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Dizzy Gillespie par Dany Gignoux

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Dizzi gillespie photographies originales

DIZZY GILLESPIE BY DANY GIGNOUX

Dizzy Gillespie, Montreux

1975 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 620.–

Photographs by Dany Gignoux
Text by Luca Sabbatini

In the aristocracy of the blue note, whose long lineage includes «King» Oliver, «Duke» Ellington or «Count» Basie, Dizzy occupies the role of the madman, the mischievous court jester who does not hesitate to overthrow the established order with his irreverence.

A dazzling trumpeter, a brilliant and whimsical musician, Dizzy Gillespie has gone down in jazz history as much for his musical qualities as for his extraordinary showmanship.

Dizzy Gillespie, San Remo

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 250.–

Cab Calloway, Cecil Mc Bee & Dizzy Gillespie, New York

1988 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 190.–


Born in South Carolina, John Birks Gillespie (1917-1993) learns to play the trumpet with his father, a bricklayer by day and amateur bandleader by night. When his father dies in 1927, the young boy pursues his studies at all costs, first as a self-taught student, then in a music school for two years. Barely a teenager, he is already on the road, in search of professional status as a musician. By the end of the 1930s, his reputation makes the rounds of the clubs and he’s hired for important gigs, playing in the orchestras of Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald, Billy Eckstine…

With his stage pranks, his cheeks puffed up like balloons when he blows his trumpet, he is quite naturally nicknamed by his peers... Dizzy: someone whose silliness makes your head spin like a vertigo. Rarely in the history of jazz has a nickname seemed so appropriate. For musical vertigo becomes his signature in the early 1940s, when he takes part in the legendary jam sessions at the Minton's Playhouse in New York. There, his unbridled trumpet competes with Charlie Parker's alto saxophone until the very end of the night. Angular riffs, feverish intensity, frenzied tempi: the two musicians shatter the harmonic field of jazz, inventing a new language with dazzling creativity. Bebop was born.

Dizzy Gillespie, Washington D.C.

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 770.–

Dizzy Gillespie & Giovanni Hidalgo, Bobigny

1991 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 175.–


Several of his compositions - A Night in Tunisia, Salt Peanuts, Woody' n' You... - instantly become jazz standards. A major aesthetic shift takes place at the end of the 1940s when Dizzy leads his own big band, which combines the unrestrained virtuosity of bebop with the irresistible poly-rhythmic drive of Afro-Cuban jazz, using congas and other Latin American percussion instruments to great effect.
This is the era of "Cubop", as Dizzy called it.

Dizzy Gillespie, Washington D.C.

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 320.–


He also introduces his famous "look" - beret, goatee, scaled glasses - which influenced a whole generation of artists, right up to the beatniks.

And he swaps his straight trumpet for an instrument with a 45-degree bent bell.

Ray Charles & Dizzy Gillespie, Montreux

1978 – Dany GIGNOUX

Sold

When the big bands cease to be popular, the trumpeter switches to smaller settings, where he takes under his protective wing a young John Coltrane, then the pianist Lalo Schifrin, future composer of the soundtrack of the film Dirty Harry, who becomes his regular arranger.

Dizzy Gillespie, Washington D.C.

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 960.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Seville

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

Sold

Dizzy Gillespie & Miriam Makeba, Singen (D)

1991 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 240.–

DG & DG

DIZZY GILLESPIE & DANY GIGNOUX


Dany Gignoux took her first photos of the trumpeter in 1975, at the Montreux Jazz Festival. The photographer was at the beginning of her career, while Dizzy was at the peak of his own, covered with medals and honorary titles, official ambassador of jazz and American culture throughout the world.

Dizzy Gillespie, Washington D.C.

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 370.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Montreux

1980 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 720.–


MONTREUX JAZZ FESTIVAL

Until the 1980s, Dany Gignoux regularly photographed him in Montreux, where the trumpeter led meetings of mythical stars (Ella Fitzgerald, Milt Jackson) as well as encounters between rising jazz talents (Wynton Marsalis, Randy Brecker), two types of events that the festival was particularly fond of.

Dizzy Gillespie, Milt Jackson & Ella Fitzgerald, Montreux

1981 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 540.–

Wynton Marsalis, Hugh Masekela, Dizzy Gillespie, Randy Brecker et Jimmy Owens, Montreux

1987 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 340.–

James Morrison, Carmen McRae et Dizzy Gillespie, Montreux

1989 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 330.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Paris

1991 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 240.–


Dizzy likes the photos of this woman who shares the same initials as him: a friendship develops, trust is established, and Dany Gignoux is free to follow the trumpet player on his travels.

Dizzy Gillespie & Danilo Pérez, Lugano

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 390.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Barcelona Palau de la Musica

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 870.–

Dizzy Gillespie & Paquito D'Rivera, San Remo

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 480.–

Dizzy Gillespie & Danilo Pérez, Seville

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX


From New York to Washington D.C., from Paris to Antibes or Nice, during a tour in Spain, Dany Gignoux's lens captures the musician from every angle: trying on an African-style stage outfit, visiting a trumpet repair shop, making a daily phone call to his wife from his hotel room, having a birthday party, meeting his old friends Benny Carter and Hank Jones, having an impromptu picnic, and even taking a pee break on the roadside!

Dizzy Gillespie, Huelva

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

Dizzy Gillespie, Paris

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

Dizzy Gillespie, Juan-les-Pins

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 210.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Benny Carter, Hank Jones and Paquito D'Rivera, Washington D.C.

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 180.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Granada-Saragossa

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 185.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Washington D.C.

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX


From the dressing room to the stage, Dany Gignoux's photos reveal a musical giant of infectious joy, as in her iconic portrait of Dizzy laughing, used by Nikon in a famous advertising poster.


The trumpeter dies in 1993; the same year, Dany Gignoux seals their friendship in a magnificent book of photographs that includes most of the shots available on Photo123.ch.


Dizzy Gillespie at the Smithsonian Institute, Nikon

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 290.–

Dizzy Gillespie & Clark Terry, Nice

1983 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 340.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Granada

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 460.–

Dizzy Gillespie, San Remo

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

Dizzy Gillespie, Paris

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 460.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Paris

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 630.–

Dizzy Gillespie, Barcelona

1990 – Dany GIGNOUX

CHF 620.–

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