"Bent" trumpet
Gillespie's trademark trumpet featured a bell which bent upward at a 45-degree angle rather than pointing straight ahead as in the conventional design. In honor of this trademark, the Smithsonian's National Museum of American History has collected Gillespie's B-flat trumpet. According to Gillespie's autobiography, this was originally the result of accidental damage caused by someone sitting on it during a job on January 6, 1953, but the constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the instrument, and Gillespie liked the effect. Gillespie's biographer Alyn Shipton writes that Gillespie likely got the idea when he saw a similar instrument in 1937 in Manchester, England while on tour with the Teddy Hill Orchestra. An English trumpeter was using such an instrument because his vision was poor and the horn made reading music easier. According to this account (from British journalist Pat Brand) Gillespie was able to try out the horn and the experience led him, much later, to commission a similar horn for himself.
Whatever the origins of Gillespie's upswept trumpet, by June, 1954, Gillespie was using a professionally manufactured horn of this design, and it was to become a visual trademark for him for the rest of his life.
From: Downbeat Magazine
Trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie emerged in the middle 1940s as essentially the last in a series of symbolic progressions of virtuosity in jazz that culminated in the consolidation of bebop.
If Charlie Parker was the soul of bebop, Gillespie was its heart and public face. If Armstrong had expanded the reach of instrumental technique for his generation making more things possible—and if Roy Eldridge and Charlie Shavers extended the reach of virtuosity still farther, embracing still more possibilities—then Gillespie seemed to reach the final theoretical point of command that made all things possible, effectively ending the arms race of capacity that had driven jazz for two decades. His speed, articulation and sense of surprise took many forms in many bebop trumpet players in the years after 1946, but few doubted that Gillespie was the master and matrix of it all.
Gillespie was born Oct. 21, 1917, in Cheraw, S.C. Starting as a self-taught player, his natural gifts won him a scholarship at the Laurinburg Institute, where he studied for three years before moving to Philadelphia in 1935. He first recorded with Teddy Hill's band in New York, and his solo on "King Porter Stomp" is full of the fiery energy and youthful braggadocio of Eldridge, who Gillespie replaced in Hill's group. In 1939 he joined the Cab Calloway band and during its travels first encountered Parker in Kansas City. But the after hours laboratory work that would lead to bebop was mostly confined to a handful of uptown clubs in New York, where Gillespie jousted with other players to the delight of mostly other musicians.
Two showmen in one band is one too many showman. And in Calloway's band the guy getting the attention was to be Calloway, who was not amused at Gillespie's peculiar brand of antics that had a way of winking at the audience behind the leader's back. Fired in 1941, Gillespie moved to Lucky Millinder's orchestra, where, just as Parker's first alto solo's were coming out on the Jay McShann Deccas, Gillespie recorded "Little John Special" for the same label. It not only included solo work every bit as provocative as Parker's, but it also had the singular riff that the jazz world would shortly come to know as "Salt Peanuts."
Many of the same records that would launch Parker and bebop would also introduce Gillespie. Performances such as "Groovin' High," "Dizzy Atmosphere" and "Hot House" would also link Gillespie with Parker, though as Martin Williams noted, "Parker's brilliance has sometimes clouded the issue of Gillespie's own."
If Parker's coolness served to make bebop an exclusionary cult music, Gillespie's natural good nature and sense of irony (not to mention his avoidance of the drug curse) pushed in the opposite direction to bring public awareness and interest. Moreover, he wasn't interested in leading combos in dimly lit clubs. Gillespie wanted to lead a band and in 1946 assembled one that would hold together for four years and record extensively for Victor ("Cubana Be/Cubana Bop," "Good Bait," "Manteca," and "Ool-Ya-Koo"). There would be other bands, such as one assembled for an early State Department tour in 1956, and occasional reunions with Parker on Debut and Clef records. There would be many tours with Norman Granz' Jazz At The Philharmonic units, in which any lingering hostilities between swing and bop were brushed aside in magnificent duets with Eldridge, with whom he enjoyed spectacular rapport.
Gillespie's rapport with audiences was equally golden, yet never got in the way of the music he offered. He was a recipient of the Kennedy Center Honors in 1990. He died on Jan. 6, 1993, of cancer.
In 1960, Gillespie was elected by the Readers into the Down Beat Hall of Fame.
 |
| Although this image of Dizzy has become cliché, this seems to be one of the more interesting ones. |
- Search: "Dizzy Gillespie's Martin Committee"
Martin Committee
Martin Committee: Dizzy Gillespie
martincommittee.blogspot.com/p/dizzy-gillespie-another-martin.htmlMar 24, 2011 - Gillespie's trademark trumpet featured a bell which bent upward at a 45-degree angle rather than pointing straight ahead as in the conventional ...
Martin Committee - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Martin_CommitteeThe Martin Committee trumpets and saxophones were favorites of jazz musicians
Wikipedia. ...Other notable players include Dizzy Gillespie, Clark Terry, Chet Baker, Lee ...
You visited this page on 10/17/15.Help With My Martin Committee Dizzy Style!!! - TrumpetMaster.com
www.trumpetmaster.com › ... › Equipment › Vintage Trumpets / Cornets
Jan 25, 2015 - 10 posts - 5 authorsI received this Deluxe Committee trumpet from my uncle who was a professional player. ... Martin Committee ... Dizzy Gillespie Committee
Martin Committee Trumpet Extremely RARE Vintage Same ...
www.ebay.com › ... › Vintage Brass › TrumpetsMartin Committee Trumpet - Extremely Rare Vintage - Same as Dizzy Gillespie's in Musical Instruments & Gear, Vintage Musical Instruments, Vintage Brass ...
eBaymartin committee trumpet - Dallasmusic.org
www.dallasmusic.org/gearhead/Martin%20Committee.htmlThe Martin Committee, a trumpet with an unusual name, earned its name by ... as well as Chet Baker, Dizzy Gillespie, Maynard Ferguson, and even Al Hirt.
Dizzy Gillespie's Martin Committee trumpet | Facebook
https://www.facebook.com/media/set/?set=a.403451813068181...3This is a 1962 Martin Committee trumpet with stirling silver bell and gold plated body. When I got the horn to do the work I was skeptical of the history and over all
... Dizzy Gillespie's B–flat Trumpet | National Museum of ...
americanhistory.si.edu/.../nmah_6...Its uniquely shaped upturned bell was Gillespie's internationally known ... a vintageMartin Committee #3 large bore horn, like Chris Botti, Dizzy Gillespie, and so ...
National Museum of American HistoryA Brief History of the Martin Committee Trumpet | Reverb
https://reverb.com/blog/a-brief-history-of-the-martin-committee-trumpetFeb 8, 2016 - Legions of jazz trumpeters consider the Martin Committee a vital addition to any serious horn collection. Dizzy Gillespie's first upward-bent bell ...
TMA2699 - 1956 Martin Committee Jazz Horn - Holy Grail of ...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=PAFiZlT5P94Feb 29, 2012 - Uploaded by qualitybrassMartin Committee Trumpet -Key of Bb- 1946 Vintage Pro Horn ...on the #3 bore Committee), Dizzy Gillespie, Al Hirt, Blue Mitchell, Lee Morgan, ...
