Here are 2 of the most famous "Dizzy's", one a Hall of Fame baseball pitcher, the other a great jazz musician:
Dizzy Dean
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Jerome Hanna "Dizzy" Dean (January 16, 1910–July 17, 1974) was an American pitcher in Major League Baseball, elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame. He was born in Lucas, Arkansas, and was a life long resident of Wiggins, Mississippi. He was a pitcher for the St. Louis Cardinals (1930–1937), the Chicago Cubs (1938–1941), and briefly for the St. Louis Browns (1947).
Ace of the Gashouse Gang
Dean was best known for leading the 1934 "Gashouse Gang" team. He had a 30–7 record with a 2.66 ERA during the regular season. His brother, Paul, was also on the roster, and was nicknamed "Daffy," although this was usually only done for press consumption.
The Gashouse Gang, as the southernmost and westernmost team in the major leagues at the time, became a de-facto "America's Team," and members, particularly Southerners such as the Dean brothers and Pepper Martin, became folk heroes in Depression-ravaged America, who saw in these players, dirty and hustling rather than handsome and graceful, a spirit of hard work and perseverance, as opposed to the haughty, highly-paid New York Giants, whom the Cardinals were chasing for the National League pennant.
Much like later sports legends Joe Namath and Reggie Jackson, Dizzy liked to brag about his prowess and make public predictions. Dizzy predicted, "Me an' Paul are gonna win 45 games." On September 21, Diz pitched no-hit ball for eight innings against the Brooklyn Dodgers, finishing with a three-hit shutout in the first game of a doubleheader, his 27th win of the season. Paul then threw a no-hitter in the nightcap, to win his 18th, to match the 45 that Diz had predicted. "Gee, Paul," Diz was heard to say in the locker room afterward, "if I'd a-known you was gonna throw a no-hitter, I'd a-thrown one too!" He also bet he could strike out Vince Dimaggio four times in one game. He struck him out his first three at bats, but when he hit a popup behind the plate at his fourth, Dean screamed at his catcher, "Drop it!, Drop it!'. The catcher did and Dean fanned Dimaggio and won the bet.Few in the press now doubted Diz's boast, as he was also fond of saying, "If you can do it, it ain't braggin'." Diz finished with 30 wins, the last NL pitcher to do so, and Paul finished with 19, for a total of 49. The Cards needed them all to edge the Giants for the pennant, setting up a matchup with the American League champion Detroit Tigers. After the season, Dizzy Dean was awarded with the National League's Most Valuable Player Award.
Diz had one more prediction: "Me an' Paul are gonna win this here World Series." Diz won Game 1 and Paul won Game 3. However, during Game 4, Diz was used as a pinch-runner, and was hit in the head by an errant throw. Afterwards, he told the press, "The doctors x-rayed my head and found nothing." Diz pitched the next day, but lost Game 5. Paul won Game 6, completing his half of the deal, and Diz completed his by pitching a shutout to win Game 7.
Dizzy Dean
is a member of
the Baseball
Hall of Fame
Injury-shortened career
While pitching for the NL in the 1937 All-Star Game, Dean faced Earl Averill of the Cleveland Indians, batting for the American League. Averill hit a line drive back at the mound, hitting Dean on the foot. Told that his big toe was "fractured," Dean said, "Fractured, hell, the damn thing's broken!" Dean came back too soon, and changed his pitching motion in a way that favored his sore toe. In so doing, he hurt his arm, losing his great fastball.
By 1938, Dean's arm was largely gone. Chicago Cubs Scout Clarence "Pants" Rowland was tasked with the unenviable job of obeying owner P. K. Wrigley's direct order to buy a washed-up Dizzy Dean's contract at any cost. Rowland signed the ragged righty for $185,000, one of the most expensive loss-leader contracts in baseball history. Dean helped the Cubs win the 1938 NL pennant, and pitched gamely in Game 2 of the World Series before losing to the New York Yankees in what became known as "Ol' Diz's Last Stand." He limped along for the Cubs until 1941, when he retired. Between the ages of 23 and 27, he was arguably the best pitcher in baseball; by 28, he was just another pitcher, and at 31 he was done.
Dizzy Dean made a one-game comeback on September 28, 1947. After retiring as a player, the perennially cash-poor Browns hired the still-popular Dean as a broadcaster to drum up some badly needed publicity. After broadcasting several poor pitching performances in a row, he grew frustrated, saying on the air, "Doggone it, I can pitch better than nine out of the ten guys on this staff!" The wives of the Browns pitchers complained, and management, needing to sell tickets somehow, took him up on his offer and had him pitch the last game of the season. At age 37, Dean pitched four innings, allowing no runs, and rapped a single in his only at-bat. Rounding first base, he pulled his hamstring. Returning to the broadcast booth at the end of the game, he said, "I said I can pitch better than nine of the ten guys on the staff, and I can. But I'm done. Talking's my game now, and I'm just glad that muscle I pulled wasn't in my throat."
[edit] Sportscaster
He became a well-known sportscaster, famous for his wit and often-colorful butchering of the English language. Much like football star-turned-sportscaster Terry Bradshaw years later, he chose to build on, rather than counter, his image as a not-too-bright country boy, as a way of entertaining fans: "The Good Lord was good to me. He gave me a strong right arm, a good body, and a weak mind." He once saw Browns outfielder Al Zarilla slide into base, and said, "Zarilla slud into third!" Later, doing a game on CBS, he said, over the open mike, "I don't know why they're calling this the Game of the Week. There's a much better game, Dodgers and Giants, over on NBC." Every so often, he would sign off by saying, "Don't fail to miss tomorrow's game!" These manglings of the language only endeared him to fans, precursing such beloved ballplayers-turned-broadcasters as Ralph Kiner, Herb Score and Jerry Coleman.
An English teacher once wrote to him, complaining that he shouldn't use the word "ain't" on the air, as it was a bad example to children. On the air, Dean said, "A lot of folks who ain't sayin' 'ain't,' ain't eatin'. So, Teach, you learn 'em English, and I'll learn 'em baseball."
Dean died at age 64 in Reno, Nevada. A Dizzy Dean Museum was established at 1152 Lakeland Drive in Jackson, Mississippi. The building was significantly expanded, and the Dean exhibit is now part of the Mississippi Sports Hall of Fame, located adjacent to Smith-Wills Stadium, a minor-league baseball park. The street leading into it is named for another Baseball Hall-of-Famer who lived in Mississippi, ***** Leagues legend James "Cool Papa" Bell.
Despite having what amounted to only half a career, in 1999, he ranked Number 85 on The Sporting News' list of the 100 Greatest Baseball Players, and was nominated as a finalist for the Major League Baseball All-Century Team.
On December 5, 2006, Dean was nominated for the Ford Frick Award, which enshrines legendary announcers of the sport into the broadcasters wing of the Baseball Hall of Fame.
Accomplishments
Four consecutive strikeout titles
Led National League in complete games for four consecutive years
Won two games in the 1934 World Series
Three time 20-game winner; won 30 games in 1934
Elected to the Baseball Hall of Fame in 1953
MVP in 1934
Inducted into the St. Louis Walk of Fame
[edit] Career statistics
W L ERA G GS CG SHO SV IP H ER HR BB SO
150 83 3.02 317 230 154 26 30 1967 1919 661 95 453 1163
[edit] External links
Baseball Hall of Fame
Baseball-Reference.com - career statistics and analysis
Preceded by
Carl Hubbell National League Most Valuable Player
1934 Succeeded by
Gabby Hartnett
Retrieved from "http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Dizzy_Dean"
Categories: Major league
Dizzy Gillespie
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Dizzy Gillespie in 1955
Background information
Birth name John Birks Gillespie
Born October 21, 1917
Origin Cheraw, South Carolina
Died January 6, 1993
Genre(s) Jazz
Occupation(s) Jazz trumpeter
Instrument(s) Trumpet
Years active 1935-1993
Label(s) Pablo Records, Verve Records, etc.
Website http://dizzygillespie.net
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. He was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, singer, and composer. Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz.
In addition to featuring in these epochal moments in jazz, he was instrumental in founding Afro-Cuban jazz, the modern jazz version of the "Spanish Tinge". Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and gifted improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. In addition to his instrumental skills, Dizzy's beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop, which was originally regarded as threatening and frightening music by many listeners raised on older styles of jazz. He had an enormous impact on virtually every subsequent trumpeter, both by the example of his playing and as a mentor to younger musicians.
He also used a trumpet whose bell was bent at a 45 degree angle rather than a traditional straight trumpet. This was originally the result of accidental damage caused during a job on January 6, 1953, but the constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the instrument, and Gillespie liked the effect.
Portrait of Dizzy Gillespie (1955)
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was the youngest of ten children. His father, who regularly beat his children, died when Gillespie was ten. His father was Dizzy's main inspiration, for he was the one who owned and played all of the instruments that Dizzy liked. Gillespie taught himself to play the trumpet at the age of 12 and managed to win a scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in North Carolina. However, he dropped out of school in 1935, moved to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, and became desperate to work as a full-time musician. Gillespie first joined Frankie Fairfax, and made his recording debut filling for Roy Eldridge in Teddy Hill's band.
After finding work with Cab Calloway's group, Dizzy was soon being excoriated for his adventurous solos by his employer, who branded it "Chinese music." He lost the spot in Calloway's band for an unrelated reason, however: Calloway accused Gillespie of firing a spitball at him during a concert, and the hot-headed Gillespie stabbed Calloway in the leg with a small knife. Gillespie went through many bands including Duke Ellington's, and also arranged music for Woody Herman.
The legendary big band of Billy Eckstine gave his unusual harmonies a better setting, and it was as a member of Eckstine's band that he was reunited with Parker, after earlier being members of Earl Hines's more conventional band.
The rise of bebop
With Charlie Parker, Gillespie jammed at famous jazz clubs like Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House, where the first seeds of bebop were planted. Gillespie's compositions like "Groovin' High", "Woody n' You", "Anthropology", "Salt Peanuts", and "A Night in Tunisia" sounded radically different, harmonically and rhythmically, than the Swing music popular at the time. One of their first (and greatest) small-group performances together was only issued in 2005: a concert in New York's Town Hall on June 22, 1945. Gillespie taught many of the young musicians on 52nd Street, like Miles Davis and Max Roach, about the new style of jazz. After a lengthy gig at Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles, though, which left most of those in the audience ambivalent or hostile towards the new music, the band broke up. Unlike Parker, who was content to play in small groups and be an occasional featured soloist in big bands, Gillespie aimed to lead a big band himself; his first attempt to do this came in 1945, but it did not prove a success.
Dizzy Gillespie statue in Cheraw, South CarolinaAfter his work with Parker, Gillespie led other small combos (including ones with Milt Jackson, John Coltrane, Lalo Schifrin) and finally put together his first successful big band. He also appeared frequently as a soloist with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic.
On March 11, 1952 Gillespie left for France after being invited by Charles Delaunay to play on Salon du Jazz. [1] Gillespie did not have any other commitments during his time in Paris and therefore embarked on his Blue Star sessions and started to assemble his third big band. Due to his prior success he could now record in the finest studios like Théatre des Champs-Elysées. In 1953 he returned to the United States after a series of successful concerts and recordings, but most importantly he proved himself to be a successful bandleader. In 1956 he organized a band to go on a State Department tour of the Middle East and earned the nickname "the Ambassador of Jazz"[2][3].
Afro-Cuban music
In the late 1940s, Gillespie was also involved in the movement called Afro-Cuban music, bringing Latin and African elements to greater prominence in jazz and even pop music, particularly salsa. Gillespie's most famous contributions to Afro-Cuban music are the compositions "Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo"; he was responsible for commissioning George Russell's "Cubano Be, Cubano Bop", which featured the great but ill-fated Cuban conga player, Chano Pozo. In 1977, Gillespie discovered Arturo Sandoval while researching music during a tour of Cuba.
Later years and death
Dizzy Gillespie at Nambassa festival 1981.Unlike his contemporary Miles Davis, Gillespie essentially remained true to the bebop style for the rest of his career.
In 1964 the artist put himself forward as a presidential candidate. He promised that if he were elected, the White House would be renamed "The Blues House," Ray Charles would be appointed Librarian of Congress, Miles Davis would become the head of the CIA, and Malcolm X the Attorney General.[4]
Gillespie published his autobiography, To Be or not to Bop in 1979.
In the 1980s, Dizzy Gillespie led the United Nations Orchestra. For three years Flora Purim toured with the Orchestra and she credits Gillespie with evolving her understanding of jazz after being in the field for over two decades.[5] Gillespie also had a guest appearance on The Cosby Show as well as Sesame Street.
In 1982, Dizzy Gillespie had a cameo on Stevie Wonder's hit Do I Do. Gillespie's tone gradually faded in the last years in life, and his performances often focused more on his proteges such as Arturo Sandoval and Jon Faddis; his good-humoured comedic routines became more and more a part of his live act.
Dizzy Gillespie with drummer Bill Stewart at 1984 Stanford Jazz WorkshopIn 1989 Gillespie gave 300 performances in 27 countries, appeared in 100 U.S. cities in 31 states and the District of Columbia, headlined three television specials, performed with two symphonies, and recorded four albums. He was also crowned a traditional chief in Nigeria, received the Commandre d'Ordre des Artes et Lettres -- France's most prestigious cultural award -- was named regent professor by the University of California, and received his fourteenth honorary doctoral degree, this one from the Berklee College of Music. In addition, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award the same year. The next year, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ceremonies celebrating the centennial of American jazz, Gillespie received the Kennedy Center Honors Award and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers Duke Ellington Award for 50 years of achievement as a composer, performer, and bandleader.[6][7]
November 26, 1992 at Carnegie Hall in New York, following the Second Bahá'à World Congress was Dizzy's 75th birthday concert and his offering to the celebration of the centenary of the passing of Bahá'u'lláh. Gillespie was to appear there at Carnegie Hall for the 33rd time. The line-up included: John Faddis, Marvin "Doc" Holladay, James Moody, Paquito D'Rivera, and the Mike Longo Trio with Ben Brown on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. But Gillespie didn't make it because he was in bed suffering from cancer of the pancreas. "But the musicians played their hearts out for him, no doubt suspecting that he would not play again. Each musician gave tribute to their friend, this great soul and innovator in the world of jazz."[8]
Gillespie also starred in a film called "The Winter in Lisbon" released in 2004.[9] He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7057 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood secton of the City of Los Angeles. He is honored by the Dec 31, 2006 - A Jazz New Year's Eve: Freddy Cole & the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.[10]
He died of pancreatic cancer in 1993, aged 75, and was buried in the Flushing Cemetery, Queens, New York. Mike Longo delivered a eulogy at his funeral. He was also with Gillespie on the night he died.
At the time of his death, Dizzy was survived by his widow, Lorraine Willis Gillespie, a daughter, jazz singer Jeanie Bryson, and a grandson, Radji Birks Bryson-Barrett. Gillespie had two funerals. One was a Bahá´à funeral at his request, at which his closest friends and colleagues attended. The second was at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York attended by the world.[11]
Dizzy Gillespie, a Bahá'à since 1970, was one of the most famous adherents of the Bahá'à Faith which helped him make sense of his position in a succession of trumpeters as well as turning his life from knife-carrying roughneck to global citizen, and from alcohol to soul force, in the words of author Nat Hentoff, who knew Gillespie for forty years.[12][13][14] He is often called the Bahá'à Jazz Ambassador.[15] He is honored with weekly jazz sessions at the New York Bahá'à Center.[16]
Trivia
- Australian test cricketer Jason Gillespie is nicknamed Dizzy in an obvious reference to the trumpeter.
Discography
1950 - Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk - "Bird & Diz"
1952 – Dizzy Gillespie. "Dee Gee Days - The Savoy Sessions"
1953 – Dizzy Gillespie, Charles Mingus, Charlie Parker, Max Roach, Bud Powell – "At Massey Hall May 15, 1953"
1953 - Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Oscar Peterson, Ray Brown, Max Roach, Herb Ellis - "Diz & Getz"
1954 - Dizzy Gillespie. "Afro"
1957 - Dizzy Gillespie, Stan Getz, Coleman Hawkins - "Sittin' In"
1957 - Dizzy Gillespie - "At Newport"
1957 - Dizzy Gillespie, Sonny Rollins, Sonny Stitt - "Sonny Side Up"
1959 - Dizzy Gillespie - "Have Trumpet, Will Excite"
1961 - Dizzy Gillespie - "An Electrifying Evening with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet"
1967 - Dizzy Gillespie - "Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac"
1985 – Dizzy Gillespie, Robert Ameen, Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Lonnie Plaxido – New Faces
1989 – Dizzy Gillespie and the United Nation Orchestra – Live at the Royal Festival Hall London July 10, 1989
2000 – Dizzy Gillespie – Ken Burns Jazz
References
^ Tercinet, Alain, Booklet of The Great Blue Star Sessions 1952-1953
^ from Ken Burns's Jazz, A Gillespie Biography
^ Ken Burns's Jazz, A Gillespie Biography
^ BBC radio broadcast on Gillespie's 1964 presidential campaign.
^ Beatrice Richardson for JazzReview interviews Flora Purim - Queen of Brazilian Jazz
^ Pop/Jazz; A Tribute For Gillespie And the Jazz He Created
^ Jazz with Bob Parlocha - Biographies - Dizzy Gillespie
^ The Spiritual Side of Dizzy by Lowell Johnson
^ "The Winter in Lisbon" Dizzy Gillespie | Milan Records (2004)
^ The Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts Schedule 2006-7
^ Dizzy Gillespie Memorial
^ Remembering Dizzy
^ Groovin' High The Life of Dizzy Gillespie by Alyn Shipton
^ Groovin' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie Review by Brad Pokorny
^ The Baha'i Voice Presents:Dizzy Gileespie, Bahá'à Jazz Ambassador
^ Jazz @ the Bahá'à Center
Samples
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[edit] External links
Wikimedia Commons has media related to:
Dizzy GillespieThe African American Registry - The heart of jazz, Dizzy Gillespie
Dizzy Gillespie's "The Cult of Bebop"
Dizzy Gillespie Talking to Les Tomkins in 1973
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