Together with Charlie Parker, Dizzy Gillespie’s unique approach, musicianship, showmanship, and wit brought harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, scat singing, bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality provide one of bebop’s most enduring symbols. A major figure in the development of modern jazz, he taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Chuck Mangione, & balladeer Johnny Hartman.

Join NYJO’s Artistic Director Mark Armstrong as he leads a NYJO sextet playing the music of Dizzy Gillespie!