Dizzy Gillespie Dizzy Gillespie John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, and singer. Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called bebop. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks, and his light-hearted personality provided some of bebop's most prominent symbols. In the 1940s Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became
Lennie Sogoloff Lennie Sogoloff Lennie Sogoloff was a music club owner and jazz aficionado who owned and ran Lennie's on the Turnpike, a jazz club located on Route One North in Peabody, Massachusetts, from the mid-1950s to 1972. Sogoloff presented initially only a jukebox with jazz music on before blues and jazz musicians presented live from 1963. Jay Leno opened for the musical acts from January 1972 to September 1972. Live musical acts included Duke Ellington, Buddy Rich, Kris Kristofferson, Miles Davis, Dizzie Gillespie, and Stan Kenton. Sogoloff bequeathed his collection of memorabilia to Salem State University, including a number of photos.