2. uncountable noun [oft in NOUN] Distress is the state of being in extreme danger and needing urgent help. He expressed concern that the ship might be in distress. The constable received a distress call, and saw two youths attacking his colleague. Synonyms: danger, risk, difficulty, peril More Synonyms of distress.
But Dizzy Gillespie -- born John Birks Gillespie in Cheraw, S.C., on Oct. 21, 1917 -- saw himself primarily as a player. I always thought I was a musician, he told Musician magazine's Chip Stern a year ago. Thought I was a musician before I really was a musician..
1 Dizzy Gillespie â Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie breathed new life into the trumpet. Influenced largely by Roy Eldridge, Gillespie pushed the limits of the instrument, playing fast and nimble melodic lines in all of its registers.