"Funny Friday" #1: The Showmanship of Dizzy Gillespie

Let's call this the start of a new feature: every Friday, I'll post something that I find amusing or, at the very least, ironic and entertaining, and I'll ask my couple'la frequent commenters to do the same. Comment with some links, a video, a joke, whatever. As music, specifically jazz, is my number one interest, my little pieces o' funny are normally going to be jazz related. And today, I've got a little bit of Dizzy for your Friday morning.


I presume to think that the great Mr. Dizzy Gillespie needs no introduction, but, just in case...

From Wikipedia:

Together with Charlie Parker, [Dizzy Gillespie] was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. In addition to featuring in these epochal moments in bebop, he was instrumental in founding Afro-Cuban jazz, the modern jazz version of what early-jazz pioneer Jelly Roll Morton referred to as the "Spanish Tinge". Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and gifted improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. In addition to his instrumental skills, Dizzy's beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks, and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop, which was originally regarded as threatening and frightening music by many listeners raised on older styles of jazz. He had an enormous impact on virtually every subsequent trumpeter, both by the example of his playing and as a mentor to younger musicians.

Dizzy had the unique ability to be proud and brilliant as well as comical. He was known as a teacher, a great theorist and intellectual who's willingness to mentor and instruct younger musicians stood out from the guarded and protective bebop scene. To see him as simply a clown would be to ignore his incredible musical accomplishments; to see him as a cynical, distant genius in the vein of Charlie Parker is to overlook the trait that has given him his longevity as a musician and performer, as well as endeared him to generations of jazz musicians and listeners.

First up, Dizzy imitates Satchmo, another brilliant and jovial man commonly misunderstood to be a simple jester. Hilarious impression. (Courtesy "Trumpet Kings".)



Next, Dizzy appears on The Muppet Show, and plays a fusion-type version of the immortal "St. Louis Blues". Normally fusion stuff isn't my thing, but something about seeing it played by fuzzy multi-colored puppets gives it the sense of novelty it deserves.



Enjoy!

~J