Dizzy Gillespie won the case, but the jury awarded him only $1000 in view of his high earnings up to that point. In 1951, Gillespie founded his record label, Dee Gee Records; it closed in 1953. On January 6, 1953, he threw a party for his wife Lorraine at Snookie's, a club in Manhattan, where his trumpet's bell got bent upward in an accident, but he liked the sound so much he had a special trumpet made with a 45 degree raised bell, becoming his trademark. In 1956 Gillespie organized a band to go on a State Department tour of the Middle
Sam Allen (musician) the 1940s Allen worked with Stuff Smith before becoming the pianist for Slim & Slam, the gig for which he was best known. He also played with Dizzy Gillespie in the 1940s. Around the end of the decade Allen moved to Washington and worked locally as a solo pianist for a time, then relocated to Oakland, California, where he played with Billie Heywood, Eddie Alley, John Handy Ike Bell and others. With Dizzy Gillespie Sam Allen (musician) Sam Allen (January 30, 1909 – April 1963) was an American jazz pianist. Allen accompanied silent films in movie palaces from the age