THINGS YOU DIDN'T KNOW WERE TRUE - PART FOUR

I've been a bit dizzy over the last couple of days which got me thinking about another dizzy person, John Banks Gillespie, aka Dizzie Gillespie.

John was born in October 1917 almost exactly two years after my dad was born. He died in January 1993 three years before my dad died. There's almost a coincidence for you.

Dizzie as he later came to be referred to was a bandleader, composer, music teacher and singer. whose principal instruments were trumpet and piano but is remembered mostly as a trumpet virtuoso and improviser in jazz. Gillespie helped to popularise bebop and his musicianship and showmanship made him an enduring icon with his beret, horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing, bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality being well remembered.

As a young man Dizzie had undiagnosed heart problems that would have been picked up by doctors today. His erratic heart rhythm now known as Atrial Fibrillation or AF didn't cause him much of a problem but after taking up the trumpet the heavy blowing technique which 'blew out' his cheeks also exacerbated his AF condition. He experienced dizzy spells now known as TIA (or mini strokes) which often made him sit down during performances. Fortunately his second musical instrument of choice was the piano so nothing seemed out of the ordinary.

So now you know.

Dizzy Gillespie was a great musician. Here's a vid for your pleasure: