Dizzy Gillespie for the Performing Arts. In 2014, Gillespie was inducted into the New Jersey Hall of Fame. 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
Ray Abrams (musician) Lips Page, Roy Eldridge, and Slim Gaillard. Ray Abrams (musician) Ray Abrams (January 23, 1920 – July 1992) was an American jazz and jump blues tenor saxophonist, born Ray Abramson in New York City. His younger brother was jazz drummer Lee Abrams. Ray Abrams first worked with Dizzy Gillespie in 1945, toured Europe with Don Redman in 1946 and was with Andy Kirk in 1947. He went back and forth between Kirk and Gillespie for decades. Outside of his work with Gillespie he might be best known for the "Ray Abrams Big Band." Other bands with which he played into