WEBVTT 00:00:00.620 --> 00:00:03.620 Imagine, if you will, a silhouette. You don't 00:00:03.620 --> 00:00:06.219 need a face. Right. You don't need a name tag. 00:00:06.339 --> 00:00:08.640 You certainly don't need a caption. No, you really 00:00:08.640 --> 00:00:11.199 don't. You just see the outline against this 00:00:11.199 --> 00:00:16.420 smoky, backlit backdrop. There's a beret perched 00:00:16.420 --> 00:00:19.300 at a rakish angle, a little jaunty, a little 00:00:19.300 --> 00:00:22.559 French. There are these thick, heavy, black, 00:00:22.620 --> 00:00:25.559 horn -rimmed glasses that just scream intellectual. 00:00:26.320 --> 00:00:30.780 And then there are the cheeks. The cheeks. We 00:00:30.780 --> 00:00:32.399 have to start with the cheeks. We really do. 00:00:32.460 --> 00:00:34.979 They are ballooning out to a size that honestly 00:00:34.979 --> 00:00:37.579 shouldn't be medically possible. It looks completely 00:00:37.579 --> 00:00:40.140 unreal. Right. It looks like a bullfrog in mid 00:00:40.140 --> 00:00:44.060 croak or like someone trying to smuggle two grapefruits 00:00:44.060 --> 00:00:46.079 through customs in their mouth. That's a great 00:00:46.079 --> 00:00:48.659 way to describe it. And finally, extending from 00:00:48.659 --> 00:00:52.329 that impossible face, a trumpet. But not a normal 00:00:52.329 --> 00:00:55.469 trumpet. It's bent upward at a 45 degree angle 00:00:55.469 --> 00:00:58.030 pointing towards the sky. Like it's, I don't 00:00:58.030 --> 00:01:00.250 know, trying to signal aliens or something. It 00:01:00.250 --> 00:01:03.770 is without a doubt. Yeah. One of the most recognizable 00:01:03.770 --> 00:01:06.390 shapes in American cultural history. I mean, 00:01:06.409 --> 00:01:08.290 even if you think you don't know the first thing 00:01:08.290 --> 00:01:10.870 about jazz, even if you've never voluntarily 00:01:10.870 --> 00:01:13.489 listened to a trumpet solo in your life, you 00:01:13.489 --> 00:01:17.060 know that silhouette. Yes. It is absolute shorthand 00:01:17.060 --> 00:01:20.180 for cool. Exactly. We're talking, of course, 00:01:20.260 --> 00:01:23.079 about John Burke's Gillespie. But the world in 00:01:23.079 --> 00:01:26.459 history knows him simply as Dizzy. Dizzy. Now, 00:01:26.560 --> 00:01:28.560 here's the problem with that silhouette. It's 00:01:28.560 --> 00:01:33.180 iconic, sure, but icons tend to flatten out reality. 00:01:33.319 --> 00:01:36.840 They turn actual complex people into logos. That 00:01:36.840 --> 00:01:39.140 is the perfect way to put it. It's a trap, really. 00:01:39.340 --> 00:01:42.060 Yeah. It's so easy to look at the cheeks, the 00:01:42.060 --> 00:01:44.909 bent horn. the jokes, and that Dizzy nickname 00:01:44.909 --> 00:01:48.370 and just see a caricature. A clown. Or just a 00:01:48.370 --> 00:01:50.629 showman. Exactly. A guy who's just there to make 00:01:50.629 --> 00:01:52.930 you laugh and play some high notes. But our mission 00:01:52.930 --> 00:01:55.590 for this deep dive is to shatter that cartoon 00:01:55.590 --> 00:01:58.709 image. We need to move past the entertainer to 00:01:58.709 --> 00:02:00.430 find the architect. Because when you actually 00:02:00.430 --> 00:02:02.329 dig into the source material, and we have a huge 00:02:02.329 --> 00:02:04.909 stack here today. We really do. We've got biographies, 00:02:04.909 --> 00:02:07.730 musicology papers, oral histories from guys who 00:02:07.730 --> 00:02:09.689 are literally in the room. And when you read 00:02:09.689 --> 00:02:12.120 all this, you realize that Dizzy Gillespie Wasn't 00:02:12.120 --> 00:02:14.580 just a character. Not at all. He was arguably 00:02:14.580 --> 00:02:16.960 the most important musical intellectual of the 00:02:16.960 --> 00:02:19.099 20th century. I would absolutely agree with that. 00:02:19.159 --> 00:02:22.620 He literally rewrote the language of jazz. And 00:02:22.620 --> 00:02:24.259 we aren't just talking about playing fast or 00:02:24.259 --> 00:02:26.240 playing loud here. Right. We are talking about 00:02:26.240 --> 00:02:29.210 a man who. bridged the gap between the dance 00:02:29.210 --> 00:02:32.110 halls of the swing era, which you have to remember 00:02:32.110 --> 00:02:34.770 was pop music at the time, and the intellectual 00:02:34.770 --> 00:02:37.310 high -speed complexity of modern art music. He 00:02:37.310 --> 00:02:40.349 changed the math of it all. He did. He introduced 00:02:40.349 --> 00:02:42.389 harmonic structures that people actually thought 00:02:42.389 --> 00:02:44.710 were wrong or ugly at the time. And he didn't 00:02:44.710 --> 00:02:47.870 stop there. No, he didn't. He also brought global 00:02:47.870 --> 00:02:51.449 rhythms, specifically Afro -Cuban beats, into 00:02:51.449 --> 00:02:53.930 the American mainstream in a way that had never 00:02:53.930 --> 00:02:56.270 been done before. I mean, he is the primary reason 00:02:56.270 --> 00:03:00.210 that jazz has a Latin tinge today. The thesis 00:03:00.210 --> 00:03:03.289 for this deep dive is pretty clear, I think. 00:03:03.610 --> 00:03:07.289 Dizzy Gillespie was a musical revolutionary disguised 00:03:07.289 --> 00:03:09.370 as a stand -up comic. A Trojan horse of genius. 00:03:09.569 --> 00:03:11.650 A Trojan horse of genius. I love that. He was 00:03:11.650 --> 00:03:13.909 a rebel. And we're going to talk about knife 00:03:13.909 --> 00:03:17.189 fights with his boss. Literal knife fights. Oh, 00:03:17.210 --> 00:03:19.969 yeah. That story is wild. Political pranks that 00:03:19.969 --> 00:03:22.770 landed him on FBI watch lists and telling the 00:03:22.770 --> 00:03:24.430 U .S. government exactly where to stick their 00:03:24.430 --> 00:03:27.069 draft card during World War II. But we have to 00:03:27.069 --> 00:03:29.849 balance the rebellion with rigor. We really need 00:03:29.849 --> 00:03:32.449 to break down the evolution of the sound, because 00:03:32.449 --> 00:03:35.389 you can't separate the man's life from the music 00:03:35.389 --> 00:03:38.530 he created. The dizzy persona was the shield. 00:03:39.129 --> 00:03:41.949 But the music was the sword. I love that image. 00:03:41.969 --> 00:03:44.610 The shield and the sword. Yeah. So buckle up. 00:03:44.610 --> 00:03:46.949 We are going deep on Dizzy today. Let's do it. 00:03:47.009 --> 00:03:49.590 Let's unpack this. Where does a virtuoso like 00:03:49.590 --> 00:03:51.469 this actually come from? Because he didn't just 00:03:51.469 --> 00:03:53.270 pop out of the womb in South Carolina playing 00:03:53.270 --> 00:03:56.150 high C's in a beret. No, though that is a fantastic 00:03:56.150 --> 00:03:59.550 image to picture. Right. But to understand Dizzy, 00:03:59.669 --> 00:04:02.050 you have to understand the context of the American 00:04:02.050 --> 00:04:06.509 South in 1917. He was born in Cheraw, South Carolina. 00:04:06.860 --> 00:04:08.900 And when we look at his origins and the sources, 00:04:09.020 --> 00:04:11.800 you see this classic, incredibly volatile mix 00:04:11.800 --> 00:04:14.460 of immense opportunity and crushing tragedy. 00:04:14.680 --> 00:04:17.360 Paint the picture for us. 1917, South Carolina. 00:04:17.540 --> 00:04:19.459 Okay. So it's the deep Jim Crow South. Yeah. 00:04:19.759 --> 00:04:21.560 Segregation is the absolute law of the land. 00:04:21.639 --> 00:04:24.579 Yeah. Poverty is widespread. And Dizzy was the 00:04:24.579 --> 00:04:27.360 youngest of nine children. Nine kids. That is 00:04:27.360 --> 00:04:30.680 a full house. Very full. And in 1917, keeping 00:04:30.680 --> 00:04:34.360 nine kids fed and clothed. That is a hard, hard 00:04:34.360 --> 00:04:37.100 life. A very hard life. But there was a silver 00:04:37.100 --> 00:04:40.079 lining in the Gillespie household. His father, 00:04:40.220 --> 00:04:42.959 James Gillespie, was a local bricklayer by trade. 00:04:43.060 --> 00:04:45.879 But on the weekends, he was a bandleader. Ah. 00:04:46.800 --> 00:04:49.399 That is a crucial detail here. It meant there 00:04:49.399 --> 00:04:51.040 were instruments just lying around the house. 00:04:51.279 --> 00:04:54.100 It wasn't a home void of music. That proximity 00:04:54.100 --> 00:04:56.420 is everything, isn't it? Just having the physical 00:04:56.420 --> 00:04:59.120 object there for a kid to touch. Exactly. I mean, 00:04:59.139 --> 00:05:01.259 if the piano's in the corner, a four -year -old 00:05:01.259 --> 00:05:03.379 is going to bang on it. Sure. And that's exactly 00:05:03.379 --> 00:05:05.300 what Dizzy did. He started on the piano at age 00:05:05.300 --> 00:05:07.920 four. Age four. I was still eating paste at age 00:05:07.920 --> 00:05:09.939 four. Yeah. And probably not even the good paste. 00:05:10.199 --> 00:05:12.759 Well, by age 12, he had taught himself the trombone 00:05:12.759 --> 00:05:15.079 and the trumpet. He was just naturally gifted. 00:05:15.279 --> 00:05:18.120 Wow. But here is the tragedy that really defines 00:05:18.120 --> 00:05:21.240 the early narrative for him. His father treated 00:05:21.240 --> 00:05:24.060 the kids harshly. He was known as a tough, distant 00:05:24.060 --> 00:05:27.100 man. But he was the musical connection for Dizzy. 00:05:27.240 --> 00:05:30.319 And then he died when Dizzy was only 10 years 00:05:30.319 --> 00:05:33.060 old. Oh, wow. So he loses that paternal figure, 00:05:33.160 --> 00:05:36.259 that musical guide, right before he hits adolescence. 00:05:36.339 --> 00:05:39.319 That usually goes one of two ways. The kid spirals 00:05:39.319 --> 00:05:43.250 or the kid focuses. Dizzy focus. Yeah. But the 00:05:43.250 --> 00:05:45.670 spark, the lightning bolt moment where he really 00:05:45.670 --> 00:05:47.949 knew his destiny didn't actually come from his 00:05:47.949 --> 00:05:50.449 dad. Really? Yeah, the source material talks 00:05:50.449 --> 00:05:53.189 about a specific moment when he heard Roy Eldridge 00:05:53.189 --> 00:05:55.430 on the radio. Okay, so for our listeners who 00:05:55.430 --> 00:05:59.089 might not be deep into 1930s jazz lore, set the 00:05:59.089 --> 00:06:01.470 stage for Roy Eldridge. Roy Eldridge was the 00:06:01.470 --> 00:06:04.589 trumpet king of that era. He was the vital bridge 00:06:04.589 --> 00:06:07.449 between Louis Armstrong and what came next. It's 00:06:07.449 --> 00:06:09.610 amazing how radio did that for a whole generation. 00:06:09.670 --> 00:06:12.089 Just a sound coming through the ether, changing 00:06:12.089 --> 00:06:14.250 a life trajectory in a split second. It really 00:06:14.250 --> 00:06:15.949 was magic. You couldn't see him. You couldn't 00:06:15.949 --> 00:06:18.189 pull up a video tutorial online. You just heard 00:06:18.189 --> 00:06:20.930 this incredible sound. Right. And Eldridge played 00:06:20.930 --> 00:06:23.790 with this speed and agility that was just unlike 00:06:23.790 --> 00:06:26.769 anyone else at the time. He played the trumpet 00:06:26.769 --> 00:06:30.519 almost like a saxophone. Lots of notes. Very 00:06:30.519 --> 00:06:33.199 fast. Which is hard to do on a trumpet. Extremely. 00:06:33.259 --> 00:06:36.519 And that captivated Dizzy. He decided right then, 00:06:36.620 --> 00:06:39.279 that is what I'm going to do. But he needed training, 00:06:39.480 --> 00:06:41.180 right? You don't get to be Dizzy Gillespie just 00:06:41.180 --> 00:06:43.600 by listening to the radio. No, you don't. He 00:06:43.600 --> 00:06:46.360 ended up getting a music scholarship to the Lorenberg 00:06:46.360 --> 00:06:48.759 Institute in North Carolina. I want to pause 00:06:48.759 --> 00:06:50.839 on Lorenberg for a second because this wasn't 00:06:50.839 --> 00:06:53.300 just a regular high school, right? No, this was 00:06:53.300 --> 00:06:55.899 a significant institution for black education. 00:06:56.480 --> 00:06:59.160 It was a place that valued discipline and craft 00:06:59.160 --> 00:07:02.000 above all. So he's actually studying the mechanics. 00:07:02.560 --> 00:07:05.019 Yes. He studied harmony and theory there for 00:07:05.019 --> 00:07:07.959 two years. He wasn't just learning to blow into 00:07:07.959 --> 00:07:10.879 a horn. He was learning how music worked. He 00:07:10.879 --> 00:07:12.680 was looking under the hood of the car, so to 00:07:12.680 --> 00:07:15.500 speak. But the real kickstart to his professional 00:07:15.500 --> 00:07:19.199 life happened in 1935 when his family moved up 00:07:19.199 --> 00:07:22.000 north to Philadelphia. The Great Migration. Right. 00:07:22.139 --> 00:07:24.399 We really can't overstate the impact of the Great 00:07:24.399 --> 00:07:27.480 Migration on jazz and honestly on American culture 00:07:27.480 --> 00:07:29.860 as a whole. Millions of black Americans moving 00:07:29.860 --> 00:07:33.160 from the rural south to the urban north. Exactly. 00:07:33.199 --> 00:07:35.740 Fleeing oppression and seeking jobs. They brought 00:07:35.740 --> 00:07:38.060 their culture, their blues, their spirituals, 00:07:38.060 --> 00:07:40.360 and it collided with the industrial city life. 00:07:40.829 --> 00:07:43.189 The pace was faster in the north. The noise was 00:07:43.189 --> 00:07:45.569 louder. Everything was amplified. Amplified is 00:07:45.569 --> 00:07:48.509 the perfect word. Moving to Philly put Dizzy 00:07:48.509 --> 00:07:50.970 right in the mix. His first professional gig 00:07:50.970 --> 00:07:53.730 was with the Frank Fairfax Orchestra in 1935. 00:07:54.069 --> 00:07:55.790 He's getting his feet wet. Yeah. And then he 00:07:55.790 --> 00:07:59.339 moves to Teddy Hill's band in 1937. And this 00:07:59.339 --> 00:08:01.399 is an interesting little tidbit. He actually 00:08:01.399 --> 00:08:04.019 replaced Frankie Newton as the second trumpet. 00:08:04.199 --> 00:08:07.000 Oh, wow. So he's actively climbing the ladder 00:08:07.000 --> 00:08:09.800 in these established bands. And was this around 00:08:09.800 --> 00:08:11.620 the time he met his wife? Because I know she 00:08:11.620 --> 00:08:13.819 plays a massive role in keeping him grounded 00:08:13.819 --> 00:08:17.040 throughout his entire life. It was. August 1937, 00:08:17.319 --> 00:08:19.879 he's gigging in Washington, D .C., and he meets 00:08:19.879 --> 00:08:22.259 a young dancer named Lorraine Willis. Lorraine. 00:08:22.279 --> 00:08:23.980 Yeah, she was working the circuit, Baltimore, 00:08:24.240 --> 00:08:27.480 Philadelphia, the Apollo in New York. Now, the 00:08:27.480 --> 00:08:29.579 story goes that she wasn't exactly friendly at 00:08:29.579 --> 00:08:32.379 first. Playing hard to get. Or was Dizzy just, 00:08:32.519 --> 00:08:35.700 you know. A lot. Probably a bit of both, to be 00:08:35.700 --> 00:08:39.059 honest. Yeah. Dizzy was intense. He was a jokester. 00:08:39.120 --> 00:08:42.259 He was loud. Lorraine was much more reserved, 00:08:42.419 --> 00:08:45.259 much more focused on her career. He wore her 00:08:45.259 --> 00:08:47.559 down. He was persistent. And that persistence 00:08:47.559 --> 00:08:50.500 paid off. They got married on May 9th, 1940. 00:08:51.159 --> 00:08:53.100 And here's what is remarkable to me, especially 00:08:53.100 --> 00:08:55.299 in the chaotic world of jazz and entertainment 00:08:55.299 --> 00:08:57.620 where marriages often lasted about as long as 00:08:57.620 --> 00:09:00.460 a drum solo. Right. They stayed together until 00:09:00.460 --> 00:09:03.820 the day he died. That is extremely rare in that 00:09:03.820 --> 00:09:08.080 world. It implies a true deep partnership. She 00:09:08.080 --> 00:09:10.220 was his anchor. She managed him too, didn't she? 00:09:10.259 --> 00:09:12.440 She did. She actually managed his business and 00:09:12.440 --> 00:09:14.600 personal affairs later on. She kept the money 00:09:14.600 --> 00:09:16.700 straight. She dealt with the promoters. Which 00:09:16.700 --> 00:09:19.659 is huge. Massive. She allowed him to be the artist 00:09:19.659 --> 00:09:22.100 because she handled the reality. Every genius 00:09:22.100 --> 00:09:24.919 needs a Lorraine. Truly. But before he settled 00:09:24.919 --> 00:09:27.639 into that stability, he was a young, fiery, somewhat 00:09:27.639 --> 00:09:30.779 arrogant guy. And that brings us to his time 00:09:30.779 --> 00:09:33.080 with Cab Calloway. Oh, this is my absolute favorite 00:09:33.080 --> 00:09:34.700 part of the biography. This is where it gets 00:09:34.700 --> 00:09:38.450 Hollywood. It really does. So. 1939, he joins 00:09:38.450 --> 00:09:41.090 Cab Calloway's orchestra. Now, we need to set 00:09:41.090 --> 00:09:43.710 the stage for our listeners about who Cab Calloway 00:09:43.710 --> 00:09:45.850 was at this time. He wasn't just a musician. 00:09:46.009 --> 00:09:48.730 He was a superstar. Think of Cab Calloway as 00:09:48.730 --> 00:09:51.289 the pop king of the era. Minnie the Moocher, 00:09:51.470 --> 00:09:53.870 the Zoot Suits, the Hidey Ho. Right. He was an 00:09:53.870 --> 00:09:56.649 entertainer first, musician second. His band 00:09:56.649 --> 00:10:00.139 was polished, disciplined. And very commercially 00:10:00.139 --> 00:10:02.460 successful. So Calloway is the establishment. 00:10:02.600 --> 00:10:04.799 He is the corporate gig. Yes. And then you have 00:10:04.799 --> 00:10:07.659 Dizzy Gillespie, this young upstart who is starting 00:10:07.659 --> 00:10:10.320 to experiment. He's taking risks during his solos. 00:10:10.360 --> 00:10:12.840 He's playing notes that, according to the traditional 00:10:12.840 --> 00:10:16.320 rules of swing, it just shouldn't work. And Calloway 00:10:16.320 --> 00:10:18.740 hated it. He absolutely loathed it. He called 00:10:18.740 --> 00:10:20.960 it something specific, didn't he? He famously 00:10:20.960 --> 00:10:23.460 called Dizzy's playing Chinese music. Chinese 00:10:23.460 --> 00:10:27.100 music. That's such a specific, odd insult. What 00:10:27.100 --> 00:10:29.250 did he even mean by that? It's a fascinating 00:10:29.250 --> 00:10:31.789 slur culturally. He didn't mean it literally 00:10:31.789 --> 00:10:34.129 came from China. He meant it sounded foreign. 00:10:34.250 --> 00:10:37.129 It sounded confusing to his ears. It lacked the 00:10:37.129 --> 00:10:39.529 predictable resolution of Western swing music. 00:10:39.629 --> 00:10:42.409 Because swing is very predictable. You know where 00:10:42.409 --> 00:10:45.049 it's going. Exactly. To Calloway, who was all 00:10:45.049 --> 00:10:47.169 about the groove and keeping the dancers on the 00:10:47.169 --> 00:10:50.090 floor, Dizzy's harmonic complexity just sounded 00:10:50.090 --> 00:10:52.629 like noise that was messing up the show. It was 00:10:52.629 --> 00:10:55.370 bad for business. Exactly. So the tension was 00:10:55.370 --> 00:10:57.340 already there. It was a clash of generations 00:10:57.340 --> 00:11:00.799 and a clash of philosophies. And then came the 00:11:00.799 --> 00:11:03.419 spitball. The spitball heard around the world. 00:11:03.559 --> 00:11:06.299 Set the scene for us. Where are we? It's late 00:11:06.299 --> 00:11:09.820 1941. The band is rehearsing or performing accounts 00:11:09.820 --> 00:11:13.299 very slightly on the exact moment. But they are 00:11:13.299 --> 00:11:16.019 on stage at the State Theater in Hartford, Connecticut. 00:11:16.360 --> 00:11:19.340 Okay, Hartford. Cab Calloway is in the spotlight. 00:11:19.620 --> 00:11:23.120 He is the star doing his thing. Suddenly... A 00:11:23.120 --> 00:11:25.179 spitball flies through the air and lands on the 00:11:25.179 --> 00:11:28.159 stage right in the spotlight. Frack. A classic 00:11:28.159 --> 00:11:30.879 high school prank. Completely childish. Disrespectful, 00:11:30.879 --> 00:11:33.960 sure, but hardly a capital offense. But Calloway 00:11:33.960 --> 00:11:37.080 isn't laughing. He stops everything. He looks 00:11:37.080 --> 00:11:39.559 at the trumpet section and he zeroes right in 00:11:39.559 --> 00:11:42.059 on Dizzy. Why Dizzy? Because Dizzy was known 00:11:42.059 --> 00:11:45.539 for his mischievous humor. He was a known prankster. 00:11:45.840 --> 00:11:48.480 So Calloway just assumes, well, it has to be 00:11:48.480 --> 00:11:51.730 Dizzy. Guilty by reputation. Exactly. He accuses 00:11:51.730 --> 00:11:54.490 him in front of everyone. But Dizzy didn't do 00:11:54.490 --> 00:11:56.850 it, right? From what the sources say. According 00:11:56.850 --> 00:11:59.190 to the accounts from band members like Milt Hinton 00:11:59.190 --> 00:12:02.669 and Jonah Jones, no, Dizzy was completely innocent. 00:12:03.070 --> 00:12:05.870 Okay. The culprit was likely a trumpeter named 00:12:05.870 --> 00:12:08.850 Jonah Jones, actually. Oh, wow. But Dizzy wasn't 00:12:08.850 --> 00:12:10.529 going to take the heat for something he didn't 00:12:10.529 --> 00:12:14.269 do. He flat out refused to take the blame. They 00:12:14.269 --> 00:12:17.049 start arguing. It escalates. And Calloway hits 00:12:17.049 --> 00:12:19.769 him. Calloway hits Dizzy. And then it turns violent. 00:12:20.159 --> 00:12:22.000 This is the part that always blows my mind because, 00:12:22.139 --> 00:12:25.019 you know, we think of Dizzy as this jovial, smiling 00:12:25.019 --> 00:12:27.399 guy with the big cheeks. But in this moment, 00:12:27.559 --> 00:12:30.639 he pulls a knife. He stabs Cad Calloway. He stabs 00:12:30.639 --> 00:12:33.320 his boss. In the leg. I mean, it wasn't a life 00:12:33.320 --> 00:12:35.200 -threatening wound, minor cuts on the thigh and 00:12:35.200 --> 00:12:37.620 wrist, but still, you do not stab the bandleader. 00:12:37.779 --> 00:12:40.080 No, I'm pretty sure that is a major violation 00:12:40.080 --> 00:12:42.879 of HR policy in any decade. Needless to say, 00:12:42.980 --> 00:12:45.220 Calloway fired him on the spot. I would hope 00:12:45.220 --> 00:12:47.759 so. Dizzy actually tried to apologize a few days 00:12:47.759 --> 00:12:51.740 later. But Calloway was done. He was permanently 00:12:51.740 --> 00:12:54.379 dismissed. Wow. But this moment is important. 00:12:54.620 --> 00:12:57.220 It shows that underneath the smile, Dizzy had 00:12:57.220 --> 00:13:00.519 a steel backbone. He demanded respect. He wouldn't 00:13:00.519 --> 00:13:02.320 back down. He wasn't going to be pushed around, 00:13:02.559 --> 00:13:05.389 even by the king of hidey -wo. That fire, that 00:13:05.389 --> 00:13:07.690 refusal to back down, that wasn't just about 00:13:07.690 --> 00:13:09.970 a spitball. That was about his whole attitude 00:13:09.970 --> 00:13:12.730 toward authority. Yes. I mean, look at his Selective 00:13:12.730 --> 00:13:15.669 Service interview for World War II. This is incredible. 00:13:15.990 --> 00:13:18.350 It really is. This really highlights his anti 00:13:18.350 --> 00:13:20.809 -authoritarian streak. So he goes in for the 00:13:20.809 --> 00:13:22.610 draft. He goes in for his draft interview. Remember, 00:13:22.750 --> 00:13:25.629 this is the 1940s. The U .S. Army is still segregated. 00:13:25.850 --> 00:13:28.090 Right. Black soldiers are treated as second -class 00:13:28.090 --> 00:13:31.320 citizens, given the worst jobs. Denied basic 00:13:31.320 --> 00:13:33.460 respect. Right. Fighting for freedoms abroad 00:13:33.460 --> 00:13:36.059 that they don't even have at home. Exactly. So 00:13:36.059 --> 00:13:38.399 Dizzy looks at the draft board, these government 00:13:38.399 --> 00:13:41.860 officials, and asks, in this stage of my life 00:13:41.860 --> 00:13:44.600 here in the United States, whose foot has been 00:13:44.600 --> 00:13:47.779 in my ass? Wow. He did not mince words. Not at 00:13:47.779 --> 00:13:50.419 all. He's directly asking, why should I fight 00:13:50.419 --> 00:13:52.679 for a country that is actively oppressing me? 00:13:52.779 --> 00:13:55.299 And then he follows it up with a threat, basically. 00:13:55.320 --> 00:13:57.320 He tells them, if you put me out there with a 00:13:57.320 --> 00:13:59.200 gun in my hand and tell me to shoot at the enemy, 00:13:59.379 --> 00:14:02.440 I'm liable to create a case of mistaken identity 00:14:02.440 --> 00:14:05.240 of who I might shoot. He basically told the draft 00:14:05.240 --> 00:14:07.240 board, if you give me a gun, I might shoot the 00:14:07.240 --> 00:14:10.340 white officers instead of the enemy because of 00:14:10.340 --> 00:14:13.580 how black people are treated here. Yes. That 00:14:13.580 --> 00:14:16.580 is a wildly dangerous thing to say to the government 00:14:16.580 --> 00:14:19.080 in the 1940s. He could have been arrested on 00:14:19.080 --> 00:14:21.899 the spot. Precisely. He played crazy to make 00:14:21.899 --> 00:14:24.980 a very sane, very sharp political point. And 00:14:24.980 --> 00:14:28.139 what was the result? He was classified 4F, unfit 00:14:28.139 --> 00:14:30.820 for service. He stayed home. Which changed history. 00:14:31.139 --> 00:14:34.240 It did. That classification was crucial for music 00:14:34.240 --> 00:14:37.179 history. Because while the war was raging and 00:14:37.179 --> 00:14:39.139 many of the top musicians were shipped overseas, 00:14:39.820 --> 00:14:42.919 Dizzy Gillespie was in New York, in the lab. 00:14:43.549 --> 00:14:46.470 Inventing the future. The incubator. Let's talk 00:14:46.470 --> 00:14:48.370 about the Earl Hines Band, because this is where 00:14:48.370 --> 00:14:50.909 the chemistry set really starts bubbling. This 00:14:50.909 --> 00:14:55.289 was 1943. The Earl Hines Band is absolutely legendary 00:14:55.289 --> 00:14:58.909 among jazz historians. It is often referred to 00:14:58.909 --> 00:15:01.549 as the incubator of bop. The lineup was insane, 00:15:01.730 --> 00:15:04.289 right? It was. You had Dizzy Gillespie. You had 00:15:04.289 --> 00:15:06.850 Charlie Parker. Bird and Diz. Yeah. Together 00:15:06.850 --> 00:15:08.809 in the same section. This is like Lennon and 00:15:08.809 --> 00:15:11.970 McCartney finding each other. Or Jobs and Wozniak 00:15:11.970 --> 00:15:14.590 in the garage. Exactly. But there is a major 00:15:14.590 --> 00:15:17.210 catch. What's the catch? Because of a recording 00:15:17.210 --> 00:15:20.429 ban during the war, a strike by the Musicians' 00:15:20.450 --> 00:15:23.330 Union against record labels over royalties, this 00:15:23.330 --> 00:15:25.830 band wasn't recording commercially. Ah, right. 00:15:26.009 --> 00:15:30.509 The 1942 to 1944 band. Yes. So we don't have 00:15:30.509 --> 00:15:32.950 albums of this specific moment. It's like a black 00:15:32.950 --> 00:15:35.090 hole in history. We only have the oral history 00:15:35.090 --> 00:15:37.330 to rely on. That adds to the mystique, doesn't 00:15:37.330 --> 00:15:39.210 it? The lost recordings of the greatest band 00:15:39.210 --> 00:15:42.710 ever. It does. Gunther Schiller, the famous composer 00:15:42.710 --> 00:15:45.669 and historian, said that in 1943 he heard this 00:15:45.669 --> 00:15:48.350 band playing flatted fifth chords in modern harmonies 00:15:48.350 --> 00:15:50.669 that wouldn't be officially called bebop until 00:15:50.669 --> 00:15:52.669 two years later. So they were playing music from 00:15:52.669 --> 00:15:54.850 the future, basically in secret. They were. But 00:15:54.850 --> 00:15:57.049 didn't Dizzy have a different take on whether 00:15:57.049 --> 00:15:59.929 this music was actually new? Yes, and this is 00:15:59.929 --> 00:16:02.610 what I love about his perspective. He was a musical 00:16:02.610 --> 00:16:05.129 intellectual. He didn't see it as destroying 00:16:05.129 --> 00:16:07.669 the past to build the future. He didn't see himself 00:16:07.669 --> 00:16:10.590 as a disruptor. No, he saw continuity. He said, 00:16:10.730 --> 00:16:13.070 and this is a quote, people have the erroneous 00:16:13.070 --> 00:16:16.110 impression that the music was new. It was not. 00:16:16.429 --> 00:16:19.330 The music evolved from what went before. And 00:16:19.330 --> 00:16:21.350 he had that other great quote, didn't he? He 00:16:21.350 --> 00:16:24.450 did. He said, naturally, each age has got its 00:16:24.450 --> 00:16:28.250 own shit. I love that. So blunt. It's perfect. 00:16:28.690 --> 00:16:31.370 He saw the natural progression where others just 00:16:31.370 --> 00:16:34.110 saw disruption and chaos. But for the listener, 00:16:34.190 --> 00:16:36.730 for the average person in a club, the difference 00:16:36.730 --> 00:16:40.309 between swing and this new sound bebop was totally 00:16:40.309 --> 00:16:43.110 jarring. We need to explain why it was so different. 00:16:43.210 --> 00:16:45.309 Right. Let's break it down. Let's do an Eli I 00:16:45.309 --> 00:16:48.210 -5 explain reform. Right. Like I'm five on bebop. 00:16:48.210 --> 00:16:51.009 So swing was pop music. It was for dancing. It 00:16:51.009 --> 00:16:53.950 felt good. Bebop, bebop was anxiety. That's a 00:16:53.950 --> 00:16:55.769 really good way to put it. Swing is based on 00:16:55.769 --> 00:16:58.529 a steady, danceable pulse. It resolves nicely. 00:16:58.570 --> 00:17:00.789 You can tap your foot to it. Bebop broke that 00:17:00.789 --> 00:17:04.299 pulse. It was faster, often way too fast to dance 00:17:04.299 --> 00:17:07.380 to. It was much more dense. But the real revolution 00:17:07.380 --> 00:17:10.200 was in the specific notes they chose to play. 00:17:10.359 --> 00:17:13.599 How so? Charlie Parker and Dizzy were developing 00:17:13.599 --> 00:17:16.480 a highly complex system where they added chords 00:17:16.480 --> 00:17:19.259 to existing progressions, stacking them up. Can 00:17:19.259 --> 00:17:21.240 you give us an analogy for the non -musicians 00:17:21.240 --> 00:17:24.819 out there? Sure. Imagine swing is like a nursery 00:17:24.819 --> 00:17:28.019 rhyme. It's predictable, comforting, you know, 00:17:28.019 --> 00:17:30.160 exactly where the rhyme is landing. Mary had 00:17:30.160 --> 00:17:32.720 a little lamb, you know, what comes next? Bebop 00:17:32.720 --> 00:17:35.960 is like a complex, rapid -fire slam poetry session. 00:17:36.380 --> 00:17:38.839 They were taking the exact same basic structure, 00:17:38.980 --> 00:17:41.700 but cramming in three times as many ideas using 00:17:41.700 --> 00:17:43.660 words or notes that didn't technically rhyme 00:17:43.660 --> 00:17:45.900 but sounded amazing if you said them with the 00:17:45.900 --> 00:17:47.960 right attitude and speed. That makes total sense. 00:17:48.140 --> 00:17:50.160 And what about the flatted fifth? That gets mentioned 00:17:50.160 --> 00:17:51.880 a lot. That's the famous devil's interval, right? 00:17:52.039 --> 00:17:54.849 Right. In traditional harmony. The fifth note 00:17:54.849 --> 00:17:57.509 of a scale is very stable. It feels like home. 00:17:57.609 --> 00:18:00.650 It feels safe and resolved. If you flatten it, 00:18:00.710 --> 00:18:03.329 meaning you lower it by just a half step, it 00:18:03.329 --> 00:18:06.069 creates massive tension. It sounds unresolved. 00:18:06.089 --> 00:18:08.069 It sounds almost like a question mark or even 00:18:08.069 --> 00:18:10.390 a threat. And they leaned into that. They built 00:18:10.390 --> 00:18:12.690 their entire melodies around these unresolved 00:18:12.690 --> 00:18:15.609 tensions. It required serious mental gymnastics 00:18:15.609 --> 00:18:18.190 to resolve them back to the key at the speed 00:18:18.190 --> 00:18:20.430 they were playing. It sounds exhausting to play. 00:18:20.609 --> 00:18:23.890 It was. And to listen to. For the uninitiated. 00:18:23.970 --> 00:18:27.349 So tracks like Groovin' High, Salt Peanuts, and 00:18:27.349 --> 00:18:29.509 Woody and You. Yes. Woody and You was actually 00:18:29.509 --> 00:18:32.150 the first formal recording of bebop in 1944. 00:18:32.549 --> 00:18:35.150 They sounded completely radical. Alien, even. 00:18:35.230 --> 00:18:37.630 And A Night in Tunisia. That's one of the really 00:18:37.630 --> 00:18:40.730 big ones. Written in 1942, it has that iconic 00:18:40.730 --> 00:18:44.349 syncopated bass line. Bad dum, bad da -da -dum. 00:18:44.450 --> 00:18:46.589 I can hear it right now. If you listen to modern 00:18:46.589 --> 00:18:50.390 music hip -hop, R &B, today, you still hear the 00:18:50.390 --> 00:18:53.259 exact DNA of that bass line. It's totally timeless. 00:18:53.440 --> 00:18:55.740 So they are building this complex, tense sound 00:18:55.740 --> 00:18:58.200 in the after -hours clubs, Minton's Playhouse, 00:18:58.460 --> 00:19:00.779 Monroe's Uptown House. They are the architects 00:19:00.779 --> 00:19:02.839 of the future. But it wasn't an instant hit, 00:19:02.960 --> 00:19:04.880 was it? This wasn't the Beatles on Ed Sullivan 00:19:04.880 --> 00:19:06.680 where the girls are screaming and everyone buys 00:19:06.680 --> 00:19:10.220 the record. Not at all. The mainstream was very 00:19:10.220 --> 00:19:14.900 resistant. In late 1945, Dizzy and Parker went 00:19:14.900 --> 00:19:17.160 to Los Angeles to play at Billy Burke's Club. 00:19:17.359 --> 00:19:19.779 Ah, the L .A. trip. They thought they were bringing 00:19:19.779 --> 00:19:21.980 the new gospel to the West Coast. And the West 00:19:21.980 --> 00:19:25.119 Coast said, no thanks. It was a disaster. The 00:19:25.119 --> 00:19:27.400 audience just didn't get it at all. They wanted 00:19:27.400 --> 00:19:29.559 to jitterbug. They wanted to swing and drink. 00:19:29.779 --> 00:19:32.259 They couldn't dance to this frantic, complex 00:19:32.259 --> 00:19:35.920 noise. The reception was mixed to poor. That 00:19:35.920 --> 00:19:38.279 must have been... absolutely crushing for them 00:19:38.279 --> 00:19:40.799 it was bad the band actually broke up after that 00:19:40.799 --> 00:19:43.779 gig really yeah parker stayed in california which 00:19:43.779 --> 00:19:46.359 tragically led to his terrible struggles with 00:19:46.359 --> 00:19:49.079 heroin and mental health out there and dizzy 00:19:49.079 --> 00:19:52.059 pushed forward and went back east but that failure 00:19:52.059 --> 00:19:54.380 at billy bergs is important i think because it 00:19:54.380 --> 00:19:56.640 shows that bebop wasn't immediately embraced 00:19:56.640 --> 00:19:59.200 it was a struggle yes it was an avant -garde 00:19:59.200 --> 00:20:02.599 art movement not a pop trend it required work 00:20:02.599 --> 00:20:05.720 from the listener but dizzy being dizzy knew 00:20:05.720 --> 00:20:09.079 how to market it. He knew he needed a hook. If 00:20:09.079 --> 00:20:11.299 the music is hard to understand, give them something 00:20:11.299 --> 00:20:14.000 to look at. And that brings us to the visual 00:20:14.000 --> 00:20:16.400 image. We have to talk about the cheeks. The 00:20:16.400 --> 00:20:20.470 cheeks. The medical term is laryngosylase. Laryngosylase. 00:20:20.569 --> 00:20:23.130 Sounds like a dinosaur. It really does. Essentially, 00:20:23.170 --> 00:20:25.829 it's a condition where the neck muscles and tissues 00:20:25.829 --> 00:20:28.470 distend because of the immense back pressure 00:20:28.470 --> 00:20:31.730 created by blowing the horn so hard. Right. Medically, 00:20:31.829 --> 00:20:34.509 it's highly unusual. Most trumpet players are 00:20:34.509 --> 00:20:37.029 taught from day one to keep their cheeks very 00:20:37.029 --> 00:20:40.049 tight to support the embouchure. So he was doing 00:20:40.049 --> 00:20:42.690 it wrong, technically? Technically, yes. If you 00:20:42.690 --> 00:20:45.609 go to Julliard or any conservatory today, they 00:20:45.609 --> 00:20:47.509 will explicitly tell you not to do that. You 00:20:47.509 --> 00:20:49.470 can damage your tissues. But he made it work. 00:20:49.670 --> 00:20:52.150 He made it work for him. For Dizzy, it became 00:20:52.150 --> 00:20:54.289 his trademark. It looked like he was storing 00:20:54.289 --> 00:20:57.170 grapefruit in his mouth. It gave audiences something 00:20:57.170 --> 00:21:00.349 to look at, something to marvel at, while their 00:21:00.349 --> 00:21:02.710 brains were trying to process the crazy notes. 00:21:03.069 --> 00:21:05.769 Exactly. It made him a spectacle. It's one of 00:21:05.769 --> 00:21:07.150 those things that if you saw it on a medical 00:21:07.150 --> 00:21:09.170 chart, you'd be worried. But on stage, it was 00:21:09.170 --> 00:21:12.000 a special effect. That's right. But the other 00:21:12.000 --> 00:21:15.339 part of the visual, the bent trumpet, that wasn't 00:21:15.339 --> 00:21:18.119 a medical condition. That was a complete accident. 00:21:18.240 --> 00:21:21.299 A very happy accident. And we can pinpoint the 00:21:21.299 --> 00:21:25.380 exact date it happened. January 6th, 1953. Snooki's 00:21:25.380 --> 00:21:28.880 in Manhattan. Yes. Dizzy is throwing a party 00:21:28.880 --> 00:21:31.599 for his wife, Lorraine. His trumpet is sitting 00:21:31.599 --> 00:21:34.220 on a trumpet stand on the stage. Okay. And there 00:21:34.220 --> 00:21:36.259 were these dancers, a comedy dance duo called 00:21:36.259 --> 00:21:39.200 Stump and Stumpy. Stump and Stumpy. You literally 00:21:39.200 --> 00:21:41.380 can't make this stuff up. It sounds like a vaudeville 00:21:41.380 --> 00:21:43.700 routine from a cartoon. It was. There were a 00:21:43.700 --> 00:21:46.240 physical comedy act. During their routine, they're 00:21:46.240 --> 00:21:49.119 tumbling around doing pratfalls, and one of them 00:21:49.119 --> 00:21:51.339 falls off balance, and they land right on Dizzy's 00:21:51.339 --> 00:21:54.299 trumpet. Oh, man. Imagine the sound of that crunch, 00:21:54.539 --> 00:21:58.019 the collective gasp in the room. That is a precision, 00:21:58.140 --> 00:22:01.019 expensive instrument. And the bell of the trumpet 00:22:01.019 --> 00:22:04.940 bent upward at exactly a 45 -degree angle. Wow. 00:22:05.680 --> 00:22:07.900 Now, most musicians would be horrified, right? 00:22:07.980 --> 00:22:09.880 The instrument is completely ruined. Yeah, you'd 00:22:09.880 --> 00:22:12.920 be furious. But Dizzy, being curious, picks it 00:22:12.920 --> 00:22:15.279 up and plays it. Yeah? And he likes it. He likes 00:22:15.279 --> 00:22:17.519 the broken trumpet. Why on earth would he prefer 00:22:17.519 --> 00:22:20.599 that? It all came down to acoustics. Because 00:22:20.599 --> 00:22:23.940 the bell was pointing up. The sound wasn't going 00:22:23.940 --> 00:22:26.140 straight out into the audience's knees or the 00:22:26.140 --> 00:22:28.779 floor. It was going up towards the ceiling and 00:22:28.779 --> 00:22:31.559 bouncing back down towards his ears. He could 00:22:31.559 --> 00:22:34.819 hear himself much better. It acted like a personal 00:22:34.819 --> 00:22:37.940 monitor. That is fascinating. He liked it so 00:22:37.940 --> 00:22:40.720 much. that even though he had the horn straightened 00:22:40.720 --> 00:22:43.220 the next day, he couldn't get that specific sound 00:22:43.220 --> 00:22:45.519 out of his head. He missed the bent sound. He 00:22:45.519 --> 00:22:48.680 did. So he commissioned a new horn from the Martin 00:22:48.680 --> 00:22:51.380 Company to be made intentionally bent. Based 00:22:51.380 --> 00:22:54.299 on a sketch by his wife, Lorraine. Correct. Yeah. 00:22:54.640 --> 00:22:56.859 Lorraine actually drew the design for the manufacturer, 00:22:57.220 --> 00:22:59.599 and that became his horn for the rest of his 00:22:59.599 --> 00:23:02.059 life. It wasn't a gimmick at all. No, it was 00:23:02.059 --> 00:23:03.940 a sonic preference that just happened to become 00:23:03.940 --> 00:23:06.440 a visual icon. And just to give you a sense of 00:23:06.440 --> 00:23:09.279 how iconic that battered Martin trumpet became 00:23:09.279 --> 00:23:12.819 in 1995, a couple of years after he died, it 00:23:12.819 --> 00:23:14.859 was auctioned at Christie's. Do you remember 00:23:14.859 --> 00:23:19.420 how much it went for? It sold for $63 ,000. $63 00:23:19.420 --> 00:23:23.420 ,000 for a bent trumpet. Wow. And the proceeds 00:23:23.420 --> 00:23:26.400 went to benefit jazz musicians with cancer. So 00:23:26.400 --> 00:23:28.880 even his accident ended up helping people down 00:23:28.880 --> 00:23:31.619 the line. That is beautiful. okay so we've got 00:23:31.619 --> 00:23:34.200 the look we've got the complex bebop sound but 00:23:34.200 --> 00:23:36.319 dizzy wasn't content to just stay in that lane 00:23:36.319 --> 00:23:38.480 forever he wanted to go global he was always 00:23:38.480 --> 00:23:40.400 looking forward and this is where we get into 00:23:40.400 --> 00:23:44.019 afro -cuban jazz this is in my opinion his biggest 00:23:44.019 --> 00:23:47.440 long -term contribution to music arguably yes 00:23:47.440 --> 00:23:50.119 in the late 40s dizzy was looking for something 00:23:50.119 --> 00:23:53.549 more He felt that jazz had become a bit too cerebral 00:23:53.549 --> 00:23:56.990 with bebop. Too much head, not enough body. Exactly. 00:23:57.130 --> 00:23:59.369 It lost the physical connection. He wanted to 00:23:59.369 --> 00:24:02.069 reconnect jazz with rhythm, specifically the 00:24:02.069 --> 00:24:04.210 deep rhythms of the African diaspora. And he 00:24:04.210 --> 00:24:05.809 had a connection to help him do that, right? 00:24:06.049 --> 00:24:09.069 Mario Bauza. Mario Bauza, a fellow trumpeter 00:24:09.069 --> 00:24:11.369 and a massive figure in the Latin jazz scene. 00:24:11.730 --> 00:24:14.269 He introduced Dizzy to a Cuban percussionist 00:24:14.269 --> 00:24:18.049 and dancer named Chano Pozo in 1947. And this 00:24:18.049 --> 00:24:20.470 meeting basically changed everything. It really 00:24:20.470 --> 00:24:23.750 did. Yeah. Chana Pozo joined Dizzy's big band. 00:24:24.009 --> 00:24:26.470 Now, think about this fusion for a second. Okay. 00:24:26.549 --> 00:24:30.470 You have... The highly complex intellectual harmonic 00:24:30.470 --> 00:24:33.509 structure of bebops, the difficult chords, the 00:24:33.509 --> 00:24:35.990 blistering speed. Right. And then you layer it 00:24:35.990 --> 00:24:38.849 over the driving, earthy, intensely syncopated 00:24:38.849 --> 00:24:42.170 rhythms of Afro -Cuban conga drumming. It's the 00:24:42.170 --> 00:24:44.509 best of both worlds. It's the brain and the hips 00:24:44.509 --> 00:24:47.250 working together. Exactly. In traditional swing, 00:24:47.490 --> 00:24:51.430 the rhythm is a triplet feel. It's a shuffle. 00:24:51.569 --> 00:24:54.130 Yeah. In Afro -Cuban music, the rhythm is based 00:24:54.130 --> 00:24:56.710 on the clave. Clack, clack, clack, clack, clack. 00:24:56.990 --> 00:24:59.509 It's straight eighth notes. It's highly polyrhythmic. 00:24:59.509 --> 00:25:01.569 So merging those two feels must be incredibly 00:25:01.569 --> 00:25:03.690 difficult. It's like trying to speak two languages 00:25:03.690 --> 00:25:05.769 perfectly at the exact same time. But they did 00:25:05.769 --> 00:25:07.670 it. They figured out the formula. And they created 00:25:07.670 --> 00:25:10.829 huge hits out of it. Yes. Tracks like Manteca 00:25:10.829 --> 00:25:13.309 and Tin Tin Deo. Manteca starts at that huge 00:25:13.309 --> 00:25:16.839 bass line and... The congas, it's literally impossible 00:25:16.839 --> 00:25:19.319 not to move to it. And the significance here 00:25:19.319 --> 00:25:23.319 is that unlike pure, abstract bebop, which you 00:25:23.319 --> 00:25:25.400 sat and listened to with a furrowed brow in a 00:25:25.400 --> 00:25:29.180 smoky club, Afro -Cuban jazz made people dance 00:25:29.180 --> 00:25:31.559 again. It saved the music from becoming purely 00:25:31.559 --> 00:25:34.299 academic. It brought the joy back to the physical 00:25:34.299 --> 00:25:36.799 movement while keeping the intellectual rigor. 00:25:37.019 --> 00:25:39.680 He was bridging cultures, and the U .S. government 00:25:39.680 --> 00:25:41.759 actually noticed this. They realized, hey, this 00:25:41.759 --> 00:25:44.119 guy is charming, he's famous, he's brilliant. 00:25:44.170 --> 00:25:47.009 Let's use him. The Cold War was heating up. The 00:25:47.009 --> 00:25:48.970 State Department wanted to send American culture 00:25:48.970 --> 00:25:51.450 abroad to win hearts and minds, specifically 00:25:51.450 --> 00:25:54.789 to counter Soviet propaganda. Because the Soviets 00:25:54.789 --> 00:25:57.170 were highlighting American racism, right? Pointing 00:25:57.170 --> 00:25:59.549 out Jim Crow. Yes. And it was a very effective 00:25:59.549 --> 00:26:03.390 critique. So in 1956, the U .S. government organized 00:26:03.390 --> 00:26:06.190 a tour for Dizzy Gillespie. Of all people. He 00:26:06.190 --> 00:26:08.230 took a band to the Middle East, to Pakistan, 00:26:08.410 --> 00:26:11.710 Syria, Turkey. The irony here is just incredibly 00:26:11.710 --> 00:26:15.170 thick. The rebel who got fired by Cab Calloway, 00:26:15.210 --> 00:26:17.309 the guy who basically told the draft board he 00:26:17.309 --> 00:26:19.390 wouldn't fight for a racist country, is now the 00:26:19.390 --> 00:26:21.809 official face of America abroad. It is deeply 00:26:21.809 --> 00:26:24.589 ironic. Yeah. But Dizzy was pragmatic. He excelled 00:26:24.589 --> 00:26:26.670 at it. He earned a new nickname from it, didn't 00:26:26.670 --> 00:26:28.970 he? He did. He earned the nickname the Ambassador 00:26:28.970 --> 00:26:31.789 of Jazz. But he didn't do it to just tow the 00:26:31.789 --> 00:26:33.789 government line. No, he didn't do it for the 00:26:33.789 --> 00:26:35.670 State Department. He did it for the actual people 00:26:35.670 --> 00:26:39.269 he met. Yeah. He saw music as a pure... diplomatic 00:26:39.269 --> 00:26:42.230 tool. A way to connect people regardless of politics 00:26:42.230 --> 00:26:45.710 or language. Exactly. He famously refused to 00:26:45.710 --> 00:26:49.190 stay in the fancy diplomat hotels and would go 00:26:49.190 --> 00:26:51.509 out and eat in the local neighborhoods, play 00:26:51.509 --> 00:26:54.369 his horn with local kids on the street. He embodied 00:26:54.369 --> 00:26:57.190 the best of America, even while America wasn't 00:26:57.190 --> 00:26:59.630 treating him with the best it had. That's a profound 00:26:59.630 --> 00:27:02.349 way to look at it. Speaking of politics, we have 00:27:02.349 --> 00:27:05.960 to talk about the 1964 campaign. Because Dizzy 00:27:05.960 --> 00:27:08.259 Gillespie actually ran for president of the United 00:27:08.259 --> 00:27:10.920 States. He really did. He ran as an independent 00:27:10.920 --> 00:27:13.579 write -in candidate in 64. And this wasn't just 00:27:13.579 --> 00:27:15.880 a vote -for -me vanity project. He actually had 00:27:15.880 --> 00:27:18.740 a platform. He promised to rename the White House. 00:27:18.980 --> 00:27:21.380 Yes, to the Blues House. The Blues House. I love 00:27:21.380 --> 00:27:24.140 it so much. But the best part of the whole campaign 00:27:24.140 --> 00:27:26.980 was his proposed cabinet. Oh, the cabinet is 00:27:26.980 --> 00:27:30.180 legendary. If he won, he had a lineup ready that 00:27:30.180 --> 00:27:32.460 would have been the coolest government in human 00:27:32.460 --> 00:27:34.990 history. Let's go through it. It really was a 00:27:34.990 --> 00:27:38.170 fantasy draft of jazz legends. So, for Secretary 00:27:38.170 --> 00:27:41.930 of State, Duke Ellington. Okay, classy, diplomatic, 00:27:42.269 --> 00:27:46.109 perfect choice. Duke could charm anyone in any 00:27:46.109 --> 00:27:48.950 room. For Director of the CIA, Miles Davis. Can 00:27:48.950 --> 00:27:51.430 you imagine Miles Davis running the CIA? Don't 00:27:51.430 --> 00:27:53.069 tell me what the secrets are. I'll figure them 00:27:53.069 --> 00:27:55.089 out by what you don't say. Exactly. The master 00:27:55.089 --> 00:27:57.849 of silence running the spy agency. It's brilliant. 00:27:58.650 --> 00:28:01.009 Who else? For Secretary of Defense, he wanted 00:28:01.009 --> 00:28:04.650 the drummer Max Roach. Because Max was known 00:28:04.650 --> 00:28:07.410 for being loud and militant. Nice. For Secretary 00:28:07.410 --> 00:28:09.910 of Peace, which is a position we don't have, 00:28:09.970 --> 00:28:12.009 but maybe we should be, he picked Charles Mingus. 00:28:12.190 --> 00:28:14.890 Mingus as Secretary of Peace. That is incredibly 00:28:14.890 --> 00:28:17.650 volatile. Mingus was known for his massive temper. 00:28:17.809 --> 00:28:19.809 He punched musicians on stage. I think that was 00:28:19.809 --> 00:28:22.349 exactly the point. Yeah. Peace through extreme 00:28:22.349 --> 00:28:24.609 strength. And for Attorney General? Malcolm X. 00:28:24.849 --> 00:28:27.450 Wow. Okay, so that signals something a bit more 00:28:27.450 --> 00:28:30.089 serious. Putting Malcolm X in charge of the law, 00:28:30.250 --> 00:28:33.109 that's a massive statement for 1964. It really 00:28:33.109 --> 00:28:36.829 does. And his running mate, his VP, was the comedian 00:28:36.829 --> 00:28:40.190 Phyllis Diller. Phyllis Diller. So on the surface, 00:28:40.250 --> 00:28:43.309 this looks like a giant prank. Campaign buttons, 00:28:43.750 --> 00:28:46.710 jokes about the blues house, comedians on the 00:28:46.710 --> 00:28:49.230 ticket. It started as a joke by his booking agency 00:28:49.230 --> 00:28:53.109 to sell concert tickets. But Dizzy, being Dizzy, 00:28:53.250 --> 00:28:55.789 turned it into something deeply meaningful. How 00:28:55.789 --> 00:28:58.190 so? The proceeds from all those campaign buttons 00:28:58.190 --> 00:29:00.609 didn't go into his pocket. They went straight 00:29:00.609 --> 00:29:03.509 to core. the Congress of Racial Equality and 00:29:03.509 --> 00:29:06.890 the SCLC, to support Martin Luther King Jr. So 00:29:06.890 --> 00:29:09.609 he used the satire to fund the civil rights movement. 00:29:09.750 --> 00:29:11.990 That is brilliant. Precisely. It was performance 00:29:11.990 --> 00:29:14.700 art with a real political purpose. And he took 00:29:14.700 --> 00:29:16.619 it somewhat seriously later on, too, didn't he? 00:29:16.700 --> 00:29:19.599 He briefly announced another run in 1971, but 00:29:19.599 --> 00:29:22.160 ended up withdrawing. But it showed that he was 00:29:22.160 --> 00:29:25.039 heavily engaged with the world, not just isolated 00:29:25.039 --> 00:29:27.279 in the music. He understood his platform. He 00:29:27.279 --> 00:29:29.900 did. And that engagement deepened as he got older. 00:29:30.000 --> 00:29:32.700 His spiritual life really evolved. He moved away 00:29:32.700 --> 00:29:35.619 from the crazy party lifestyle. He did. There's 00:29:35.619 --> 00:29:37.960 a very touching story in the sources about a 00:29:37.960 --> 00:29:40.259 conversation he had after Charlie Parker died. 00:29:40.460 --> 00:29:44.390 Right. In 1955. Barker's death really shook the 00:29:44.390 --> 00:29:47.049 jazz world to its core. It was a massive warning 00:29:47.049 --> 00:29:49.390 sign about the dangers of excess and heroin. 00:29:49.569 --> 00:29:51.730 It had to be a wake -up call for Dizzy. It was. 00:29:52.130 --> 00:29:54.829 Dizzy was talking to an audience member about 00:29:54.829 --> 00:29:57.309 the oneness of humanity. He was searching for 00:29:57.309 --> 00:29:59.109 something deeper. And he found it eventually. 00:29:59.490 --> 00:30:03.710 Yes. In 1968, heavily impacted by the assassination 00:30:03.710 --> 00:30:07.009 of Martin Luther King Jr., Dizzy officially converted 00:30:07.009 --> 00:30:10.480 to the Baha 'i faith. What drew him to that specifically? 00:30:10.920 --> 00:30:13.579 It's not the typical path for a jazz musician 00:30:13.579 --> 00:30:16.000 of that era who might normally turn to Islam 00:30:16.000 --> 00:30:18.759 or Christianity. The Baha 'i faith explicitly 00:30:18.759 --> 00:30:21.759 emphasizes universalism, global citizenship, 00:30:21.900 --> 00:30:24.960 and the complete elimination of racism. Ah, so 00:30:24.960 --> 00:30:26.740 it aligned perfectly with how he already saw 00:30:26.740 --> 00:30:29.019 the world. Yes, especially after his travels 00:30:29.019 --> 00:30:31.200 as the ambassador, he viewed himself as a true 00:30:31.200 --> 00:30:33.500 citizen of the world. He stopped drinking. He 00:30:33.500 --> 00:30:36.240 focused intensely on peace. Matt Hentoff, the 00:30:36.240 --> 00:30:38.259 famous jazz critic, said it gave him inner strength 00:30:38.259 --> 00:30:40.400 and soul force. And you could hear that soul 00:30:40.400 --> 00:30:42.940 force in his later projects. In the 1980s, he 00:30:42.940 --> 00:30:45.640 led the United Nation Orchestra. Notice the singular 00:30:45.640 --> 00:30:50.230 there, United Nation. Implying one unified world. 00:30:50.349 --> 00:30:53.769 Exactly. He was using it to mentor young musicians 00:30:53.769 --> 00:30:57.349 like Flora Purim and Arturo Sandoval. Arturo 00:30:57.349 --> 00:31:00.349 Sandoval, the incredible trumpet player who actually 00:31:00.349 --> 00:31:02.769 defected from Cuba while touring with Dizzy. 00:31:02.849 --> 00:31:05.230 Right. Dizzy helped him navigate that massive 00:31:05.230 --> 00:31:07.569 life changing transition. He wasn't just a band 00:31:07.569 --> 00:31:09.849 leader at that point. No, he was a father figure 00:31:09.849 --> 00:31:12.240 to a whole new generation. He was passing the 00:31:12.240 --> 00:31:14.380 torch. He wanted to ensure the music survived 00:31:14.380 --> 00:31:17.059 long after him. And he was popping up in pop 00:31:17.059 --> 00:31:19.539 culture, too, introducing himself to new audiences. 00:31:19.940 --> 00:31:23.660 He's on Stevie Wonder's huge hit Do I Do in 1982 00:31:23.660 --> 00:31:26.400 playing the trumpet solo. And going back a bit, 00:31:26.539 --> 00:31:29.140 he voiced a character in an animated short called 00:31:29.140 --> 00:31:32.240 The Hole in 1962, which actually won an Oscar. 00:31:32.420 --> 00:31:34.279 I didn't know that. Yeah. And he starred in a 00:31:34.279 --> 00:31:36.480 film called The Winter in Lisbon. He just kept 00:31:36.480 --> 00:31:38.539 working, kept exploring. He didn't just retire 00:31:38.539 --> 00:31:40.740 to a rocking chair. He kept going until the body. 00:31:40.809 --> 00:31:43.150 just couldn't keep up anymore. Yes. The end came 00:31:43.150 --> 00:31:46.269 relatively quickly, unfortunately. In December 00:31:46.269 --> 00:31:49.630 1991, he suffered a severe medical crisis during 00:31:49.630 --> 00:31:51.849 a gig in California. And what was it? It turned 00:31:51.849 --> 00:31:54.529 out to be pancreatic cancer. There's a truly 00:31:54.529 --> 00:31:56.789 heartbreaking detail in the biography about his 00:31:56.789 --> 00:31:59.910 75th birthday celebration. Yes. Carnegie Hall, 00:32:00.069 --> 00:32:02.930 1992. It was supposed to be this massive celebration 00:32:02.930 --> 00:32:05.329 of his life. Right. The second Baha 'i World 00:32:05.329 --> 00:32:08.369 Congress was involved. Incredible musicians like 00:32:08.369 --> 00:32:10.410 John Thaddeus and James Moody were there to play. 00:32:10.569 --> 00:32:14.109 The hall was absolutely packed. But Dizzy... 00:32:14.109 --> 00:32:16.069 But Dizzy was too sick to attend his own tribute. 00:32:16.430 --> 00:32:19.109 That is devastating. It is. But the band played 00:32:19.109 --> 00:32:21.089 on. They played their hearts out for him that 00:32:21.089 --> 00:32:23.170 night, knowing he probably wouldn't ever play 00:32:23.170 --> 00:32:26.230 again. It was essentially a tribute to a living 00:32:26.230 --> 00:32:28.630 ghost. He passed away just a few weeks later 00:32:28.630 --> 00:32:32.869 on January 6, 1993, in Inglewood, New Jersey. 00:32:33.029 --> 00:32:36.069 His funeral was held at St. Peter's Lutheran 00:32:36.069 --> 00:32:39.420 Church. Roberta Flack sang Amazing Grace. And 00:32:39.420 --> 00:32:41.920 he was buried in Flushing Cemetery in Queens. 00:32:42.099 --> 00:32:44.299 And here's a detail that always strikes me when 00:32:44.299 --> 00:32:46.920 I read about it. The grave. His grave is unmarked. 00:32:46.980 --> 00:32:49.619 Unmarked. The man who is literally called the 00:32:49.619 --> 00:32:52.339 sound of surprise, the man with the huge cheeks 00:32:52.339 --> 00:32:55.079 and the bent horn who traveled the world, lies 00:32:55.079 --> 00:32:58.359 in an unmarked grave. That seems almost wrong. 00:32:58.660 --> 00:33:01.480 It does feel very counterintuitive for such a 00:33:01.480 --> 00:33:04.980 loud, vibrant life. Why is it unmarked? The sources 00:33:04.980 --> 00:33:08.039 imply a desire for profound simplicity or privacy 00:33:08.039 --> 00:33:11.160 by the family at the time. But in a way, if you 00:33:11.160 --> 00:33:14.240 think about it, it fits. How so? The music is 00:33:14.240 --> 00:33:16.940 the monument. The silhouette is the marker. He 00:33:16.940 --> 00:33:19.400 isn't neat as stone. You hear him every time 00:33:19.400 --> 00:33:21.640 you hear a flatted fifth or a conga drum in a 00:33:21.640 --> 00:33:23.779 modern jazz track. That's a beautiful way to 00:33:23.779 --> 00:33:25.740 look at it. So when we look back at this life, 00:33:25.880 --> 00:33:29.140 this massive, colorful, impossibly complex life. 00:33:30.009 --> 00:33:32.190 How do we assess his greatness today? How does 00:33:32.190 --> 00:33:34.329 he stack up against contemporaries like Miles 00:33:34.329 --> 00:33:37.390 Davis or Duke Ellington? Wynton Marsalis put 00:33:37.390 --> 00:33:40.130 it very well. He said Dizzy's rhythmic sophistication 00:33:40.130 --> 00:33:43.390 was simply unequaled. Unequaled? Yes. He was 00:33:43.390 --> 00:33:45.849 a master of harmony who knew so much and, importantly, 00:33:45.950 --> 00:33:48.549 was generous with that knowledge. He taught everyone. 00:33:48.869 --> 00:33:51.289 Miles Davis learned from Dizzy. Coltrane learned 00:33:51.289 --> 00:33:53.559 from Dizzy. But Scott Yano, the jazz historian, 00:33:53.740 --> 00:33:55.900 had an interesting take on why maybe Dizzy doesn't 00:33:55.900 --> 00:33:58.200 always get the same copycat reverence as Miles 00:33:58.200 --> 00:34:01.700 Davis. Right. Yano argued that Dizzy was so complex, 00:34:01.880 --> 00:34:05.279 so technically difficult to play, that his contemporaries 00:34:05.279 --> 00:34:07.200 literally couldn't copy him. They just didn't 00:34:07.200 --> 00:34:10.519 have the chops. Exactly. It was much easier to 00:34:10.519 --> 00:34:13.820 copy Miles Davis's cool, minimal style or someone 00:34:13.820 --> 00:34:17.679 like Fats Navarro. Dizzy was almost too good 00:34:17.679 --> 00:34:20.260 to imitate until John Faddis came along in the 00:34:20.260 --> 00:34:22.980 70s and finally cracked the code. He was one 00:34:22.980 --> 00:34:25.840 of one. He broke the mold. Truly. He was the 00:34:25.840 --> 00:34:28.920 complete package. The virtuoso, the theorist, 00:34:28.960 --> 00:34:31.460 the teacher, and the entertainer. So what does 00:34:31.460 --> 00:34:33.719 this all mean for you, the listener, driving 00:34:33.719 --> 00:34:36.340 to work right now or doing the dishes? It means 00:34:36.340 --> 00:34:37.980 you should remember him as the sound of surprise. 00:34:38.500 --> 00:34:41.500 He was a man of total contradictions. Yes. He 00:34:41.500 --> 00:34:44.380 was a virtuoso who was also a comedian. A rebel 00:34:44.380 --> 00:34:47.619 who became a global ambassador. A complex theorist 00:34:47.619 --> 00:34:49.980 who just wanted people to dance. He reminds us 00:34:49.980 --> 00:34:52.380 that you don't have to be just one thing in this 00:34:52.380 --> 00:34:54.739 life. Exactly. You can be serious and funny. 00:34:54.840 --> 00:34:57.340 You can be deeply intellectual and incredibly 00:34:57.340 --> 00:34:59.559 soulful. And he challenged us to think about 00:34:59.559 --> 00:35:01.719 the world differently, which brings me to a final 00:35:01.719 --> 00:35:03.639 provocative thought I want to leave you all with. 00:35:03.800 --> 00:35:06.019 Go for it. Think about that cabinet he proposed 00:35:06.019 --> 00:35:09.320 in 1964. Sure, it was a joke on the surface, 00:35:09.539 --> 00:35:12.760 but imagine for a second a world actually run 00:35:12.760 --> 00:35:15.480 by artists. That would be something. A world 00:35:15.480 --> 00:35:18.019 where the secretary of peace is a bassist like 00:35:18.019 --> 00:35:20.699 Charles Mingus, someone who intimately understands 00:35:20.699 --> 00:35:24.280 harmony, but also tension and how to create release. 00:35:24.579 --> 00:35:27.300 Right. In a world where we are constantly overwhelmed 00:35:27.300 --> 00:35:29.659 by information, and I know you, the listener, 00:35:29.860 --> 00:35:32.840 feel that pressure every day. Maybe we need a 00:35:32.840 --> 00:35:34.619 little less traditional politics and a little 00:35:34.619 --> 00:35:36.659 more jazz. I agree completely. Maybe we actually 00:35:36.659 --> 00:35:38.880 need a Department of Blues to keep us grounded 00:35:38.880 --> 00:35:41.440 and honest. I think we could all use a Secretary 00:35:41.440 --> 00:35:44.519 of Peace right about now. And maybe a director 00:35:44.519 --> 00:35:47.599 of silence like Miles. Absolutely. So do yourself 00:35:47.599 --> 00:35:50.300 a favor today. After this deep dive ends, go 00:35:50.300 --> 00:35:53.420 pull up Manteca or A Night in Tunisia. But don't 00:35:53.420 --> 00:35:55.780 just put it on in the background. No. Listen 00:35:55.780 --> 00:35:58.619 to it. Listen for that bent trumpet cutting through 00:35:58.619 --> 00:36:01.199 the air. Listen for those Afro -Cuban rhythms 00:36:01.199 --> 00:36:03.659 that shouldn't be there but fit perfectly. Listen 00:36:03.659 --> 00:36:06.360 to the sound of surprise. Thanks for diving deep 00:36:06.360 --> 00:36:07.539 with us. We'll see you next time.