Remembering Dizzy Gillespie on his birthday π
π· Ted Williams, 1960
"His improvising was eruptive; suddenly, a line would bolt into the high register, only to come tumbling down."
- Peter Watrous
Jean-Michel Basquiat
Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie are Horn Players
1982
Charlie Parker & Dizzy Gillespie, in one of the great jazz photographs, by Herman Leonard, New York, 1949
All the Things You Are, from 1945:
Benny Carter & Dizzy Gillespie by Allan Grant, 1948
Today we're celebrating Dizzy's birthday π
More Benny Carter & Dizzy Gillespie by Allan Grant for Life magazine, 1948
- βEel-ya-da,β which sounds like bebop triplet note
- "Bell man! where have you been"
Danny Barker & Dizzy Gillespie asleep on the train, while on tour with the Cab Calloway orchestra, c. 1940
This is one of my favourite Milt Hinton photographs.
Milt Hinton
Dizzy Gillespie & Charles Mingus in Newport, 1971
Notice that Dizzy has a camera as well, a Rolleiflex, if I'm not mistaken.
Every time you see a Rolleiflex, take a drink. It's a bit early in the morning here, but a drinking game's rules are sacred. πΈπ·
Lalo Schifrin with Dizzy Gillespie in 1961, at the Monterey Jazz Festival. A great photograph by Jim Marshall.
"I've had many mentors in my life," said Schifrin, "but only one master - Dizzy."
I love the Dizzy Gillespie Live at Carnegie Hall album, from 1961, arranged by Lalo Schifrin (he played piano as well).
Time machine: please drop me off at Mary Lou Williams' apartment, 63 Hamilton Terrace, New York, August 1947
Dizzy Gillespie, Tadd Dameron, Hank Jones, Mary Lou Williams & Milt Orent by William P. Gottlieb
Dizzy Gillespie by Lisette Model, 1940s
I don't think I've ever seen a photograph by Dizzy; I'll have to do some digging!
Rolleiflex! Drink! π·πΈ
Dizzy Gillespie by Ted Williams, 1960s
"As a creator of the bebop & Afro-Cuban revolutions during the 40s, he twice fundamentally changed the way jazz improvisation was done. It was as if Monet had been in the vanguard of both Impressionism & Cubism."
- D. L. Maggin
Ed van der Elsken's 1950s jazz photos were collected in his book Jazz, published in 1959. The cover features this shot of Dizzy Gillespie from May 1958. amzn.to/2IAAfTA
Georges Dambier took this photo, captioned "Bee Bop", at a Dizzy Gillespie gig at the Salle Pleyel in Paris, in 1948.
"So if you put me out there with a gun in my hand and tell me to shoot at the enemy, I'm liable to create a case of 'mistaken identity' of who I might shoot." He was classified 4-F.
π· Dizzy Gillespie by William P. Gottlieb, 1940
Dizzy Gillespie by William P. Gottlieb, 1946
Downbeat: "The Street is Dizzy's Oyster these days. Musicians, chicks (like the one shown with him here), business agents all flock around Dizzy to hear his frantic ideas, to copy his hats, even to learn how he wears his goatee."
Dizzy Gillespie by William P. Gottlieb
New York, May 1947
I think this is my favourite Dizzy portrait
Paul Bacon's design for Dizzy Gillespie, Horn Of Plenty, Blue Note, 1953
Dizzy Gillespie & Gene Lees play chess βοΈ
A great shot by Ted Williams.
I believe Gene Lees may have the upper hand in this chess match with Dizzy Gillespie, though I'm no expert βοΈ
Photo by Ted Williams
Here's Ted Williams' contact sheet for the big chess match between Gene Lees & Dizzy Gillespie βοΈ
Dizzy Gillespie plays "Nobody Knows the Trouble I Feel" at Dr. King's funeral at Ebenezer Baptist Church
π· Constantine Manos, 1968
Dizzy Gillespie by Marlene Wallace
Los Angeles, 1991
"In some ways, he seemed to sum up all the possibilities of American popular art."
- Peter Watrous
β’ β’ β’
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Remembering Doris Lessing on her birthday π
π· Roger Mayne, 1959 @NPGLondon
"Doris Lessing is the ideal winner of the Nobel Prize. After all, the prize is about idealism, & was founded in the belief that writers can make the world a better place."
- Tom Payne
Doris Lessing by Marianne Majerus, 1984 @NPGLondon
"What luxury a cat is, the moments of shocking & startling pleasure in a day, the feel of the beast, the soft sleekness under your palm, ... the grace & charm even in a quite ordinary workaday puss."
What a lovely portrait of Doris Lessing, by Toby Melville.
"She was adept at tracing sly signs of continuity where that particular path through the narrative woods had been overgrown and bypassed time out of mind β not least by Lessing."
- Lorna Sage
Remembering Sarah Bernhardt on her birthday π
π· Nadar, c.1865
"Her performances were legendary and her affairs lurid, matched only by a prodigious ability to convert both into hard cash."
- Olivia Laing
Manuel Orazi
Coffee with Sarah Bernhardt, c.1895 βοΈ
Remembering Robert Capa on his birthday π
π· Alfred Eisenstaedt, New York, 1942
"If your pictures arenβt good enough, youβre not close enough."
One of the greatest of movie set photographs, by Robert Capa: Ingrid Bergman & Alfred Hitchcock on the set of Notorious, 1946. It's been suggested that Capa's love affair with Bergman was the genesis of a Hitchcock film made 8 years later: Rear Window.
Ingrid Bergman was in the middle of a torrid love affair with the great photographer Robert Capa when he took these photographs on the Notorious set, 1946. What a look she gives him!
Celebrate the Malcolm Arnold Centennial! ππ―
π· Erich Auerbach, 1968
"Against the background of the postwar trend towards the ascetic, the cerebral & the experimental, his music gave immediate & unconditional enjoyment to performers & listeners alike."
- Christopher Mowat
Malcolm Henry Arnold by Neil Drabble, 1991 @NPGLondon#MalcolmArnold100
He won an #Oscar for his score to The Bridge on the River Kwai, 1957
Malcolm Arnold was an accomplished conductor, of his own & others' scores. Here's a great process shot: recording the score for The Battle of Britain, with composer William Walton & director Guy Hamilton
π· Jim Gray, Denham Studios, 1969
Remembering Georg Solti on his birthday π
π· Patrick Lichfield, 1982 @NPGLondon
"The central feature of the Solti-Chicago success was the sheer stunning quality of the playing, which few other groups could rival."
- James R. Oestreich
Georg Solti by Erich Auerbach, 1963
"Often he is greeted with more bravos for showing his face than some of his colleagues receive for showing their stuff."
- Stephen E. Rubin
Georg Solti by Erich Lessing, Palais Garnier, Paris, 1973
"When I learn a piece, I know how it *should* sound. How much I get out of that *should* is a question of talent, experience, & perseverance - just never giving up."