John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (1917 -1993), the American trumpeter, bandleader and composer, was the most visible and durable leader of the generation of musical iconoclasts who revolutionized jazz in the years following World War II. Along with now-legendary figures such as his friend and frequent collaborator Charlie Parker, Gillespie was a principal creator of the "Be-Bop" style. Breaking from the precise arrangements and massed section voicing of the Big Band Era, Gillespie's Be-Bop emphasized exotic harmonies informed by modern classical music, a breakneck tempo that leaped ahead...