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
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