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
Charles Greenlee (musician) Charles Greenlee (musician) Charles "Majeed" or "Majid" Greenlee (April or May 24, 1927 – January 23, 1993) was an American jazz trombonist who worked extensively with Archie Shepp. Greenlee played mellophone, drums, and baritone horn in his youth, and got his early experience playing locally in Detroit. He played with Lucky Millinder and Benny Carter in the early 1940s, then with Dizzy Gillespie (1946, 1949–51). He also led his own bands around this time, working with Frank Foster and Tommy Flanagan. Late in the 1940s he converted to Islam, changing his name to Harneefan Majeed; he continued to use Charles