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
Mingus: Charlie Mingus 1968 is a renowned jazz musician; a type of music that is famous for its improvisational aspect. In a way this was how Mingus lived his life in that he seemed to take each day at a time. The clips of footage taken of Mingus playing with other musicians at the jazz club made it apparent how much he felt the music. The musicians were each individually talented but jazz is about the interaction and responses that occurs between them, and Mingus and the guys playing with him had that essential component. Jazz musicians of the 1950s such as Dizzy Gillespie,