The great American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator, and singer Dizzy Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina.
John Birks Gillespie was the youngest of nine children. influenced by his father, a local bandleader, he started to play the piano at the age of four. His father died when Dizzy was just 10 years old, so he taught himself how to play the trumpet by the age of 12.
His combination of quick wit, talent, and showmanship made him a leader of the bebop movement. With this beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing, bent horn and puffed cheeks, he became a bebop icon and was a major figure in the development of this important jazz style.
This has been Rapp on Jazz, a co-production of the ColaJazz Foundation and SC Public Radio. Support for this program is made possible in part by Fox Music House of Columbia and Charleston.