Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Dizzy Gillespie

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Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Dizzy Gillespie
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  1. Audio CD: Release Date 2000-11-07
  2. Publisher: Polygram Records
  3. Artist: Dizzy Gillespie
  4. Sales Rank in Music: #104484

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Although Dizzy Gillespie was one of the great architects of modern jazz and its most famous personality, his trumpet style has rarely been imitated successfully. His high-speed runs, twisting phrases, and upper-register leaps are just too difficult to duplicate. This collection begins by placing Gillespie in the big swing bands in which his career began, his complex arrangements and advanced harmonic imagination gradually heralding the coming of bop. There are superb versions of some of his most famous anthems, like "A Night in Tunisia" and "Salt Peanuts," and meetings with altoist Charlie Parker, co-leader of the modernist revolution. Gillespie successfully translated the bop idiom to a big-band format, and his magnificent but short-lived bands are heard on the surging "Manteca" and "Birk's Works." His creative range is apparent--from the gorgeous "No More Blues," from his early discovery of bossa nova, and from his famous gospel parody, "Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac." While his formats would change, it's the Gillespie trumpet that's central here, an instrument capable of both rocketing invention and muted, insinuating sweetness. --Stuart Broomer
Title Tracks for Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Dizzy Gillespie

Customer Reviews

Average Customer Review
4.6 out of 5 stars (7 customer reviews)

12 of 12 people found the following review helpful
4.0 out of 5 stars A good introduction to Dizzy Gillespie, March 15, 2001
By A Customer
This review is from: Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Dizzy Gillespie (Audio CD)
There are far better compilations of Dizzy Gillespie, but unfortunately many of them go in and out of print at an alarming frequency. Only "The Complete RCA Victor Recordings" from six years ago manages to be a great, comprehensive Diz collection that has also stayed in print. This new Ken Burns CD does a great service in collecting some of Diz's greatest recordings and putting them in once place. Once again, we have such essential gems as "I Can't Get Started," "One Bass Hit No. 2," and "Things To Come" widely available in great sound. One wishes that a few tracks like "Ray's Idea" would be included, but perhaps Burns felt it would have shifted too much focus on the 40's. That's too bad because while the later tracks are good, Diz hit an amazing, early peak in the 40's and early 50's that is just monumental (despite some absent gems, the 40's output still takes up half the disc). However, these discs were targeted more towards...Read more


25 of 30 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Best of the Bunch by Jazz' Foremost Entertainer, March 18, 2001
Samuel Chell (Kenosha,, WI United States) - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Dizzy Gillespie (Audio CD)
Thanks to the interest kindled by the Burns series (how curious that the canonical, "party-line" jazz history delivered by Burns and Marsalis has led to their demonization by poorly read, self-appointed critics), I've been collecting these anthologies as preparation for teaching jazz history. Thus far, this Gillespie collection is the most satisfying--more consistent than the Armstrong, more representative than the Ellington, more musically engaging than the Goodman. I'm tempted to say that it's not merely a good introduction to Diz' recorded output but an adequate complete holding for most listeners--the notable omission being the famous "Jazz at Massey Hall" date which included Bird, Bud, Mingus and Max.Unlike Miles, who exercised calculated control over his recording projects and chose "sidemen" with a watchful eye to both their creative and "image" value, Dizzy was laid-back and even careless about his ensembles and recording projects,...Read more


7 of 9 people found the following review helpful
5.0 out of 5 stars Excellent, November 23, 2001
G. Sawaged - See all my reviews
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This review is from: Ken Burns JAZZ Collection: Dizzy Gillespie (Audio CD)
As with a lot of the Ken Burn's series of cds, this was my first real exposure to the music of Dizzy Gillespie. This album covers many different record labels through the years 1940 to 1967, and showcases his many different styles. From small groups to big band, his interest in latin music, as well as his terrific sense of humour, as witnessed in the fun "Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac". The 12 page booklet includes photos of Diz and an interesting essay. Recommended.

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