The great John Birks 'Dizzy' Gillespie (1917-1993) was more than just one of the best jazz trumpeters of all time. A superlative musician of dazzling and astonishing technique, Gillespie was one of the key founders of the bebop movement of the forties; his goatee, beret and "bop glasses" came to epitomize the new, revolutionary style. One of the masters of the bop idiom, Gillespie was also the first jazzman to experiment seriously with Afro-Cuban rhythms, the leader of two of the most exciting big bands in history, a composer of note, a masterful showman onstage, and an enthusiastic, quick-witted personality off it. In many respects, Diz - as he was universally known - showed the way to every post-war trumpeter in the jazz field.

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 headlinging Gillespie Orchestra. More than fifty years have passed, but watching Diz and his men enthusiastically attack bop classics suchas Salt Peanuts, Shaw 'Nuff or Things To Come still makes for wonderful viewing. All clips have been selected from the 1947 long feature Jivin' In Be-Bop, from which the somewhat dated MC presentations have been excluded.

TRACKS:
[1] Salt Peanuts
[2] Be Bab A Lee'ba
[3] Oop Bop Sh'bam
[4] Shaw 'Nuff
[5] I Waited For You
[6] Hubba-Hubba Blues
[7] Night In Tunisia
[8] Crazy About A Man
[9] One Bass Hit
[10] Boogie In C
[11] Dynamo A
[12] Ornithology
[13] He Beeped When He SHould Have Bopped
[14] Grosvenor's Square
[15] Things To Come
[16] Ray's Idea
[17] Bag's Boogie
[18] Hubba-Hubba Blues
TOTAL TIME : 50:13
Jivin In Be-Bop was directed by Leonard Anderson and Spencer Williams, 1947, featuring Helen Humes, Kenny Hagood and many others.

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