Dizzy Gillespie

The 1947 Gillespie Orchestra performs their most radical piece

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Dizzy Gillespie was not only one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time but the co-founder of both bebop and Afro-Cuban (or Latin) jazz.

Always more than a trumpeter, Gillespie taught a countless number of musicians how to play bop (succeeding at making bebop the new mainstream of jazz), and his humorous showmanship helped to expand the audience for the once-forbidding music.

This clip from the 1947 short film Jivin’ In Bebop features Gillespie and his big band playing their most advanced arrangement, the perfectly-titled “Things To Come.”

The music (featuring Gillespie, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, altoist Scoops Cary, drummer Joe Harris, and the trumpet section) still sounds futuristic today.

-Scott Yanow