Dizzy Gillespie a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, and balladeer Johnny Hartman. Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up being similar to those of Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated [...] Arguably Gillespie is
Charlie Smith (drummer) Charlie Smith (drummer) Charlie Smith (April 15, 1927, New York City – January 15, 1966, New Haven, Connecticut) was an American jazz drummer. Smith played locally in New York in the late 1940s before taking a position accompanying Ella Fitzgerald. He worked briefly with the Duke Ellington Orchestra in 1951 before being replaced by Louie Bellson, and also played with Joe Bushkin, Erroll Garner, Slim Gaillard, Benny Goodman, Hot Lips Page, Oscar Peterson, Artie Shaw, and Slam Stewart. He performed on television with Dizzy Gillespie and Charlie Parker in 1952, and later in the 1950s worked with Billy Taylor, Aaron