The Band

:: welcome :: back

The band includes many Gillespie alumni including Musical Director, Slide Hampton, and one of Dizzy’s closest associates and collaborators, James Moody. Other alumni include Frank Wess, Jimmy Heath, Paquito D`Rivera, Roy Hargrove, Antonio Hart, Claudio Roditi, Douglas Purviance and the band’s Executive Director, John Lee, Dizzy's longtime bassist.

Many of the arrangements performed by the band are "vintage" and were written for Dizzy’s big bands of the mid-1940s to the mid-1950s—but they could hardly be described as old or dated. In fact, they continue to stimulate and challenge jazz musicians today just as they continue to dazzle and delight audiences around the world. Some were written by Dizzy himself, others commissioned
from among such distinguished arrangers as Quincy Jones, Gil Fuller, Tadd Dameron, Lalo Schifrin, Melba Liston, and Benny Golson. Newer arrangements have been contributed by Jimmy Heath, Dennis Mackrel and two-time, Grammy Award-winning arranger, Slide Hampton.

The Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band features four winners of the National Endowment of the Arts (NEA) Jazz Masters Award: James Moody, Jimmy Heath, Slide Hampton and Paquito D’Rivera. The NEA award is the highest honor accorded to jazz musicians in the United States. ~ Patrice Lee