected president would be to change the name of the White House to the “Blues House.” And he proposed the creation of civil service nightclubs, where musicians would actually be government workers and could play and get paid regularly (a federal bebop/Dixieland playing time ratio would probably need to be determined annually).

     For his cabinet, Dizzy proposed getting rid of the title “Secretary” and replacing it with the more dignified “Minister.” Miles Davis would head the CIA, Max Roach would be Minister of Defense, Charles Mingus as Minister of Peace, Ray Charles would head the Library of Congress, Peggy Lee as Ministress of Labor, Malcolm X as Attorney General, Duke Ellington as Minister of State, and Thelonious Monk as Roving Ambassador Plenipotentiary. (This last appointment is the only one that could be said to have come to pass.)

     Eventually, the whole thing sort of fizzled out, but not before making some serious points and having a lot of fun along the way. Gillespie did finally make it to the White House in 1978, where he sang “Salt Peanuts” (presumably with the original lyrics) for President Jimmy Carter.

Big Band Ambassador

During the Cold War, the U.S. government sent artists - stars of all stripes - around the world to promote a positive image of the United States. This included jazz musicians. And while Louis Armstrong had a justified image as the “real ambassador,” Dizzy Gillespie was the big band ambassador in 1956 on tours of the Middle East and South America. In the Middle East, this included concerts in the cities of Beirut and Athens, as well as stops in Turkey, Iran, India, and Pakistan. After one concert, the local Pakistani paper stated: “The language of diplomacy ought to be translated into a score for a bop trumpet.” Dizzy's integrated band presented a wonderful image of American society to audiences abroad; too bad the reality of race relations back home didn't always match it.
     He tried to keep this big band intact afterwards, but it wasn't economically viable. Dizzy had gone the big band route in the 1940s as well, and lost money on it. As he said, “I’m tired of going down in history. I want to eat.” This band eventually broke up two years later, ironically just before their first release, “Over the Rainbow,” became a hit.

     But they left behind a recorded history that is available on a 2-CD set from Verve Records called Birks Works. Dizzy’s State Department band had some all-star talent, including Phil Woods on alto saxophone, Benny Golson and Ernie Wilkins on tenor sax, Lee Morgan and Quincy Jones on trumpet, Al Grey on trombone, and Wynton Kelly on piano. The music they play is a muscular and dynamic big band sound, similar to the groups of Charles Mingus around this same time. Dizzy’s solos on trumpet soar above all and there’s also some terrific tenor sax work. Highlights include Dizzy's own "Birks' Works," a playful “Doodlin’” (a Horace Silver tune), “Jordu,” Benny Golson’s “Whisper Not” and “I Remember Clifford,” and “Joogie Boogie.” I personally don’t care for the vocal numbers, which tend toward the Johnny Hartman crooning style. But for big band jazz on some challenging arrangements and with great soloing, check out Birks Works.

Dizzy Gillespie - "Tin Tin Deo" (1965)

Dizzy Gillespie on trumpet, and featuring Christopher Wesley White on bass.