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
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