Dizzy Gillespie remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time". The youngest of nine children of James and Lottie Gillespie, Dizzy Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. His father was a local bandleader, so instruments were made available to the children. Gillespie started to play the piano at the age of four. Gillespie's father died when he was only ten years old. He taught himself how to play the trombone as well as the trumpet by the age of twelve. From the night he heard his idol, Roy Eldridge, on the radio,
Billy Root (musician) Billy Root (musician) William "Billy" Root (born March 6, 1934, Philadelphia) is an American jazz saxophonist. Root was raised in a musical family; his father played drums in Philadelphia ensembles. Root began playing professionally in the early 1950s, with Roy Eldridge, Hal McIntyre, Red Rodney, Bennie Green, and Buddy Rich. Later in the decade he worked extensively with Stan Kenton and with Rodney, as well as with Clifford Brown, Dizzy Gillespie, Hank Mobley, Lee Morgan, and Curtis Fuller. He led his own ensembles from the late 1950s. In the 1960s he performed with Al Grey and Dakota Staton, and in