Dizzy Gillespie – Dizzy For President

This live date from the Monterey Jazz Festival in 1963 offers ample aural evidence of prowess and popularity. Backed by his longtime partner, tenor/alto saxophonist and flutist James Moody, drummer Rudy Collins, bassist Chris White and a young Kenny Barron on piano, Gillespie’s upturned trumpet unleashes his patented stratospheric solos on old standards like Dizzy Atmosphere and Gee, Baby, Ain’t I Been Good To You.

Moody reprises his famous sax solo on I’m in the Mood for Love; The Cup Bearers, by Tom McIntosh, is a pleasing neo-bop number; and Desafinado and No More Blues–two popular bossa novas by Antonio Carlos Jobim–swing with a lovely Latin lilt.

The high points of this set are Gillespie’s comedic references to black pride and Malcolm X on Luiz Bonfa’s Morning of the Carnival and Jon Hendricks’s lyrics to Gillespie’s bop classic, Vote Dizzy (Salt Peanuts), the official theme song of Dizzy Gillespie’s 1964 Presidential campaign.

Dizzy Gillespie’s contributions to jazz were huge. 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.

LINEUP
Dizzy Gillespie – Trumpet
James Moody – Tenor & Alto Saxophone, Flute
Kenny Barron – Piano
Chris White – Bass
Rudy Collins – Drums
Jon Hendricks – Vocals (on Vote Dizzy)
S. Matsumoto – Tenor Sax (on Vote Dizzy)

TRACKS:
Dizzy Atmosphere
Morning Of The Carnival
The Cup Bearers
I’m In The Mood For Love
Desafinado
Gee Baby, Ain’t I Good To You?
No More Blues
Vote Dizzy (Salt Peanuts)