Missing Diz

I have no intention of posting about every jazz person’s birthday. There are other sites on the web for that. I have every intention of acknowledging Dizzy Gillespie’s 95th, which is today.

The video below finds him sitting in with Johnny Griffin’s quartet at Châteauvallon, France, in August of 1971. Gillespie was 53 and at a peak of one of the great playing periods of his life. Vince Benedetti is the pianist, Alby Cullaz the bassist, Arthur Taylor the drummer. The same band appears on the Griffin DVD that is a current Rifftides recommendation (see the right-hand column). This piece, “I’ll Remember April,” is not included in the DVD.