Dizzy Gillespie - Jivin' In Be Bop

Recorded at a time when Diz was fronting his fabled post-war big band featuring jazz greats such as pianist John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson or bassist Ray Brown, this concert film catches the irrepressible trumpeter in top artistic form. In a format that was typical of the day, dancing acts and singers such as Helen Humes or Kenny 'Pancho' Hagood were featured alongside the headlining Gillespie Orchestra. More than fifty years have passed, but watching Diz and his men enthusiastically attack bop classics such as Salt Peanuts, Shaw 'Nuff or Things To Come still makes for wonderful viewing. All clips have been selected from the 1947 ling feature Jivin' In Be-Bop.

• Category

  Music

[Roboticeyebrow]

who is dancing in the Shaw 'Nuff number? Is that Dizzy's Wife Lorraine, Im writing a paper and i want to include a reference to that number in this video while im talking about how the dancing for bebop was more frantic than the dancing for Swing and i need to know that dancers name. It looks like lorraine but i cant be sure.

[Jim Barker]

Bags looks like he's about 14 years old!

[Jim Barker]

Great players, great charts, hokey dancing...thanks for the upload!

[Jim Barker]

Diz before the horn got bent! Great stuff!

[LizzyYouHONEYBDC BROWN]

I AM swing'n RITE NOW! smooches

[james perry]

Aside from Dave Burns in the trumpet section...the only musicians I recognize are a young James Moody..who takes the tenor solo on Oop Bop Sh'Bam...Milt Jackson,vibraharp...John Lewis,piano...Ray Brown, bass...and Joe Harris on drums

[dirtyfrenchie]

anyway i love this movie and what about Mario Bauza : was he there?

[dirtyfrenchie]

we're not even sure what bebop was: what's the common denominator between monk, bird, mjq ,... there was a era of high creativity, wonderful times , including the very beginning at minton's with christian. But the acceleration of jazz from 46 to 59 was so strong that it destroyed itself and main forms of music, an atomic era and who could tell today he pursues parker's work or monk's one?

[blackrocknutt]

Its also worth noting that by the 1970s the economic base for jazz had shifted to primarily Europe and Japan where there was an appetite for all kinds of jazz. Electric jazz, post Bitches Brew, provoked a sizeable resurgence in younger American jazz audiences during the 70s. Jazz popularity rises and falls in cycles but somehow it keeps on sticking around, generation to generation. ''Because Love, they say, never dies''.