Louis Armstrong said he favored trumpeter Bobby Hackett as his personal favorite because he had “more ingredients.” But the longer I’m around, the more I’m ready to confer that honor on Dizzy Gillespie. Between his phenomenal trumpet playing; his masterful showmanship as a singer, dancer and bandleader; his key role as an innovator of both bebop and the Afro-Cuban jazz fusion; and his leadership as an ambassador of musical multi-culturalism, Dizzy made amazing use of his ingredients.
A couple of weeks ago I wrote about the origins of “Manteca.” Here’s a delightful addendum drawn from the trumpeter’s 1982 Dream Band concert at Lincoln Center. The concert was filmed in its three-hour entirety, but there are shorter clips from the introductory number that featured Dizzy and Jon Hendricks utilizing hand claps, mouth effects and DG’s jaw harp. Does hip-hop have anything on this?
Here’s the “Manteca” it sets up.
And here’s the entire concert including testimonials from Max Roach, John Lewis, Gerry Mulligan, Jon Faddis, and other collaborators and admirers paying loving tribute to John Birks Gillespie.