The Complete RCA Victor Recordings 1937-1949 (1995) by Dizzy Gillespie

Gillespie is probably the greatest trumpet player ever, but this is the first time I’ve really gotten into his discography, a major oversight on my part.

These sides cover both Gillespie’s band and some session work he did over slightly more than a decade, when he was literally changing the nature of jazz. They don’t include the most revolutionary stuff he made in the early ’40s – that must have been for another label – but they do show off how he helped transition jazz from big band / swing to bop.

Gillespie’s solos are like nothing else anyone had ever heard on a trumpet. (It is generally accepted by jazz historians that he was so good that it took 40 years for another trumpeter to be able to match him at a technical level.) And though some of these sessions are still from the big band era, it’s clear that Gillespie had moved on in his playing. This – along with the work of Monk, Parker and maybe a few others – is the birth of bop, the dominant form of jazz ever since.

But it’s not just that, it also contains music that represents the birth of Afro-Cuban jazz, a major jazz sub-genre to this day. By bringing Latin percussion into his band, Gillespie expanded what was possible, both at an instrumental level and at a theory level, and such experimentation no doubt led others to make even more drastic experiments in the future.

Absolutely essential music to anyone interested in the evolution of jazz.

Also, if you like your jazz swingy, dance-able and in brief, digestible nuggets, this is great too.

10/10

1. Dizzy Gillespie: “Manteca” (10/10)

One of the foundational tracks of Afro-Cuban Jazz. If someone said to me, “What is Afro-Cuban Jazz?” I would play them this.

2. Dizzy Gillespie Sextet: “Anthropology” (10/10)

It’s fun, knotty bop. The Gillespie version has a vibraphone solo.

3. Teddy Hill and His Orchestra: “King Porter Stomp” (7/10)

A fine big band cover of a Jelly Roll Morton track from 1923. Featuring Dizzy Gillespie.

4. Teddy Hill and His Orchestra: “Yours and Mine” (6/10)

A big band vocal performance featuring a singer who doesn’t know how to pronounce “yours.” (I’m half kidding. Maybe that’s how they pronounced it in the 1930s.) Good Dizzy solo but not my favourite thing.

5. Teddy Hill and His Orchestra: Blue Rhythm Fantasy (7/10)

Decent big band jazz. The usual inventive playing from Dizzy.

6. Lionel Hampton and His Orchestra: “Hot Mallets” (8/10)

Solo-heavy almost proto bop performance with Dizzy Gillespie and a sax player and a vibraphone player taking turns. Feels ahead of its time.

7-8. Dizzy Gillespie Sextet: “52nd Street Theme” (10/10)

Written by Monk a few years earlier, this was their set-opener and/or closer when Gillespie, Monk, Parker and Roach were codifying bop. One of the first bop recordings on a major label.

9-10. Dizzy Gillespie Sextet: “A Night in Tunisia” (10/10)

A classic bop standard from the same session. Includes some weird changes and a great solo from Dizzy.

11. Dizzie Gillespie Sextet: “Ol’ Man Rebop” (9/10)

A good bop track from the same session as above.

12. Dizzy Gillespie Sextet: “Anthropology” (10/10)

See above.

13. Dizzy Gillespie: “Ow” (9/10)

I know this one from somewhere. Is it Mingus, maybe? Anyway, this is a knotty bop tune. In this version, there’s a big band too.

14. Dizzy Gillespie: “Oop-Pop-A-Da” (7/10)

A big band/bop fusion thing, featuring tons of scatting.

15. Dizzy Gillespie: “Two Bass Hit” (7/10)

Another big band/bop thing that’s fairly compelling but also feels like it has one foot in the past. Lots of bass soloing, which is fun.

16. Dizzy Gillespie: “Stay On It” (6/10)

Big band. Feels conservative compared to the other music he was making at the time.

17. Dizzy Gillespie: “Algo Bueno (Woody ‘n You)” (7/10)

Originally written for Woody Herman’s orchestra a few years earlier, this version has a Afro-Cuban feel.

18. Dizzy Gillespie: “Cool Breeze” (8/10)

From the title you might think this is cool jazz but absolutely not. Instead it’s knotty bop (played by a big band) with some scat.

19-20. Dizzy Gillespie: “Cubana Be” / “Cubana Bop” (10/10)

Honestly surprised this doesn’t get more attention. In addition to very strong Latin feel there’s also the super heavy orchestral influence in the A-side that feels almost proto Third Stream. This is contrasted to an extremely Afro-Cuban feel to the B-side – it takes nearly 2 minutes to become conventional jazz. A real landmark.

21. Dizzy Gillespie: “Ool-Ya-Koo” (7/10)

There are a lot of these big band bop-plus-scat and they get old after a few of them. There’s some pomo here, though, that makes it better.

22. Dizzy Gillespie: “Minor Walk” (8/10)

This feels like a true fusion of big band and bop. Fun.

23. Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra: “Good Bait” (7/10)

An okay big band composition that has this vaguely Latin feel due to the percussion (which is sometimes in audible). Some good solos.

24. Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra: “Guarachi Guaro” (8/10)

Afro-Cuban big band with some inventive horn parts and the the call-and-response you expect.

25. Dizzy Gillespie: “Duff Capers” (6/10)

Credited to just Gillespie this time (I think), there is an orchestra here but maybe it wasn’t his. Anyway, the solos are decent but this feels rather conservative for him for 1949.

26. Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra: “Lover, Come Back to Me” (9/10)

A Latinized, almost cool version of this selection from a musical that climaxes in a very hot different direction.

27. Dizzy Gillespie: “I’m Be Boppin Too” (6/10)

This is a bit of a goofy with scatted lyrics that really does feel like it’s from another time, despite the use of “Be bop” in the title.

28. Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra: “Swedish Suite” (9/10)

There is just an awful lot going on in this short track. Full of ideas.

29. Dizzy Gillespie: “St. Louis Blues” (8/10)

Inventive orchestration. I believe this is an old song, if I’m not mistaken.

30. Dizzy Gillespie & His Orchestra: “I Should Care” (7/10)

I think the orchestration is inventive but vocal jazz really doesn’t do much for me.

31. Dizzy Gillespie: “That Old Black Magic” (7/10)

Again, very interesting stuff going on in the background but vocal jazz just fails to move me like instrumental jazz.

32. Dizzy Gillespie: “You Go to My Head” (6/10)

I find the arrangements a little less inventive, though certainly very swoony. Not my thing.

33. Dizzy Gillespie: “Jump Did-Le Ba” (8/10)

High-energy, knotty music with lots of scatting.

34. Dizzy Gillespie: “Dizzier and Dizzier” (7/10)

So I guess this is early cool jazz. It’s certainly very sedate. I honestly don’t know how often sounds like this were common in big band. It’s perhaps a little too upbeat to really qualify as cool.

35. Dizzy Gillespie: “I’m Be Boppin Too” (6/10)