Dizzy's Horn
This horn, photographed at a concert in the mid 80's, belonged to the beloved bebop master, John Birks Gillespie. "Dizzy" Gillespie got his nickname from fellow musicians who (usually) enjoyed his nonstop antics. Dizzy and Charlie Parker are universally recognized as the fathers of bebop, but how the genre got its name not known. Several theories bond, however: one is that the term is derived from the popular song, "Hey Baba Rebop;" others think it came from a sound often made when singers practice "scatting;" or, as others believe, it may have come out of Dizzy's own "oop-bop-sh'bam" scat. In any event, the musical form that dizzy Gillespie co-created was one which he played around the world in one of the most enduring careers in performing history.
Writer Nancy Thompson