Happy Birthday, Dizzy Gillespie

When I think of jazz and what the good Lord intended it to be, I immediately think of a short list of musicians. Partly that is because I am a relatively new fan of this genre of music, but also partly due to the fact that the greats in this area are just so incredibly talented that they seem untouchable by so many other very skilled musicians. In the category with Dizzy I definitely put Miles Davis, my personal favorite, Charlie Parker, and John Coltrane. But there is just something about those cheeks, right?!?

To a musician who is so tied to the notes on the page, as S4J can attest, it is unfathomable to me how jazz musicians can simply pick up a line and run with it in the middle of a song. That fact alone truly blows my mind. I also love the fact that jazz is probably one of the only genres of music that you could say truly began in America.

Upon doing a little reading about Dizzy today on what would've been his 91st birthday, I learned that he moved to Philadelphia as a young man in 1939, and eventually played in Cab Calloway's band, another guy I really enjoy, but more in the big band category. I also learned that he grew up in a musical household and that he has been immersed in a home culture of music since birth, being the youngest of nine (!) children. You never see a picture of him where he isn't smiling the most laid back, relaxed and groovy smile you've ever seen, and as you watch him perform you can see how he really transcends the present and puts his whole mind and body into each note coming out of his famous trumpet.

One of the things I love most about any type of purely instrumental music is that you don't need words to convey a message. Whether it's Beethoven's Symphony No. 7 in A, Opus 92, Allegretto (one of the most intense, emotional classical pieces you will ever hear in your life), to Dizzy playing "A Night In Tunisia (which will make you want to get up and salsa dance), to the carillion in a church's belfry playing "Joyful, Joyful We Adore Thee," there is raw emotion and energy in each note. No words are necessary to take the listener to places of quiet meditation, release of emotion, or the need to get up and move their feet. Each time I pick up one of my instruments I marvel at how God gave humans the knowledge of music in the world. Composers write music as intricate in design and instrumentation as the design of the cells in our bodies. How did we ever discover that, by pulling a string tight and pushing our fingers down on it at different places, or by forcing air through constricted places using metal and wood, we could make such elaborate expressions? I'm in as much awe over the miracle of music as I am an eyelash on a newborn baby or the lacy pattern of a snowflake. God is soooo good.

So on this day, to celebrate the life and musical gift given by God to our brother Dizzy Gillespie, I give you one of my most favorite jazz pieces, "A Night In Tunisia."