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
The Genius of Charlie Parker Vol. 2" [Savoy MG 12009] and "The Charlie Parker Story" [Savoy MG 12079]) completing the reissue of the previously released master takes, and the original issue of most of the unreleased takes from these seven sessions. Parker's entire Savoy ouvre was finally issued on "Charlie Parker: The Complete Savoy Studio Sessions" in 1978. The master take of "Koko", included here, is controversial in that it is unclear who, precisely, plays trumpet and\or piano on the track. The liner notes credit Miles Davis with trumpet for the session, but also credit Dizzy Gillespie with both trumpet and piano. Several sources claim