Died On This Date (January 6, 1993) Dizzy Gillespie / Jazz Great
themusicsover John “Dizzy” Gillespie
October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993
Dizzy Gillespie was one of the biggest names in jazz, period. Over a career that spanned nearly 60 years, Gillespie drew the blueprint for future jazz trumpeters to follow. A gifted improviser, composer, and bandleader, Gillespie directly influenced the likes of such greats as Miles Davis, Arturo Sandoval and Fats Navarro. When be-bop first began to rear its head, it was Gillespie that embraced it and brought it to the masses. Songs like “A Night in Tunisia” and “Groovin'” were considered outlandish at the time but have since come to represent the greatness of jazz’s first modern style. Over the course of his storied career, Gillespie collaborated with nearly every giant in jazz. That list includes John Coltrane, Cab Calloway, Billy Eckstine, Charlie Parker, and Ella Fitzgerald. Gillespie stayed very active right up to his final years. In 1989, he performed an astonishing 300 shows all around the world. On January 6, 1993, Dizzy Gillespie, age 75, died of pancreatic cancer.
What You Should Own
Drew Glackin is best remembered as the bassist for critically praised Americana band, the Silos. He also played bass for Graham Parker, Susan Tedeschi, and the Crash Test Dummies. A multi-instrumentalist, Glackin could play the piano, trumpet and French horn while still in elementary school and soon thereafter picked up the guitar and bass. He studied music while in college in Hartford, Connecticut where he worked booking talent at a local club. He joined the Silos in 1998. Drew Glackin was 44 when he died on January 5, 2008 of cardiac arrest brought on by an undiagnosed thyroid condition.