Dizzy Gillespie for the Performing Arts. In 2014, Gillespie was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. 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
Horn in jazz incorporate the French horn into a jazz ensemble. In early 1940, the Claude Thornhill Orchestra had moved out to southern California. During this time, the Thornhill band was moving jazz in an entirely new direction, creating an entirely new sound. Thornhill's original band comprised twelve musicians, all playing traditionally "jazz" instruments. When Thornhill hired Bill Borden as an arranger, they created a group with a more orchestral style. Their new sound involved using instruments that were not typical to jazz and mixing unusual instrument voicing. Around the same time, Julius Watkins joined a six-member jazz band playing horn. Watkins had