Name	Vibraphone
Names	Vibraharp, Vibes
Image capt	A typical vibraphone
Background	percussion
Hornbostel sachs	111.222
Hornbostel sachs desc	Directly struck idiophone
Inventors	Henry Schluter
Developed	1927
Range
Related	Marimba, Xylophone, Glockenspiel
Musicians	Lionel Hampton, Milt Jackson, Stefon Harris, Ed Saindon, Dave Samuels, Gary Burton, Bobby Hutcherson, Monte Croft, Joe Locke, Steve Nelson, Tommy Vig, Cal Tjader
Builders	Musser, Yamaha, Adams Musical Instruments, Saito
Midi	011/012
Articles	}}

The vibraphone (also known as the vibraharp or simply the vibes) is a musical instrument in the struck idiophone subfamily of the percussion family.

The vibraphone is similar in appearance to the xylophone, marimba and glockenspiel. Each bar is paired with a resonator tube having a motor-driven butterfly valve at its upper end, mounted on a common shaft, which produces a tremolo or vibrato effect while spinning. The vibraphone also has a sustain pedal similar to that used on a piano; when the pedal is up, the bars are all damped and the sound of each bar is shortened; with the pedal down, they will sound for several seconds.

The most common uses of the vibraphone are within jazz music, where it often plays a featured role, and in the wind ensemble, as a standard component of the percussion section.

History[link]

The first musical instrument called "vibraphone" was marketed by the Leedy Manufacturing Company in the United States in 1921. However, this instrument differed in significant details from the instrument now called the vibraphone. The Leedy vibraphone achieved a degree of popularity after it was used in the novelty recordings of "Aloha 'Oe" and "Gypsy Love Song" by vaudeville performer Louis Frank Chiha ("Signor Frisco").

This popularity led J. C. Deagan, Inc. in 1927 to ask its Chief Tuner, Henry Schluter, to develop a similar instrument. However, Schluter didn't just copy the Leedy design, he introduced several significant improvements: making the bars from aluminum instead of steel for a more "mellow" basic tone; adjustments to the dimensions and tuning of the bars to eliminate the dissonant harmonics in the Leedy design (further mellowing the tone); and the introduction of a damper bar controlled by a foot pedal, enabling it to be played with more expression. Schluter's design was more popular than the Leedy design, and has become the template for all instruments called vibraphone today.

However, when Deagan began marketing Schluter's instrument in 1928, they called it the vibraharp. The name derived from similar aluminum bars that were mounted vertically and operated from the "harp" stop on a theatre organ. Since Deagan trademarked the name, others were obliged to use the earlier "vibraphone" for their instruments incorporating the newer design. As its popularity grew, other manufacturers began producing instruments based on Schluter's design, marketed under a variety of names, including Leedy, who marketed their new instrument as the vibraphone and abandoned their old design.

The name confusion continues, even to the present, but over time vibraphone became significantly more popular than vibraharp. By 1974, the Directory of the D.C. Federation of Musicians listed 39 vibraphone players and 3 vibraharp players. As of 2008, the term vibraharp has disappeared except for anachronistic uses. Often, vibraphone is shortened to "vibes", and the two terms are used interchangeably.

The initial purpose of the vibraphone was to add to the large arsenal of percussion sounds used by vaudeville orchestras for novelty effects. This use was quickly overwhelmed in the 1930s by its development as a jazz instrument. As of 2008, it remains primarily, although not exclusively, a jazz instrument.

The popularity of the vibraphone as a jazz instrument can primarily be credited to one man, Lionel Hampton. The story, perhaps apocryphal, is that "Hamp", a drummer at the time, was playing at the NBC Radio studios, where he discovered a vibraharp that was kept on hand to play the musical motif identifying the NBC network, the "NBC Chimes". After the gig, he spent a considerable amount of time exploring the instrument, and fell in love with it.

Later (October 16, 1930), Hampton was recording with Louis Armstrong & His Sebastian New Cotton Club Orchestra, and the studio they were working in happened to have a Deagan model 145 vibraharp. Hampton showed Armstrong what he could do, and they decided to add vibes to one of the tunes they were scheduled to play, "Memories of You", creating the first known jazz recording using the vibes.

After this, Hampton decided to concentrate on the vibraphone, eventually joining the Benny Goodman Quintet, and later leading his own big bands and achieving great popularity.

Manufacturers[link]

The first manufacturer of vibraphones in the modern configuration was J.C. Deagan, Inc., of Chicago, Illinois, United States, although they called the instruments vibraharps. As the market for vibraphones was proven, first as a vaudeville novelty instrument and then as a jazz instrument, several other manufacturers stepped in to supply the demand. These included the Leedy Manufacturing Company, of Indianapolis, Indiana, who retained the vibraphone name of their earlier product but abandoned its design in favor of the Henry Schluter innovations, and the Jenco Company, of Decatur, Illinois, who initially marketed their instruments as "vibrabells".

Outside of the United States, the Premier Drum Company, of London, UK, after experimenting with a variety of aluminum bar instruments more closely related to the glockenspiel that were called variations of “harpaphone”, moved to the production of the Schluter vibraphone design. Bergerault, of Ligueil, France also began manufacturing vibraphones in the 1930s.

Throughout the 1930s and 1940s, each manufacturer attracted its own following in various specialties, but the Deagan vibraphones were the models preferred by many of the emerging class of specialist jazz players. Deagan struck endorsement deals with many of the leading players, including Lionel Hampton and Milt Jackson.

In 1948, the Musser Company was founded by Claire Omar Musser. Musser,for many years the sales manager of Deagan, was an accomplished marimba and xylophone player famous for touring the United States and Europe leading "marimba symphony orchestras". He applied his experience and observations with the current designs of mallet instruments to his eponymous company and the result was a high-quality line of mallet instruments. His vibraphones emerged as nearly comparable in quality to Deagan vibraphones and Musser was able to garner a share of the top-end market.

The 1960s and 1970s saw a shakeup in the vibraphone market. Leedy and Jenco ceased operations. The Deagan operation was purchased by Slingerland Drum, division of Conn, division of Mcmillan, and ultimately by the Yamaha Corporation. Although Yamaha used the Deagan knowledge to improve their own designs, for vibraphones they discontinued the use of the Deagan name and Deagan model legacy; as of 2008, no visible trace to Deagan remains, although Yamaha continues to use the Deagan name for a line of orchestra bells and chimes. The Musser Company was purchased first by Ludwig Drums, and then, through Ludwig, was purchased by Conn-Selmer, Inc. Unlike the fate of Deagan, the Musser brand and model line were retained by the purchasing companies, and Musser vibraphones remain a major force in the vibraphone market. Century Mallet Instrument Instrument Co. in the old Deagan Building in Chicago, employs former Deagan craftsmen to restore, tune and refurbish quality instruments from all manufacturers.

This period also saw the emergence of new vibraphone manufacturers. Notable companies include Adams Musical Instruments of Ittervoort, The Netherlands and Ross Mallet Instruments, now owned by Jupiter Band Instruments of Austin, Texas, United States.

As of 2008, the vibraphone marketplace is remarkably active, considering the specialty nature of the instrument. The major players include Musser, Yamaha, Adams and Ross. Bergerault, Premier, Studio 49 from Gräfelfing, Germany and the Saito Gakki Company of Japan continue in operation. In addition to the "mass" producers of vibraphones, custom manufacturers, notably vanderPlas Percussion of The Netherlands, are also active.

Range[link]

The standard modern instrument has a range of three octaves, from the F below middle C (F3 to F6 in scientific pitch notation). Larger three-and-a-half or four octave models from the C below middle C are also becoming more common (C3 to F6 or C7). Unlike its cousin the xylophone, it is a non-transposing instrument, generally written at concert pitch. However, sometimes some composers (for example, Olivier Messiaen) write parts to sound an octave higher.

In the 1930s several manufacturers made soprano-vibraphones with a range C4-C7, notably the Ludwig & Ludwig model B110 and the Deagan model 144. Deagan also made a portable model that had a 2½ octave range and resonators made of cardboard (model 30).

Construction[link]

The major components of a vibraphone are the bars, resonators, damper mechanism, motor and the frame. Vibraphones are usually played with mallets.

Bars[link]

Vibraphone bars are made from aluminum bar stock, cut into blanks of pre-determined length. Holes are drilled through the width of the bars so they can be suspended by a cord. To maximize the sustain of the bars, the holes are placed at approximately the nodal points of the bar, i.e. the points of minimum amplitude around which the bar is vibrating. For a uniform bar, the nodal points are located 22.4% from each end of the bar.

Material is ground away from underside of the bars in an arch shape. This serves to lower pitch so the low bars are not excessively long, and is key to the "mellow" sound of the vibraphone (and marimba, which uses the same deep arch) compared with the xylophone, which uses a shallower arch, and the glockenspiel, which has no arch at all. Vibrating rectangular bars have three primary modes of vibration. The deep arch causes these modes to align and create a consonant arrangement of intervals: a fundamental pitch, a pitch two octaves above that, and a third pitch an octave and a major third above the second. For the F3 bar that usually forms the lowest note on a vibraphone, there would be F3 as the fundamental, F5 as the first partial and A6 as the second partial. As a side effect, the arch causes the nodal points of the fundamental vibration to shift closer towards the ends of the bar.

After beveling or rounding the edges, fine-tuning adjustments are made. If a bar is flat, its overall pitch structure can be raised by removing material from the ends of the bar. Once this slightly sharp bar is created, the secondary and tertiary tones can be lowered by removing material from specific locations of the bar. Vibraphones are tuned to a standard of A=442 Hz or A=440 Hz depending on the manufacturer or in some cases the customer's preference.

Like marimbas, professional vibraphones have bars of graduated width. Lower bars are made from wider stock, and higher notes from narrower stock, to help balance volume and tone across the range of the instrument. The bars are anodized, typically in silver or gold color, after fine tuning, and may have a smooth or brushed (matte) finish; cosmetic features which have a negligible effect on the sound.

Resonators[link]

Resonators are thin-walled tubes, typically made of aluminum, but any suitably strong material will do. They are open at one end and closed at the other. Each bar is paired with a resonator whose diameter is slightly wider than the width of the bar, and whose length to the closure is one-quarter of the wavelength of the fundamental frequency of the bar. The resonator for A3 (the lowest A on a vibraphone) is approximately 15 inches long. When the bar and resonator are properly in tune with each other, the vibrating air beneath the bar travels down the resonator and is reflected off the closure at the bottom, then returns back to the top and is reflected back by the bar, over and over, creating a much stronger standing wave and amplifying the fundamental frequency. The resonators, beside raising the upper end of the vibraphone's dynamic range, also affect the overall tone of the vibraphone, since they amplify the fundamental, but not the upper partials.

[[Image:Bobbyhutcherson-joelocke-072007.jpg|thumb|right|350px|Vibraphonists Bobby Hutcherson and Joe Locke performing at the 2007 Jazz Baltica Festival in Salzau (North Germany, July 1, 2007).

Note the difference in the front resonator sets of the two vibraphones. This difference is purely cosmetic. On Locke's vibraphone (on the right) the resonators are only as long as they need to be; the cap in each tube is near the bottom. On Hutcherson's vibraphone the resonators on the high end are much longer than they need to be to produce an arched front as seen in many instruments (and the cap is near the top of those tubes). Both instruments include non-functional resonator tubes with no corresponding bar above to avoid a gap-toothed look.]]

There is a trade-off between the amplifying effect of the resonators and the length of sustain of a ringing bar. Basically, all of the energy in a ringing bar comes from the initial mallet strike, and that energy can go to making the bar ring either louder initially, or not as loud but longer. This is not an issue with marimbas and xylophones, where the natural sustain time of the wooden bars is short, but vibraphone bars can ring for many seconds after being struck, and this effect is highly desirable in many circumstances. Therefore the resonators in a vibraphone are usually tuned to be slightly off-pitch to create a balance between loudness and sustain.

A unique feature of vibraphone resonators is a shaft of rotating discs, commonly called fans, across the top. When the fans are open (vertical) the resonators have full function. When the fans are closed (horizontal) the resonators are partially occluded, reducing the resonance of the fundamental pitch. A drive belt connects the shafts to an electric motor (see below) beneath the playing surface, and rotation of the fans creates what many people call a "vibrato" effect; however in actuality it is a tremolo, i.e. periodic modulation of amplitude, not pitch. In 1970 Deagan introduced a model, the Electravibe, that dispensed with resonator tubes entirely and took a signal directly off the bars, adding a tremulo in a preamplifier. This improved the portability of the instrument as well as solving the problem of micing the bars evenly that is inherent in all the tuned mallet instruments.

Damper mechanism[link]

For the first few years of production the original Leedy Vibraphone did not include a mechanism for damping, or stopping, the sustaining tones. In 1928 the J.C. Deagan company introduced a pedal mechanism that has not changed substantially since. A rigid bar beneath the center of the instrument is pressed upward by an adjustable spring, and engages a long felt pad against the sharps and the naturals. A foot pedal lowers the bar and allows notes to ring freely; releasing the pedal engages the damper and stops any vibrating notes.

The damper mechanism is a sensitive feature of the instrument, as the pad must contact all notes evenly and produce no extraneous noises, and require minimal foot or toe motion. Felt dampers can compress over time and cause uneven damping or buzzing on contact with the bars. In the early 1990s, vibraphonist John Mark Piper designed a new vibraphone for Musser that, among other innovations, included a water-filled damper pad. Later that decade, custom vibraphone maker Nico van der Plas improved on the idea by using silicone gel as the filling. This retro-fittable gel pad reduces impact transference (frame noise from mallet strikes) and provides more even and more complete damping than felt.

Motor[link]

Vibraphones usually have an electric motor and pulley assembly mounted on one side or the other to drive the disks in the resonators. The early vibraphones used motors that were intended to power record player turntables, and had limited or no speed adjustment capabilities. Whatever speed adjustments were possible were made by moving the drive belt among a small number of pulleys (usually three) of varying diameters.

Later, variable speed AC motors became available at reasonable prices. These motors allow the adjustment of the rotating speed via a potentiometer mounted on a control panel near the motor. They typically support rotation rates from about 1-12 Hz. These motors remained the preferred solution until the 1990s, and even as of today are still the most widely used.

During the 1990s, some manufacturers began using computer-controlled servo stepping motors. These motors are capable of slower rotating speeds approaching 0 Hz. The computer control also allows operations that are not possible with an analog motor, such as the ability to synchronize the rotation of the two resonator sets and stop the rotation at a desired state (all open, all closed, all half open, etc.).

Frame[link]

The vibraphone frame offers a number of challenges to designers. It must be sturdy enough to endure the torsional forces created by the damper/spring/pedal assembly and the stresses of repeated transport and playing, while still being light enough for easy transport. Considering the weight of the bars alone, that doesn’t leave much left for the frame. Also, the bars must be securely attached to the frame, but not rigidly. Each bar must have some independent flex in order to ring.

Vibraphone frames consist of two end blocks, made of metal, wood or a combination, attached by various support members. Usually the end blocks are approximately the same size as the two bars that are at the same end; therefore one block is significantly larger than the other.

The motor is attached to the frame at one end. The hinges for the damper bar are attached at each end, and the spring assembly and the pedal are usually attached in the middle. Two banks of resonator tubes are laid into grooves in the frame so that they straddle the damper bar. The resonators are not firmly fastened to the frame. The ends of the shafts that gang the disks are attached to the drive of the motor via a drive belt similar to an O-ring.

A bed for the bars is made by laying four wooden rails onto pins on the end blocks. Like the resonators, these rails are not firmly attached to the frame. Each rail has a series of pins with rubber spacers that will support the bars. The bars are arranged into two groups, and a soft cord is passed through the nodal holes in the bars of each group. The bars are laid between the support pins, with the cord hooking the pins. The pins on the outside rails have U-shaped hooks and the cord just rests in the bend. The inside pins have a hook that grasps the cord and holds the bars in place against the force of the damper pad. The two ends of the cord are attached with a spring at one end to provide tension and flex.

The two rows of bars follow the piano convention of white and black keys, with the row nearer to the player corresponding to the white keys. A rare alternate form is one in which each row of bars is arranged in a whole-tone scale, and the rows are a semitone apart. As with the piano, the lower notes are on the player’s left. Unlike the marimba and the xylophone, the two rows of bars are in the same horizontal plane so that the damper bar will come in contact with both rows at the same time.

Frames come in a variety of styles, from functional to ornate, but, except for negatively via squeaks and rattles, they don't really contribute to the tonal qualities of the vibraphone. Some frames allow the distance between the bars and the resonators to be adjusted, to compensate for variations in air temperature, pressure and moisture that change the speed of sound and therefore the tuning of the bar/resonator system, but this is more common in marimbas than vibraphones. Other frames allow the adjustment of the height of the bar bed. It’s common to see players who don’t have this capability hunched over their instruments while they play as the standard height of non-adjustable frames is often too low for men of average height.

Mallets[link]

Vibraphone mallets usually consist of a rubber ball core wrapped in yarn or cord and attached to a narrow dowel, most commonly made of rattan or birch and sometimes of fiberglass or nylon. Mallets suitable for the vibraphone are also generally suitable for the marimba.

The specific mallets used can have a great effect on the tonal characteristics of the sound produced, ranging from a bright metallic clang to a mellow ring with no obvious initial attack. Consequently, a wide array of mallets is available, offering variations in hardness, head size, weight, shaft length and flexibility.

Classical players must carry a wide range of mallet types to accommodate the changing demands of composers who are looking for particular sounds. Jazz players, on the other hand, since "we don’t know what we’re going to want to play until the second or two that we're there", often rely on a single general-purpose mallet type that works well in all dynamic ranges. Often this choice becomes one of the defining items of the player's personal sound. Some vibraphonists alter commercially-made mallets to get a precise nuance of tone.

Technique[link]

The world of vibraphone players can be roughly divided into those who play with two mallets, and those who play with four. In reality the division is not quite so neat. Many players switch between two, three and four mallets depending on the demands of their current musical situations.

Furthermore, concentrating on the number of mallets a player holds means missing the far more significant differences between the two-mallet and four-mallet playing styles. As of 2008, these differences are not quite as extensive as they were when Gary Burton first introduced the world to the four-mallet style in the 1960s, but they still exist to a large degree.

Two-mallet style[link]

The two-mallet approach to vibes is traditionally linear, playing like a horn. Two-mallet players usually concentrate on playing a single melodic line and rely on other musicians to provide accompaniment. Double stops (two notes played simultaneously) are sometimes used, but mostly as a reinforcement of the main melodic line, similar to the usual use of double stops in solo violin music. In jazz groups, two-mallet vibraphonists are usually considered part of the "front line" with the horn players, contributing solos of their own but contributing very little in the way of accompaniment to other soloists.

Two-mallet players use several different grips, with the most common being a palms-down grip that is basically the same as the matched grip used by drummers. The mallets are held between the thumb and index finger of each hand, with the remaining three fingers of each hand pressing the shafts into the down-facing palms. Strokes use a combination of wrist movement and fingertip control of the shaft.

Another popular grip is similar to the timpani grip. The mallets are again held between the thumb and index fingers and controlled with the remaining three fingers, but the palms are held vertically, facing inward towards each other. Most of the stroke action comes from the finger-tip control of the shafts.

Passages are usually played hand-to-hand with double-sticking (playing two notes in a row with the same hand) used when convenient in minimizing crossing the hands.

The player must pay close attention to the use of the damper pedal in order to cleanly articulate and avoid multiple notes ringing unintentionally at the same time. Since the notes ring for some significant fraction of a second when struck with the damper pad up, and ringing bars do not stop ringing immediately when contacted by the pad, a technique called "after pedaling" is necessary. In this technique, the damper pedal is depressed marginally after the note is struck, shortly enough after so that the recently struck note continues to ring, but long enough after so that the previous note has stopped ringing.

Another damper technique is "half pedaling", where the pedal is depressed just enough to remove the spring pressure from the bars, but not enough so the pad has lost contact with the bars. This allows the bars to ring slightly longer than with the pad fully up and can be used to make a medium-fast passage sound more legato without pedaling every note.

Four-mallet style[link]

The four-mallet vibraphone style is multi-linear, like a piano. "Thinking like a pianist, arranger, and orchestrator, the vibist approaches the instrument like a piano and focuses on a multi-linear way of playing." In jazz groups, four-mallet vibraphonists are often considered part of the rhythm section, typically substituting for piano or guitar, and providing accompaniment for other soloists in addition to soloing themselves. Furthermore, the four-mallet style has led to a significant body of unaccompanied solo vibes playing. One notable example is Gary Burton’s performance of "Chega de Saudade (No More Blues)" from his Grammy-winning 1971 album "Alone at Last".

Although some early vibes players made use of four mallets, notably Red Norvo and sometimes Lionel Hampton, the fully pianistic four-mallet approach is almost entirely the creation of Gary Burton. Many of the key techniques of the four-mallet style, such as multi-linear playing and the advanced dampening techniques described below, are easily applied to playing with two mallets and some modern two-mallet players have adapted these devices to their playing, somewhat blurring the distinctions between modern two- and four-mallet players.

The most popular four-mallet grip for vibraphone is the Burton grip, named for Gary Burton. One mallet is held between the thumb and index finger and the other is held between the index and middle fingers. The shafts cross in the middle of the palm and extend past the heel of the hand. For wide intervals, the thumb often moves in between the two mallets and the inside mallet is held in the crook of the fingers.

Also popular is the Stevens grip, named for marimbist Leigh Howard Stevens. Many other grips are in use, some variations on the Burton or Stevens, others idiosyncratic creations of individual vibes players. One common variation of the Burton grip places the outside mallet between the middle and ring fingers, instead of between the index and middle.

Four-mallet vibists usually play scalar linear passages much the same as two-mallet players, using one mallet from each hand (outside right and inside left for Burton grip), except four-mallet players tend to make more use of double strokes, not only to avoid crossing hands but also to minimize motion between the two bar rows. For example, an ascending E flat major scale could be played L-R-R-L-L-R-R-L, keeping the left hand on the "black" bars and the right hand on the "white". For linear passages with leaps, all four mallets are often used sequentially.

Pedaling techniques are at least as important for the four-mallet vibist as for two-mallet players, but the all-or-nothing dampening system of the pedal/pad presents many obstacles to multi-linear playing since each line normally has its own dampening requirements independent of the other lines. To overcome this, four-mallet players use a set of dampening techniques referred to as "mallet dampening", in addition to the pedaling techniques used by two-mallet players. The mallet dampening techniques "are to the vibist as garlic and fresh basil are to the Northern Italian chef" and contribute significantly to expressive four-mallet playing.

Mallet dampening includes "dead strokes" where a player strikes a bar, and then instead of drawing the mallet back, directly presses the head of the mallet onto the bar, causing the ringing to immediately stop. This produces a fairly distinctive "choked" sound and dead strokes are often used just for that particular sound in addition to the dampening aspects.

In hand-to-hand dampening, the vibist plays a note with one mallet, while simultaneously pressing another mallet onto a previously ringing bar. Usually the dampening mallet and the striking mallet are held in different hands, but advanced players can, in some circumstances, use two mallets from the same hand. This is the most powerful of the mallet dampening techniques as it can be used to dampen any note on the instrument while simultaneously striking any other note.

Slide dampening can be used to dampen a note that is physically adjacent to the new note being struck. The player strikes the new note and then controls the rebound of the mallet so that it slides over and onto the note to be dampened. Sometimes slide dampening can make the new note sound "bent" or as if there is a glissando from the dampened note to the ringing one, as the two notes normally ring together for some short period of time.

Hand dampening (also known as finger dampening) can be used to dampen a white note while striking a nearby black note. As the player strikes a black note with a mallet, they simultaneously press the heel of their hand or the side of their pinky finger onto the ringing white bar, using the same hand to strike the black note and dampen the white note. Using both hands, it's possible to dampen and strike two notes at once.

Specialty techniques[link]

Pitch bending: This technique allows the pitch of a ringing bar to be smoothly lowered, or "bent", downward, by a half-step or so. To do this, the player replaces one of the normal mallets with a hard-headed mallet such as a hard rubber or plastic xylophone mallet. The player presses the special mallet onto a ringing bar at the nodal point, and then slides the mallet out towards the middle or edge of the bar. This causes the mallet to start vibrating with the bar, adding its weight to the system and slowing the vibration. The player must be very careful in placing the hard mallet onto the bar in order to avoid a rattling as the mallet and bar come into contact.

Bowing: In addition to striking the bars with mallets, the bars can be made to sound by drawing the bow of a string instrument along the edges. Since bars are fairly massive compared to strings, better results are obtained by using bows from the larger string instruments, at least a cello bow and often a double bass bow. Often a player will use two bows, one for the white bars and the other for the black. With bowing, the player is able to excite the bars directly to the pure ringing tone and eliminate many of the transient dissonant sounds that are present immediately after a mallet strikes.

Five or six mallets: In order to achieve greater density of sound and richer chord voicings, some vibraphonists have experimented with three mallets per hand, either in both hands for a total of six mallets or in just the left hand for a total of five. Results can be interesting, especially five-mallet playing where the left hand "comps" in three note voicings while the right hand plays melodic lines, similar to the popular piano technique. However, the grips tend to lead to limited musical possibilities, with little ability to adjust the interval between the outside and middle mallets and difficulties in playing hand-to-hand lines, and therefore use of five or six mallets is rare.

Harmonics: It is also possible to play harmonics on the vibraphone. This is achieved by placing one mallet in the centre of the bar in an almost vertical position, while the other mallet strikes the bar over one of the nodes. When the second mallet strikes the bar the first mallet is removed. The strongest harmonic is the first partial which on the vibraphone is 2 octaves above the fundamental.

Rolling with one hand: Another extended technique is the rolling of a note with one hand. This is for vibes, xylophone and marimba. With two mallets in one hand, by putting one mallet beneath the key and another above it, and by moving the wrist vertically, the percussionist can make a rolling sound with just one hand as opposed to using both. Obviously, this does not work on the sharps and flats.

Other techniques: The vibraphone solo "Mourning Dove Sonnet," composed by Christopher Deane, utilizes a four mallet grip with two cello (or bass) bows held where the outer mallets would be, a yarn mallet for the main melodic playing and a plastic mallet for pitch bending in the inner positions.

Vibraphone recordings[link]

thumb|center|Footage from the early 1940s of an orchestra of marimbists and a vibraphonist

Classical works with the vibraphone [link]

Pierre Boulez: ''Le marteau sans maître'', for contralto and six instrumentalists, with prominent part for vibraphone (1955)

Alan Chan: ''Floes'' (2003), ''Without a Trail to Lace'' for voice and vibraphone (2008)

Christopher Deane: ''Mourning Dove Sonnet'' (1980), ''The Apocryphal Still Life'' (1996)

Franco Donatoni: ''Omar'' (1985)

Philippe Hurel: ''Loops II'' for vibraphone (2006)

Philippe Manoury: ''Solo de vibraphone'' (1986)

Ney Rosauro: Concerto for Vibraphone and Orchestra (1996), numerous works

Emmanuel Sejourne: Concerto for vibraphone and orchestra (1999), Concerto for vibraphone and percussion ensemble (2002), numerous works

Stuart Saunders Smith: ''Links'' series, 11 works (1975-1994), numerous works

Karlheinz Stockhausen: ''Vibra-Elufa'', for vibraphone; ''Strahlen'', for vibraphone (optionally with glockenspiel) and ten-channel electronic music (2002)

Andersen Viana: ''Love Song'' (1986), numerous works

See also [link]

Balafon

Glockenspiel

Lithophone

Marimba

Marimbaphone

Metallophone

Xylophone

List of vibraphonists

References[link]

Introduction to Jazz Vibes; by Gary Burton; Creative Music; 1965.

Vibraphone Technique: Dampening and Pedaling; by David Friedman; Berklee Press Publications; 1973.

Contemporary Mallet Method - An Approach to the Vibraphone and Marimba; by Jerry Tachoir: Riohcat Music; 1980

The Mallet Percussions and How to Use Them: by Wallace Barnett; J.C. Deagan Co.: 1975

The Story of Mallet Instruments: 16mm and DVD: by Barry J. Carroll J.C. Deagan Co.: 1975

Category:Articles containing video clips Category:Keyboard percussion Category:Pitched percussion Category:Idiophones Category:Melodic percussion

bg:Вибрафон ca:Vibràfon cs:Vibrafon da:Vibrafon de:Vibraphon et:Vibrafon es:Vibráfono eo:Vibrafono fa:ویبرافون fr:Vibraphone gl:Vibráfono ko:비브라폰 hr:Vibrafon id:Vibrafon it:Vibrafono he:ויברפון lt:Vibrafonas hu:Vibrafon nl:Vibrafoon ja:ヴィブラフォン no:Vibrafon pl:Wibrafon pt:Vibrafone ro:Vibrafon ru:Вибрафон simple:Vibraphone sl:Vibrafon sr:Вибрафон sh:Vibrafon fi:Vibrafoni sv:Vibrafon uk:Вібрафон zh:颤音琴

name	Chick Corea
background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
birth name	Armando Anthony Corea
birth date	June 12, 1941
origin	Chelsea, Massachusetts, U.S.
instrument	Piano, keyboards, synthesizers, organ, vibraphone, drums
genre	Jazz, jazz fusion, post bop, latin jazz, classical music, avant-garde jazz
occupation	Pianist, keyboardist, composer, bandleader
years active	1962–present
label	ECM, Polydor, Stretch, Warner Bros.
associated acts	Return to Forever, Five Peace Band, Chaka Khan
website
notable instruments	}}

Armando Anthony "Chick" Corea (born June 12, 1941) is an American jazz pianist, keyboardist, and composer.

Many of his compositions are considered jazz standards. As a member of Miles Davis' band in the 1960s, he participated in the birth of the electric jazz fusion movement. In the 1970s he formed Return to Forever. Along with Herbie Hancock, McCoy Tyner and Keith Jarrett, he has been described as one of the major jazz piano voices to emerge in the post-John Coltrane era.

His career has been driven by his will to operate as a free agent and compulsively explore different avenues of music making. This hunger has positioned him as an important catalyst in the world of serious, mainstream acoustic jazz, and he is one of the most influential and widely studied figures in the last 40 years.

Corea continued to pursue other collaborations and to explore various musical styles throughout the 1980s and 1990s. He is also known for promoting and fundraising for a number of social issues, such as eradicating social illiteracy, and is a Scientologist.

Life and career[link]

Youth[link]

Armando Corea was born in Chelsea, Massachusetts. He is of Sicilian and Spanish descent. His father, a jazz trumpet player who had led a Dixieland band in the Boston area in the 1930s and 1940s, introduced him to the piano at the age of four. Growing up surrounded by jazz music, he was influenced at an early age by bebop and stars such as Dizzy Gillespie, Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Horace Silver, and Lester Young. At eight Corea also took up drums, which would later influence his use of the piano as a percussion instrument.

Corea developed his piano skills by exploring music on his own. A notable influence was concert pianist Salvatore Sullo from whom Corea started taking lessons at age eight and who introduced him to classical music, helping spark his interest in musical composition. He also spent several years as a performer and soloist for the Knights of St. Rose, a drum and bugle corps based in Chelsea.

Given a black tuxedo by his father, he started doing gigs when in high school. He enjoyed listening to Herb Pomeroy's band at the time, and had a trio which would play Horace Silver's music at a local jazz club.

He eventually decided to move to New York where he studied musical education for one month at Columbia University and six months at The Juilliard School. He quit after finding both disappointing, but liked the atmosphere of New York where the musical scene became the starting point for his professional career.

Early career[link]

Corea's first major professional gig was with Cab Calloway. Corea started his professional career in the 1960s playing with trumpeter Blue Mitchell and Latin greats such as Herbie Mann, Willie Bobo and Mongo Santamaría. One of the earliest recordings of his playing is with Blue Mitchell's quintet on ''The Thing To Do''. This album features his composition "Chick's Tune", a clever retooling of "You Stepped Out of a Dream" that demonstrates the angular melodies and Latin-and-swing rhythms that characterize, in part, Corea's personal style. (Incidentally, the same tune features a drum solo by a very young Al Foster.)

His first album as a leader was ''Tones for Joan's Bones'' in 1966, two years before the release of his album ''Now He Sings, Now He Sobs'', with Roy Haynes on drums and Miroslav Vitouš on bass.

He made another sideman appearance with Stan Getz on 1967's ''Sweet Rain'' (Verve Records).

Avant garde period[link]

From 1968 to 1971 Corea had associations with avant garde players and his solo style revealed a dissonant, avant garde orientation. His avant garde playing can be heard on his solo works of the period, his solos in live recordings under the leadership of Miles Davis, his recordings with Circle, and his playing on Joe Farrell's ''Song of the Wind'' album on CTI Records.

In September 1968 Corea replaced Herbie Hancock in the piano chair in Davis' band and appeared on landmark albums such as ''Filles de Kilimanjaro'', ''In a Silent Way'', and ''Bitches Brew''. In concert, Davis' rhythm section of Corea, Dave Holland, and Jack DeJohnette combined elements of free jazz improvisation and rock music. Corea experimented using electric instruments with the Davis band, mainly the Fender Rhodes electric piano.

In live performance he frequently processed the output of his electric piano with a device called a ring modulator, producing sounds reminiscent of composer Karlheinz Stockhausen. Using this style, he appeared on multiple Davis albums, including ''Black Beauty: Live at the Fillmore West'' and ''Miles Davis at Fillmore: Live at the Fillmore East.'' His live performances with the Miles Davis band continued into 1970, with a great touring band of Steven Grossman, tenor sax, Keith Jarrett, additional electric piano and organ, Jack DeJohnette, drums, Dave Holland, bass, Airto Moreira, percussion, and Miles on trumpet.

Holland and Corea left to form their own group, Circle, active in 1970 and 1971. This free jazz group featured multi-reed player Anthony Braxton and drummer Barry Altschul. This band was documented on Blue Note and ECM. Aside from soloing in an atonal style, Corea sometimes reached in the body of the piano and plucked the strings. In 1971 or 1972 Corea struck out on his own.

The concept of communication with an audience became a big thing for me at the time. The reason I was using that concept so much at that point in my life – in 1968, 1969 or so – was because it was a discovery for me. I grew up kind of only thinking how much fun it was to tinkle on the piano and not noticing that what I did had an effect on others. I did not even think about a relationship to an audience, really, until way later.

Jazz fusion[link]

In the early 1970s Corea took a profound stylistic turn from avant garde playing to a crossover jazz fusion style that incorporated Latin jazz elements. He founded Return to Forever in 1971. This band had a fusion sound and even though it relied on electronic instrumentation it drew more on Brazilian and Spanish-American musical styles than on rock music. On its first two records, Return to Forever featured Flora Purim's vocals, the Fender Rhodes electric piano, and Joe Farrell's flute and soprano saxophone. Airto Moreira played drums. Corea's compositions for this group often had a Brazilian tinge. In 1972 Corea played many of the early ''Return to Forever'' songs in a group he put together for Stan Getz. This group, with Stanley Clarke on bass and Tony Williams on drums, recorded the Columbia label album ''Captain Marvel'' under Getz's name.

Only Clarke remained from the group's first lineup; Bill Connors played electric guitar and Lenny White played drums. No one replaced vocalist Purim. (Briefly, in 1977, Corea's wife, Gayle Moran, served as vocalist in the band.) In 1974 Al Di Meola joined the band, replacing Connors. In this second version of Return to Forever, Corea extended the use of synthesizers, particularly Moogs. The group released its final studio record in 1977. Thereafter, Corea focused on solo projects.

Corea's composition "Spain" first appeared on the 1972 Return to Forever album ''Light as a Feather''. This is probably his most popular piece, and it has been recorded by a variety of artists. There are also a variety of subsequent recordings by Corea himself in various contexts, including an arrangement for piano and symphony orchestra that appeared in 1999, and a collaborative piano and voice-as-instrument arrangement with Bobby McFerrin on the 1992 album ''Play''. Corea usually performs "Spain" with a prelude based on Joaquín Rodrigo's ''Concierto de Aranjuez'' (1940), which earlier received a jazz orchestration on Miles Davis' and Gil Evans' "Sketches of Spain".

In 1976 he issued ''My Spanish Heart'', influenced by Latin American music and featuring vocalist Moran and electric violinist Jean-Luc Ponty.

The late Ana Mazzotti, a Brazilian jazz pianist and vocalist, dedicated what is perhaps her last ever recorded track, "Grand Chick", to Corea. The song may be found on her "Ao Vivo Guaruja 1982" album. As Ana Mazzotti worked with Brazilian jazz fusion masters Azymuth in her first album, it was further testament to Corea's influence in the genre.

Duet projects[link]

In the 1970s Corea started working occasionally with vibraphonist Gary Burton, with whom he recorded several duet albums on ECM, including 1972's ''Crystal Silence''. They reunited in 2006 for a concert tour. A new record called ''The New Crystal Silence'' (which has received 3 nominations for the 51st Grammy Awards) was issued shortly into 2008. The package includes a disc of duets and another disc featuring the Sydney Symphony.

Later, toward the end of the 1970s, Corea embarked on a series of concerts and two albums with Herbie Hancock. These concerts were presented in elegant settings with both pianists formally dressed, and performing on Yamaha concert grand pianos. The two jazz greats traded playing each other's compositions, as well as pieces by other composers such as Béla Bartók.

In December 2007 Corea recorded a duet album, ''The Enchantment'', with banjoist Bela Fleck. Fleck and Corea toured extensively behind the album in 2007. Fleck was nominated in the Best Instrumental Composition category at the 49th Grammy Awards for the track "Spectacle."

In 2008 Corea collaborated with Japanese pianist Hiromi Uehara on the live album ''Duet (Chick Corea and Hiromi)''. The duo played a concert at Tokyo's Budokan arena on April 30.

Later work[link]

Corea's other bands include the Elektric Band, the Akoustic Band, and Origin.

The Akoustic Band released a self-titled album in 1989, and featured John Patitucci on bass and Dave Weckl on drums. It marked a turn back toward traditional jazz in Corea's career, and the bulk of his subsequent recordings have been acoustic ones. The Akoustic Band also provided the music for the 1986 Pixar short Luxo Jr. with their song ''The Game Maker''.

In 1992 Corea started his own label, Stretch Records.

In 2001 the Chick Corea New Trio, with Avishai Cohen and Jeff Ballard on bass and drums, respectively, released the album ''Past, Present & Futures''. The 11-song album includes only one standard composition (Fats Waller's "Jitterbug Waltz"). The rest of the tunes are Corea originals.

He also participated in 1998's ''Like Minds'', which features Gary Burton on vibes, Pat Metheny on guitar, Dave Holland on bass and Roy Haynes on drums.

Recent years have also seen Corea's rising interest in contemporary classical music. He composed his first piano concerto – and an adaptation of his signature piece, ''Spain'', for a full symphony orchestra – and performed it in 1999 with the London Philharmonic Orchestra. Five years later he composed his first work not to feature any keyboards: His ''String Quartet No. 1'' was specifically written for the Orion String Quartet and performed by them on 2004's Summerfest.

Corea has continued releasing jazz fusion concept albums such as ''To the Stars'' (2004) and ''Ultimate Adventure'' (2006). The latter album won the Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group.

In 2008 the second version of Return to Forever (Corea, keyboards; Stanley Clarke, bass; Lenny White, drums; Al Di Meola, guitar) reunited for a worldwide tour. The reunion received positive reviews from most jazz and mainstream publications. Most of the group's studio recordings were re-released on the compilation ''Return to Forever: The Anthology'' to coincide with the tour. A concert DVD recorded during their performance at the Montreux Jazz Festival was released in May 2009. He is recently working on a collaboration CD with the Grammy Award winning jazz vocal group The Manhattan Transfer, due to be released in August 2009.

A new group, the 5 Peace Band, which features Corea and guitarist John McLaughlin, began a world tour in October 2008. Corea had previously worked with McLaughlin in Miles Davis' late 1960s bands, including the group that recorded Davis' album ''Bitches Brew''. Joining Corea and McLaughlin in the 5 Peace Band are saxophonist Kenny Garrett and bassist Christian McBride. Drummer Vinnie Colaiuta played with the band in Europe and on select North American dates; Brian Blade played all dates in Asia and Australia, and most dates in North America.

Scientology[link]

Corea says that Scientology has helped deepen his relationships with others, and helped him find a renewed path. Under the "special thanks" notes, found in all of his later albums, Corea mentions that L. Ron Hubbard, founder of Scientology, has been a continual source of inspiration. In 1968 Corea discovered ''Dianetics'', Hubbard's principal work, and in the early 1970s developed an interest in Hubbard's science fiction novels. The two exchanged letters until Hubbard's death in 1986, and Corea had three guest appearances on Hubbard's 1982 album ''Space Jazz: The Soundtrack of the Book Battlefield Earth'', noting, "[Hubbard] was a great composer and keyboard player as well. He did many, many things. He was a true Renaissance Man."

Corea said that Scientology became a profound influence on his musical direction in the early 1970s:

Due to Corea's religious affiliation, he was banned from performing in a concert to be held in Stuttgart, Germany, on August 15, 1993. Members of the U.S. Congress sent letters to the German government concerning a violation of basic human rights that are upheld by the German Constitution. The ban was not upheld, and in later years Corea performed in festivals in Germany, including several times at the government-supported International Jazz Festival in Burghausen where he was awarded a plaque in Burghausen's "Street of Fame" in 2011.

In 1998, Corea and fellow entertainers Anne Archer, Isaac Hayes, and Haywood Nelson attended the 30th anniversary of ''Freedom Magazine'', the Church of Scientology's investigative news journal, at the National Press Club in Washington, D.C., to honor 11 human rights activists.

Discography[link]

Awards[link]

Over the years, he has been nominated for 51 Grammy Awards out of which he has won 18: !Year

|	Award	Album/song
Grammy Awards of 1976	1976		''No Mystery'' (with Return to Forever)
		''In Concert, Zürich, October 28, 1979'' (with Gary Burton)
		''Akoustic Band'' (with Akoustic Band)
		"Rhumbata", ''Native Sense'' (with Gary Burton)
		Grammy Award for Best Jazz Instrumental Album, Individual or Group>Best jazz instrumental performance
		"Spain for Sextet & Orchestra", ''Corea.Concerto''
		"Matrix", ''Rendezvous in New York''
		"The Ultimate Adventure"
		"Three Ghouls", ''The Ultimate Adventure''
		''The New Crystal Silence'' (with Gary Burton)
		"500 Miles High," from ''Forever''
		''Forever'' (with Corea, Clarke & White)

Corea has also won two Latin Grammy Awards.

!Year

|	Award	Album/song
		''The Enchantment'' (with Bela Fleck)
		''Forever'' (with Stanley Clarke and Lenny White)

His 1968 album ''Now He Sings, Now He Sobs'' was inducted in the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1999.

In 2010, he was named ''doctor honoris causa'' at Norwegian University of Science and Technology (NTNU).

See also[link]

Analog synthesizer

References[link]

External links[link]

Official site

Official discography

Jazzreview.com biography

An Interview with Chick Corea by Bob Rosenbaum, July 1974 (PDF file) "You put these notes together and you come out with that sound, and isn't it beautiful. So what? What does it do to another person? What does it do to your neighborhood?"

Chick Corea talks to Michael J Stewart about his Piano Concerto

Category:1941 births Category:Living people Category:American jazz composers Category:American jazz musicians of Italian descent Category:American jazz pianists Category:American people of Sicilian descent Category:American people of Spanish descent Category:American Scientologists Category:Crossover (music) Category:ECM artists Category:Grammy Award winners Category:GRP Records artists Category:Jazz fusion pianists Category:Keytarists Category:Latin Grammy Award winners Category:Miles Davis Category:People from Chelsea, Massachusetts Category:Post-bop pianists Category:Return to Forever members

bg:Чък Кърия ca:Chick Corea cs:Chick Corea da:Chick Corea de:Chick Corea es:Chick Corea eo:Chick Corea fa:چیک کوریا fr:Chick Corea gl:Chick Corea io:Chick Corea id:Chick Corea it:Chick Corea he:צ'יק קוריאה ka:ჩიკ კორია sw:Chick Corea hu:Chick Corea nl:Chick Corea ja:チック・コリア no:Chick Corea nn:Chick Corea oc:Chick Corea pl:Chick Corea pt:Chick Corea ro:Chick Corea ru:Кориа, Чик simple:Chick Corea sk:Chick Corea sr:Чик Корија fi:Chick Corea sv:Chick Corea th:ชิค คอเรีย tr:Chick Corea uk:Чік Коріа zh:奇克·柯瑞亞

name	Michael Kiwanuka
landscape
background	solo_singer
birth date	1988 (age 24)
birth place	Muswell Hill, London
death date
genre	Soul, alternative
occupation	Singer-songwriter
instrument	Vocals, guitar
years active
label	Polydor, Communion
website
notable instruments	}}

Michael Kiwanuka is a British soul musician who is signed to Communion Records. He has been compared to Bill Withers, Randy Newman, and Otis Redding, as well as Van Morrison and the Temptations. In January 2012 he won the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll.

Early life[link]

Kiwanuka grew up in Muswell Hill, North London, the son of Ugandan parents who had escaped the Amin regime. He attended Fortismere School, leaving there in 2005 after completing his A-Levels. He then studied at the School of Media, Arts and Design at the University of Westminster.

Musical style[link]

Kiwanuka has acknowledged influences from musicians such as Bill Withers, Otis Redding, Pops Staples, The Band, Joni Mitchell, Bob Dylan, Eric Bibb, Tommy Sims, Richie Havens, and has played with James Gadson, who drummed for Bill Withers.

Career[link]

2011-present: Breakthrough and Debut album[link]

Kiwanuka worked as a session guitarist, playing with Chipmunk and Bashy, before working as a solo artist; his first proper gig was at The Oxford, Kentish Town. He came to the attention of Communion Records, which released his first two EPs., including his debut ''Tell Me A Tale'' on 13 June 2011.

Kiwanuka supported Adele on her Adele Live 2011 tour, as well at her iTunes Festival 2011 gig, and played at the 2011 Hard Rock Calling.

In 2011 he signed a deal with Polydor Records. He was included in the BBC's Sound of 2012 poll and was named as the winner on 6 January 2012.

Discography[link]

Studio albums[link]

2

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Album Details

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*Release: 12 March 2012.

*Label: Polydor Records

Compact Disc>CD, [[Music download

4

13

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26

35

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3

7

8

Extended plays[link]

Title	EP details
''Tell Me a Tale EP(Isle of Wight Sessions)''		*Released: 24 April 2011	*Label: Communion Records	*Format: ''iTunes Festival: London 2011''		*Released: 8 July 2011	*Label: Polydor Records	Digital download">Music download
''iTunes Festival: London 2011''		*Released: 8 July 2011	*Label: Polydor Records	Digital download
! scope="row"		*Released: 24 July 2011	*Label: Communion Records	*Format: Digital download, 10" vinyl

Singles[link]

61 — —

scope="col" rowspan="2"	Year	Single	Peak chart positions					Album
! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"	! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"		! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"	! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"	! scope="col" style="width:3em;font-size:85%;"
rowspan="3">2012			29	3	|	59	34	rowspan="3">''Home Again''
scope="row"	"I'm Getting Ready"<		187	—	|	—	—
scope="row">"I'll Get Along (song)	I'll Get Along"	—	—	|	—	—

Awards and nominations[link]

! Year	! Organisation	! Award	! Result
2011		Sound of 2012

References[link]

External links[link]

Category:1988 births Category:Living people Category:British soul musicians Category:British soul singers Category:British people of Ugandan descent Category:People from Muswell Hill

de:Michael Kiwanuka fr:Michael Kiwanuka nl:Michael Kiwanuka ru:Киванука, Майкл

Background	non_vocal_instrumentalist
Birth name	John Birks Gillespie
Birth date	October 21, 1917
Birth place	Cheraw, South Carolina, U.S.
Death date	January 06, 1993
Death place	Englewood, New Jersey, U.S.
Instrument	Trumpet, piano, trombone
Genre	BebopAfro-Cuban jazz
Occupation	Trumpeter, bandleader, singer, composer
Years active	1935–1993
Associated acts	Charlie ParkerCab CallowayBud Powell
Label	Pablo Records, Verve Records, Savoy Records, RCA Victor Records, Milan Records, Douglas Records }}

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (; October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, composer and, occasionally, singer.

Allmusic's Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated . . . Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time."

Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop.

In the 1940s Gillespie, together with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Jon Faddis and Chuck Mangione.

Biography[link]

Early life and career[link]

Gillespie was born in Cheraw, South Carolina, the youngest of nine children of James and Lottie Gillespie. James was a local bandleader, so instruments were made available to Dizzy. He started to play the piano at the age of four. Dizzy's father died when the boy was only ten years old. Dizzy taught himself how to play the trombone as well as the trumpet by the age of twelve. From the night he heard his idol, Roy Eldridge, play on the radio, he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician. He received a music scholarship to the Laurinburg Institute in Laurinburg, North Carolina He attended for two years before accompanying his family when they moved to Philadelphia.

Dizzy's first professional job was with the Frank Fairfax Orchestra in 1935, after which he joined the respective orchestras of Edgar Hayes and Teddy Hill, essentially replacing Roy Eldridge as first trumpet in 1937. Teddy Hill’s band was where Dizzy Gillespie made his first recording, ''King Porter Stomp''. At this time, Dizzy met a young woman named Lorraine from the Apollo Theatre, whom he married in 1940. They remained married until his death in 1993. Dizzy stayed with Teddy Hill’s band for a year, then left and free-lanced with numerous other bands. In 1939, Dizzy joined Cab Calloway's orchestra, with which he recorded one of his earliest compositions, the instrumental ''Pickin' the Cabbage'', in 1940. (Originally released on ''Paradiddle'', a 78rpm backed with a co-composition with Cozy Cole, Calloway's drummer at the time, on the Vocalion label, #5467).

Dizzy was fired by Calloway in late 1941, after a notorious altercation between the two. The incident is recounted by Dizzy, along with fellow Calloway band members Milt Hinton and Jonah Jones, in Jean Bach's 1997 film, The Spitball Story. Calloway did not approve of Dizzy's mischievous humor, nor of his adventuresome approach to soloing; according to Jones, Calloway referred to it as “Chinese music.” During one performance, Calloway saw a spitball land on the stage, and accused Dizzy of having thrown it. Dizzy denied it, and the ensuing argument led to Calloway striking Dizzy, who then pulled out a switchblade knife and charged Calloway. The two were separated by other band members, during which scuffle Calloway was cut on the hand.

During his time in Calloway's band, Dizzy Gillespie started writing big band music for bandleaders like Woody Herman and Jimmy Dorsey. He then freelanced with a few bands - most notably Ella Fitzgerald's orchestra, composed of members of the late Chick Webb's band, in 1942.

In 1943, Dizzy joined the Earl Hines band. Composer Gunther Schuller said:

... In 1943 I heard the great Earl Hines band which had Bird in it and all those other great musicians. They were playing all the flatted fifth chords and all the modern harmonies and substitutions and Dizzy Gillespie runs in the trumpet section work. Two years later I read that that was 'bop' and the beginning of modern jazz ... but the band never made recordings.

Gillespie said of the Hines band, "People talk about the Hines band being 'the incubator of bop' and the leading exponents of that music ended up in the Hines band. But people also have the erroneous impression that the music was new. It was not. The music evolved from what went before. It was the same basic music. The difference was in how you got from here to here to here ... naturally each age has got its own shit". Next, Gillespie joined Billy Eckstine's (Earl Hines' long-time collaborator) big band and it was as a member of Eckstine's band that he was reunited with Charlie Parker, a fellow member of Hines's band. In 1945, Dizzy left Eckstine's band because he wanted to play with a small combo. A "small combo" typically comprised no more than five musicians, playing the trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums.

The rise of bebop[link]

Bebop was known as the first modern jazz style. However, it was unpopular in the beginning and was not viewed as positively as swing music was. Bebop was seen as an outgrowth of swing, not a revolution. Swing introduced a diversity of new musicians in the bebop era like Charlie Parker, Thelonious Monk, Bud Powell, Kenny Clarke, Oscar Pettiford, and Gillespie. Through these musicians, a new vocabulary of musical phrases was created. With Charlie Parker, Gillespie jammed at famous jazz clubs like Minton's Playhouse and Monroe's Uptown House. Charlie Parker's system also held methods of adding chords to existing chord progressions and implying additional chords within the improvised lines.

Gillespie compositions like "Groovin' High", "Woody n' You" and "Salt Peanuts" sounded radically different, harmonically and rhythmically, from the swing music popular at the time. "A Night in Tunisia", written in 1942, while Gillespie was playing with Earl Hines' band, is noted for having a feature that is common in today's music, a non-walking bass line. The song also displays Afro-Cuban rhythms. One of their first (and greatest) small-group performances together was only issued in 2005: a concert in New York's Town Hall on June 22, 1945. Gillespie taught many of the young musicians on 52nd Street, including Miles Davis and Max Roach, about the new style of jazz. After a lengthy gig at Billy Berg's club in Los Angeles, which left most of the audience ambivalent or hostile towards the new music, the band broke up. Unlike Parker, who was content to play in small groups and be an occasional featured soloist in big bands, Gillespie aimed to lead a big band himself; his first, unsuccessful, attempt to do this was in 1945.

After his work with Parker, Gillespie led other small combos (including ones with Milt Jackson, John Coltrane, Lalo Schifrin, Ray Brown, Kenny Clarke, James Moody, J.J. Johnson, and Yusef Lateef) and finally put together his first successful big band. Dizzy Gillespie and his band tried to popularize bop and make Dizzy Gillespie a symbol of the new music. He also appeared frequently as a soloist with Norman Granz's Jazz at the Philharmonic. He also headlined the 1946 independently-produced musical revue film ''Jivin' in Be-Bop''.

In 1948 Dizzy was involved in a traffic accident when the bicycle he was riding was bumped by an automobile. He was slightly injured, and found that he could no longer hit the B-flat above high C. He won the case, but the jury awarded him only $1000, in view of his high earnings up to that point.

In 1956 he organized a band to go on a State Department tour of the Middle East which was extremely well received internationally and earned him the nickname "the Ambassador of Jazz". During this time, he also continued to lead a big band that performed throughout the United States and featured musicians including Pee Wee Moore and others. This band recorded a live album at the 1957 Newport jazz festival that featured Mary Lou Williams as a guest artist on piano.

Afro-Cuban music[link]

In the late 1940s, Gillespie was also involved in the movement called Afro-Cuban music, bringing Afro-Latin American music and elements to greater prominence in jazz and even pop music, particularly salsa. Afro-Cuban jazz is based on traditional Afro-Cuban rhythms. Dizzy Gillespie was introduced to Chano Pozo in 1947 by Mario Bauza, a Latin jazz trumpet player. Chano Pozo became Gillespie's conga drummer for his band. Dizzy Gilespie also worked with Mario Bauza in New York jazz clubs on 52nd Street and several famous dance clubs such as Palladium and the Apollo Theater in Harlem. They played together in the Chick Webb band and Cab Calloway's band, where Gillespie and Bauza became life-long friends. Dizzy helped develop and mature the Afro-Cuban jazz style.

Afro-Cuban jazz was considered bebop-oriented, and some musicians classified it as a modern style. Afro-Cuban jazz was successful because it never decreased in popularity and it always attracted people to dance to its unique rhythms. Gillespie's most famous contributions to Afro-Cuban music are the compositions "Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo" (both co-written with Chano Pozo); he was responsible for commissioning George Russell's "Cubano Be, Cubano Bop", which featured the great but ill-fated Cuban conga player, Chano Pozo. In 1977, Gillespie discovered Arturo Sandoval while researching music during a tour of Cuba.

Later years[link]

His biographer Alyn Shipton quotes Don Waterhouse approvingly that Dizzy in the fifties "had begun to mellow into an amalgam of his entire jazz experience to form the basis of new classicism". Another opinion is that, unlike his contemporary Miles Davis, Gillespie essentially remained true to the bebop style for the rest of his career.

In 1960, he was inducted into the ''Down Beat'' magazine's Jazz Hall of Fame.

During the 1964 United States presidential campaign the artist, with tongue in cheek, put himself forward as an independent write-in candidate. He promised that if he were elected, the White House would be renamed "The Blues House," and a cabinet composed of Duke Ellington (Secretary of State), Miles Davis (Director of the CIA), Max Roach (Secretary of Defense), Charles Mingus (Secretary of Peace), Ray Charles (Librarian of Congress), Louis Armstrong (Secretary of Agriculture), Mary Lou Williams (Ambassador to the Vatican), Thelonious Monk (Travelling Ambassador) and Malcolm X (Attorney General). He said his running mate would be Phyllis Diller. Campaign buttons had been manufactured years ago by Gillespie's booking agency "for publicity, as a gag", but now proceeds from them went to benefit the Congress of Racial Equality, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr.; in later years they became a collector's item. In 1971 Gillespie announced he would run again but withdrew before the election for reasons connected to the Bahá'í Faith.

Gillespie published his autobiography, ''To Be or Not to Bop'', in 1979.

Gillespie was a vocal fixture in many of John Hubley and Faith Hubley's animated films, such as ''The Hole'', ''The Hat'', and ''Voyage to Next''.

In the 1980s, Dizzy Gillespie led the United Nation Orchestra. For three years Flora Purim toured with the Orchestra and she credits Gillespie with evolving her understanding of jazz after being in the field for over two decades. David Sánchez also toured with the group and was also greatly influenced by Gillespie. Both artists later were nominated for Grammy awards. Gillespie also had a guest appearance on ''The Cosby Show'' as well as ''Sesame Street'' and ''The Muppet Show''.

In 1982, Dizzy Gillespie had a cameo appearance on Stevie Wonder's hit "Do I Do". Gillespie's tone gradually faded in the last years in life, and his performances often focused more on his proteges such as Arturo Sandoval and Jon Faddis; his good-humoured comedic routines became more and more a part of his live act.

In 1988, Gillespie had worked with Canadian flautist and saxophonist Moe Koffman on their prestigious album ''Oo Pop a Da.'' He did fast scat vocals on the title track and a couple of the other tracks were played only on trumpet.

In 1989 Gillespie gave 300 performances in 27 countries, appeared in 100 U.S. cities in 31 states and the District of Columbia, headlined three television specials, performed with two symphonies, and recorded four albums. He was also crowned a traditional chief in Nigeria, received the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres; France's most prestigious cultural award. He was named Regent Professor by the University of California, and received his fourteenth honorary doctoral degree, this one from the Berklee College of Music. In addition, he was awarded the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award the same year. The next year, at the Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts ceremonies celebrating the centennial of American jazz, Gillespie received the Kennedy Center Honors Award and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers ''Duke Ellington Award'' for 50 years of achievement as a composer, performer, and bandleader. In 1993 he received the Polar Music Prize in Sweden.

November 26, 1992 at Carnegie Hall in New York, following the Second Bahá'í World Congress was Dizzy's 75th birthday concert and his offering to the celebration of the centenary of the passing of Bahá'u'lláh. Gillespie was to appear at Carnegie Hall for the 33rd time. The line-up included: Jon Faddis, Marvin "Doc" Holladay, James Moody, Paquito D'Rivera, and the Mike Longo Trio with Ben Brown on bass and Mickey Roker on drums. But Gillespie didn't make it because he was in bed suffering from cancer of the pancreas. "But the musicians played their real hearts out for him, no doubt suspecting that he would not play again. Each musician gave tribute to their friend, this great soul and innovator in the world of jazz."

Gillespie also starred in a film called ''The Winter in Lisbon'' released in 2004. He has a star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame at 7057 Hollywood Boulevard in the Hollywood section of the City of Los Angeles. He is honored by the December 31, 2006 - A Jazz New Year's Eve: Freddy Cole & the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band at The John F. Kennedy Center for the Performing Arts.

Death and legacy[link]

A longtime resident of Englewood, New Jersey, he died of pancreatic cancer January 6, 1993, aged 75, and was buried in the Flushing Cemetery, Queens, New York. Mike Longo delivered a eulogy at his funeral. He was also with Gillespie on the night he died, along with Jon Faddis and a select few others.

At the time of his death, Dizzy Gillespie was survived by his widow, Lorraine Willis Gillespie; a daughter, jazz singer Jeanie Bryson; and a grandson, Radji Birks Bryson-Barrett. Gillespie had two funerals. One was a Bahá'í funeral at his request, at which his closest friends and colleagues attended. The second was at the Cathedral of St. John the Divine in New York open to the public.

Dizzy Gillespie, a Bahá'í since 1970, was one of the most famous adherents of the Bahá'í Faith which helped him make sense of his position in a succession of trumpeters as well as turning his life from knife-carrying roughneck to global citizen, and from alcohol to ''soul force'', in the words of author Nat Hentoff, who knew Gillespie for forty years. He spoke about the Baha'i Faith frequently on his trips abroad. He is often called the ''Bahá'í Jazz Ambassador''. He is honored with weekly jazz sessions at the New York Bahá'í Center in the memorial auditorium.

Style [link]

Gillespie has been described as the "Sound of Surprise". ''The Rough Guide to Jazz'' describes his musical style:

In Dizzy's obituary, Peter Watrous describes his performance style:

Wynton Marsalis summed up Gillespie as a player and teacher:

"Bent" trumpet[link]

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. According to Gillespie's autobiography, this was originally the result of accidental damage caused by the dancers Stump and Stumpy falling onto it while it was on a trumpet stand on stage at Snookie's in Manhattan on January 6, 1953, during a birthday party for Gillespie's wife Lorraine. The constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the instrument, and Gillespie liked the effect. He had the trumpet straightened out the next day, but he could not forget the tone. Gillespie sent a request to Martin Committee to make him a "bent" trumpet from a sketch produced by Lorraine, and from that time forward Gillespie played a trumpet with an upturned bell.

Gillespie's biographer Alyn Shipton writes that Gillespie probably got the idea for a bent trumpet when he saw a similar instrument in 1937 in Manchester, England, while on tour with the Teddy Hill Orchestra. 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, he 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. Such trumpets were made for him by Martin Committee (from 1954), King Musical Instruments (from 1972) and Renold Schilke (from 1982, a gift from Jon Faddis). Gillespie favored mouthpieces made by Al Cass. In December 1986 Gillespie gave the National Museum of American History his 1972 King "Silver Flair" trumpet with a Cass mouthpiece. In April 1995, Gillespie's Martin trumpet was auctioned at Christie's in New York City, along with instruments used by other famous musicians such as Coleman Hawkins, Jimi Hendrix and Elvis Presley. An image of Gillespie's trumpet was selected for the cover of the auction program. The battered instrument sold to Manhattan builder Jeffery Brown for $63,000, the proceeds benefiting jazz musicians suffering from cancer.

Discography[link]

As leader[link]

1937-49: ''The Complete RCA Victor Recordings'' (RCA Victor)

1945-47: ''Groovin' High'' (Savoy)

1950: ''Bird and Diz'' (Clef) - with Charlie Parker

1951-52: ''Dee Gee Days: The Savoy Sessions'' (Savoy) - includes all tracks on ''The Champ'' (Savoy) and ''School Days'' (Regent)

1952-53: ''The Great Blue Star Sessions 1952-1953'' (EmArcy) - includes all tracks on ''Dizzy Gillespie and His Operatic Strings Orchestra'' (Fontana) and some tracks released on ''Dizzy at Home and Abroad'' (Atlantic)

1953: ''Dizzy Digs Paris'' (Giant Steps) - includes all tracks on ''Dizzy Over Paris'' (Roost)

1953: ''Jazz at Massey Hall'' (Debut) - with Charlie Parker, Bud Powell, Charles Mingus and Max Roach

1953: ''Diz and Getz'' (Norgran) - with Stan Getz

1954: ''Afro'' (Norgran)

1954: ''Dizzy and Strings'' (Norgran)

1954: ''Roy and Diz'' (Clef) - with Roy Eldridge

1954-55: ''Jazz Recital'' (Norgran) - also released as ''Dizzy Gillespie and His Orchestra''

1955: ''One Night in Washington'' (Elektra Musician [1983])

1956: ''Modern Jazz Sextet'' (Norgran)

1956: ''World Statesman'' (Norgran)

1956: ''Dizzy in Greece'' (Verve)

1956: ''For Musicians Only'' (Verve) - with Stan Getz and Sonny Stitt

1957: ''Birks' Works'' (Verve)

1957: ''Dizzy Gillespie and Stuff Smith'' (Verve)

1957: ''Sittin' In'' (Verve) - with Stan Getz and Coleman Hawkins

1957: ''Dizzy Gillespie at Newport'' (Verve)

1957: ''Duets'' (Verve) - with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt

1957: ''The Greatest Trumpet of Them All'' (Verve) - with Benny Golson

1957: ''Sonny Side Up'' (Verve) - with Sonny Rollins and Sonny Stitt

1959: ''The Ebullient Mr. Gillespie'' (Verve)

1959: ''Have Trumpet, Will Excite!'' (Verve)

1960: ''A Portrait of Duke Ellington'' (Verve)

1960: ''Gillespiana'' (Verve) - composed and arranged by Lalo Schifrin

1961: ''An Electrifying Evening with the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet'' (Verve)

1961: ''Carnegie Hall Concert'' (Verve)

1961: ''Perceptions'' (Verve) - composed and arranged by J.J. Johnson, conducted by Gunther Schuller

1962: ''Dizzy on the French Riviera'' (Philips)

1962: ''The New Continent'' (Limelight) - composed and arranged by Lalo Schifrin

1963: ''New Wave'' (Philips)

1963: ''Something Old, Something New'' (Philips)

1963: ''Dizzy Gillespie and the Double Six of Paris'' (Philips)

1964: ''Dizzy Goes Hollywood'' (Philips)

1964: ''The Cool World'' (Philips)

1964: ''Jambo Caribe'' (Limelight)

1965: ''Gil Fuller & the Monterey Jazz Festival Orchestra featuring Dizzy Gillespie'' (Pacific Jazz) - with Gil Fuller

1966: ''The Melody Lingers On'' (Limelight)

1967: ''Swing Low, Sweet Cadillac'' (Impulse!)

1967: ''Live at the Village Vanguard'' (Solid State)

1968: ''The Dizzy Gillespie Reunion Big Band'' (MPS)

1969: ''It's My Way'' (Solid State) - also released as ''My Way''

1969: ''Cornucopia'' (Solid State)

1970: ''The Real Thing'' (Perception) - with James Moody

1970: ''Portrait of Jenny'' (Perception)

1971: ''Giants'' (Perception) - with Bobby Hackett and Mary Lou Williams

1971: ''Dizzy Gillespie and the Mitchell Ruff Duo in Concert'' (Mainstream) - with Willie Ruff and Dwike Mitchell

1971: ''The Giants of Jazz'' (Atlantic) - with Art Blakey, Al McKibbon, Thelonious Monk, Sonny Stitt and Kai Winding

1973: ''The Giant'' (America)

1973: ''The Source'' (America)

1974: ''Dizzy Gillespie's Big 4'' (Pablo)

1974: ''The Trumpet Kings Meet Joe Turner'' (Pablo) - with Joe Turner, Roy Eldridge, Harry "Sweets" Edison and Clark Terry

1974: ''Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie'' (Pablo) - with Oscar Peterson

1974: ''Oscar Peterson and The Trumpet Kings - Jousts'' (Pablo) - with Oscar Peterson

1975: ''The Bop Session'' (Sonet) - with Sonny Stitt, John Lewis, Hank Jones, Percy Heath and Max Roach

1975: ''Jazz Maturity...Where It's Coming From'' (Pablo) - with Oscar Peterson and Roy Eldridge

1975: ''Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods'' (Pablo) - with Machito

1975: ''The Dizzy Gillespie Big 7'' (Pablo) - also released as ''Dizzy''

1975: ''The Trumpet Kings at Montreux '75'' (Pablo) - with Roy Eldridge, Clark Terry and Oscar Peterson

1975: ''Bahiana'' (Pablo)

1976: ''Carter, Gillespie Inc.'' (Pablo) - with Benny Carter

1976: ''Dizzy's Party'' (Pablo)

1977: ''Free Ride'' (Pablo) - composed and arranged by Lalo Schifrin

1977: ''The Gifted Ones'' (Pablo) - with Count Basie

1977: ''Dizzy Gillespie Jam'' (Pablo) - with John Faddis

1980: ''The Trumpet Summit Meets the Oscar Peterson Big 4'' (Pablo) - with Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry and Oscar Peterson

1980: ''The Alternate Blues'' (Pablo) - with Freddie Hubbard, Clark Terry and Oscar Peterson

1980: ''Digital at Montreux, 1980'' (Pablo)

1981: ''Musician, Composer, Raconteur'' (Pablo)

1981: ''To a Finland Station'' (Pablo) - with Arturo Sandoval

1984: ''Closer to the Source'' (Atlantic)

1985: ''New Faces'' (GRP)

1986: ''Dizzy Gillespie Meets Phil Woods Quintet'' - with Phil Woods

1988: ''Endlessly'' (Impulse!)

1988: ''Oop-Pop-A-Da'' (Soundwings) - with Moe Koffman

1989: ''Live at the Royal Festival Hall'' (Enja) - with the United Nation Orchestra

1989: ''Max + Dizzy: Paris 1989'' (A&M;) - with Max Roach

1989: ''The Paris All Stars Homage to Charlie Parker'' (A&M;) with Jackie McLean, Phil Woods, Stan Getz, Milt Jackson, Hank Jones, Percy Heath and Max Roach

1989: ''The Symphony Sessions'' (ProJazz)

1990: ''The Winter in Lisbon'' (Milan) - soundtrack

1991: ''Live! at Blues Alley'' (with Ron Holloway, Ed Cherry, John Lee, Ignacio Berroa)

1992: ''Bird Songs: The Final Recordings'' (Telarc)

1992: ''To Bird with Love'' (Telarc)

1992: ''To Diz with Love'' (Telarc)

As sideman[link]

With Benny Carter

''New Jazz Sounds'' (Norgran, 1954)

With CTI All Stars

''Rhythmstick'' (CTI, 1990)

With Quincy Jones

''Back on the Block'' (Warner Bros., 1989)

With Gene Krupa and Buddy Rich

''Krupa and Rich'' (Clef, 1955)

With Mike Longo

''Talk with the Spirits'' (Pablo, 1976)

With the Manhattan Transfer

''Vocalese'' (Atlantic, 1985)

With Carmen McRae

''Carmen McRae at the Great American Music Hall'' (Blue Note, 1976)

With Charles Mingus

''Charles Mingus and Friends in Concert'' (Columbia, 1972)

With Katie Bell Nubin

''Soul, Soul Searching'' (Verve, 1960)

With Oscar Peterson

''Oscar Peterson Jam - Montreux '77'' (Pablo)

With Mongo Santamaria

''Montreux Heat!'' (Pablo, 1980)

''Summertime'' (Pablo, 1980)

With Woody Shaw

''Woody Shaw and Friends at Monterey Jazz Festival 1979'' (Concord Jazz, 1979)

With Lillian Terry

''Oo-Shoo-Be-Doo-Be...Oo, Oo...Oo, Oo'' (Black Saint, 1985)

With Randy Weston

''Spirits of Our Ancestors'' (Verve, 1992)

Filmography[link]

1983 ''Jazz in America'' (Embassy)

1986 ''In Redondo Beach/Jazz In America'' ( Embassy)

1991 ''Dizzy Gillespie: A Night in Tunisia'' (VIEW)

1993 ''Live in London'' (Kultur Video)

1998 ''Dizzy Gillespie & Charles Mingus'' (Vidjazz)

1998 ''Dizzy Gillespie: Ages'' (Vidjazz)

1999 ''Jazz Casual: Dizzy Gillespie'' (Rhino)

2001 ''Jivin'in Be-Bop'' (Jazz Classic Video)

2001 ''Dizzy Gillespie: A Night in Chicago'' (VIEW)

2001 ''Live at the Royal Festival Hall 1987'' (Pioneer)

2002 ''Live in Montreal'' (Image)

2003 ''20th Century Jazz Masters''

2003 ''Swing Era (with Mel Torme)'' (Idem)

2005 ''Norman Granz Jazz in Montreux: Presents Dizzy Gillespie Sextet '77'' (Eagle Vision USA)

2005 ''Summer Jazz Live at New Jersey 1987'' (FS World Jazz / Alpha Centauri Entertainment)

2005 ''A Night in Havana: Dizzy Gillespie in Cuba'' (New Video Group)

2006 ''Jazz Icons: Live in '58 & '70'' (Universal)

2008 ''London Concerts 1965 & 1966'' (Impro-Jazz Spain)

Bibliography[link]

''To Be, or Not...to Bop''. Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 2009.

References [link]

External links [link]

The Dizzy Gillespie All-Stars

Dizzy Gillespie's "The Cult of Bebop"

Dizzy Gillespie Talking to Les Tomkins in 1973

Dizzy Gillespie Mulitmedia Directory - Kerouac Alley

Dizzy Gillespie Concerts & Interviews on NPR Music

Category:1917 births Category:1993 deaths Category:People from Cheraw, South Carolina Category:African American musicians Category:American Bahá'ís Category:American jazz bandleaders Category:American jazz composers Category:American jazz trumpeters Category:American memoirists Category:Bebop trumpeters Category:Burials at Flushing Cemetery Category:Cancer deaths in New Jersey Category:Capitol Records artists Category:Cuban jazz (genre) bandleaders Category:Cuban jazz (genre) composers Category:Cuban jazz (genre) trumpeters Category:Deaths from pancreatic cancer Category:Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award winners Category:Kennedy Center honorees Category:Latin jazz bandleaders Category:Latin jazz composers Category:Latin jazz trumpeters Category:Musicians from Pennsylvania Category:Musicians from South Carolina Category:People from Englewood, New Jersey Category:People from Corona, Queens Category:RCA Victor artists Category:Savoy Records artists Category:United States National Medal of Arts recipients Category:Verve Records artists Category:Prestige Records artists Category:Commandeurs of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres Category:Converts to the Bahá'í Faith Category:20th-century Bahá'ís Category:Manor Records artists

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Chano Pozo (January 7, 1915 – December 2, 1948) was a percussionist, singer, dancer and composer who played a major role in the founding of Latin jazz. Though he died young of unnatural causes, no discussion of Latin jazz is complete without mentioning his name and no discussion of the trumpet giant Dizzy Gillespie, the godfather of Latin jazz in the U.S., can begin without the name of Pozo, who was the first in a long line of Latin percussionists in Dizzy's various bands. Dizzy's dozens of Latin-flavored compositions, including the hit song "Manteca" and "Tin Tin Deo" (both co-written by Pozo), "Fiesta Mojo" and others - have Afro-Cuban drumming derived from the ritual rhythms of West Africa as their rhythmic backbones. Despite a short stint in Dizzy's band abbreviated by Chano's early death, Pozo's influence could be felt in Dizzy's playing and compositions for decades, which Dizzy acknowledged without hesitation.

Biography[link]

Luciano "Chano" Pozo Gonzales was born in Havana to Cecelio Gonzales and Carnación Pozo. Chano's family (three sisters and a brother, as well as his older half brother, Felix Chapottin who became one of the great Cuban ''soneros'') struggled with poverty throughout his youth. His mother Carnación, to whom his father was married, died when Chano was eleven, and Cecelio took his family to live with his long-time mistress, Natalia, who was Felix's mother.

Chano showed an early interest in playing drums, and performed ably in Afro-Cuban religious ceremonies in which drumming was a key element. The family lived for many years at El Africa solar (Africa Basement), a former slave quarters, by all accounts a foul and dangerous place, where it was said even the police were afraid to venture. In this environment criminal activities flourished, and Chano learned the ways of the street as means of survival. He dropped out of school after the third grade and earned a solid reputation as a rowdy tough guy, big for his age and exceptionally fit. He spent his days playing drums, fighting, drinking, and engaging in petty criminal activities, the latter of which would land him a sentence in a youth reformatory. There are no official records documenting the crime for which he was sentenced, though at least one account has him causing the accidental death of a foreign tourist, adding to a record of thievery, assault, and truancy. At the age of 13, Chano was sent to the reformatory in Guanajay, where he learned reading and writing, auto body repair, and honed his already exceptional skills playing a variety of drums.

Santería[link]

During this time he became a devotee of Santería. Also known as "La Regla de Lukumi", this is an Afro-Caribbean religion derived from traditional beliefs of the Yoruba people of Nigeria. Developed among Afro-Cuban slaves, the religion began as a blending of these West African spiritual beliefs and Catholic doctrine. Yoruba deities were identified with Catholic saints to fool the slave owners, as the Spanish colonialists had forbidden the practice of African religions. Chano pledged allegiance to the Catholic Saint Barbara, identified widely with Shango, the Yoruba god of fire and thunder, and took him as his personal protector. Both Shango and St. Barbara had associations with the color red, and for the rest of his life Chano would often carry a red scarf signifying his allegiance.

Upon his release from Guanajay, Chano returned to his father's house in Havana. Cecelio persuaded his son to practice his trade of bootblack, but Chano's temperament was not suited for this occupation and he quit after less than a year. In 1929 he took a job selling newspapers for El Pais, Havana's most influential publication, hawking papers on a number of street corners. His forceful nature and success in selling brought him to the attention of newspaper owner and influential businessman Alfredo Suarez, who hired Chano as his personal driver and bodyguard. He was rumored to have performed duties as debt collector or "leg breaker" for Suarez. Chano spent his free time dancing, singing, fighting, chasing women and playing his drums. He also began to compose music.

Carnival[link]

Chano's reputation grew among the people each year, not only because of his physical prowess as a dancer, drummer, and success with women, but for the compositions he wrote for Carnival, during the nightly celebrations of which neighborhoods formed highly competitive ''comparsas'', or street troupes. They consisted of singers, dancers, musicians, and the ever-present ''rumberos''. Mostly young, street-toughened drummers, ''rumberos'' were integral to each ''comparsa'' (something like a 'jam club'), since rumberos provided throbbing, sensuous rhythms regarded as the base for all Afro-Cuban music. In a few short years Pozo was the most well-known and sought after rumbero in Cuba, with the most talented ''comparsas'' (local groups) vying for his services, and was regularly winning top cash prizes for his compositions. Chano elevated the status and reputation of rumbero to near mythic proportions with his swaggering attitude as he led his own comparsa through the streets and with increasing successes became a hero to Havana's poor people. Pozo and some of his fellow musicians wrote a conga music composition that earned them first prize in the city of Santiago de Cuba's carnival of 1940: "La Comparsa de los Dandys," a composition that is considered by some to be the unofficial theme song of Santiago de Cuba, and a familiar standard played at many Latin American carnivals.

Tourism[link]

Cuba was by this time a popular tourist destination, with the biggest hotels, The Sevilla Biltmore, the Nacional, and El Presidente catering to rich Americans and Europeans, and Chano was determined to break the color barrier which restricted employment for those of dark skin. He began to court musicians and others who might help him by auditioning in unusual places, most notedly in front of the Cuban-owned radio station Azul, which broadcast popular recordings as well as live Cuban folk music. Chano befriended many of the musicians who worked there, playing his drum on the street to catch their attention as they arrived for work. Although admired for his prodigious talent, dark skinned blacks were prohibited from working most venues outside of the slums, and Chano searched for opportunities. He would find that opportunity in the person of Armando Trinidad, owner of the radio station. Armando persuaded Chano to work for him, albeit only as the bouncer for Azul, where his imposing size and reputation kept rowdy crowds in check.

Once Pozo became famous he also became renowned by his sense of fashion: his all-white top hat and tuxedo look predated that of Flavor Flav by at least 45 years.

New York[link]

Chano Pozo is one of a handful of Cuban percussionists who came to the United States in the 1940s and 50s. Other notable congueros who came to the U.S. during that time include Mongo Santamaria, Armando Peraza, Francisco Aguabella, Julito Collazo, Carlos Vidal Bolado, Desi Arnaz and Modesto Duran. Pozo moved to New York City in early 1947 with the encouragement of Miguelito Valdés, and participated in a recording session with Valdés, the legendary band leader Arsenio Rodríguez, Carlos Vidal Bolado and José Mangual. In September 1947, after Mario Bauzá introduced the two, he was featured in Dizzy Gillespie's Big Band at Carnegie Hall and subsequently on a European tour. Their notable material includes "Cubana Be, Cubana Bop" (written by George Russell), and "Tin Tin Deo" and Manteca, both co-written by Pozo.

Death[link]

The hot-tempered Chano Pozo was killed in a fight at a bar in Harlem, New York, at the age of 33, allegedly over an argument regarding the quality of a bag of marijuana he had bought from his assassin.

He is buried in the Colon Cemetery, Havana.

His grandson Joaquín Pozo, who was living in Cuba as of 2006, is also a famous ''conguero''.

See also[link]

List of famous Cuban-Americans

List of Cubans

References[link]

External links[link]

Chano Pozo biodata

El Veraz - San Juan, Puerto Rico: Chano Pozo o la revolucion del Jazz

Category:1915 births Category:1948 deaths Category:Cuban musicians Category:Cuban composers Category:Latin jazz musicians Category:Cuban jazz (genre) composers Category:Jazz percussionists Category:Conga players Category:Cuban people murdered abroad Category:People murdered in New York

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