Dizzy Gillespie in London: November 30, 1965

Humphrey Littleton giving the closing remarks for band members Kenny Barron, Chris White, James Moody, Rudy Collins, and Dizzy Gillespie (screen shot from the YouTube video being discussed)

My pursuit of jazz on video led me to another telecast from the BBC Studios in London as part of the Jazz 625 series hosted by Humphrey Littleton. This time the YouTube video Web page did not provide a specific date. However a Library of Congress Web page offers convincing evidence that the broadcast took place on November 30, 1965. The YouTube title includes “1966;” but the song list on that Web page is definitely not the one on the video!

The program presented a performance by trumpeter Dizzy Gillespie leading a quintet. He shared the front line with James Moody, alternating between alto saxophone and flute. In the rhythm section one encountered at the piano Kenny Barron, who, like Moody, would spend several decades performing with Gillespie. The rest of the rhythm was provided by Chris White on bass and Rudy Collins on drums. The duration of the video is a little over half an hour. However, the Library of Congress site says that the entire recording is “over 60 minutes;” so it is likely that Gillespie’s visit, like that of the Bill Evans Trio, consisted of two separate half-hour programs recorded back-to-back before the same audience, only one of which was readily available through YouTube.

That said, Gillespie was generous with his time, making sure that the other four members of the quintet got the attention they deserved. In Moody’s case that involved Gillespie withdrawing from the group while Moody led a performance of his flute solo work in his composition “Mmm Hmm.” (Gillespie could still steal the scene in articulating the title of this  piece while announcing it.) Indeed, the only Gillespie compositions were the ones that framed the entire half-hour set, “And then she stopped” and the beginning and “Dizzy’s blues,” which was performed while the closing credits were rolling (meaning that it was prematurely stopped).

The remaining selections were drawn from the Latin side of Gillespie’s book. “Tin Tin Deo,” by Chano Pozo and Gil Fuller, was presented as an engaging dialog between trumpet and bass. White brought an interesting background to his tenure in Gillespie’s quintet. He played with Cecil Taylor during the fifties and accompanied Nina Simone before joining Gillespie. He definitely had the chops to serve as the only instrumentalist playing with Gillespie. The other Latin selection was “Chega de Saudade” (no more blues), composed by Antonio Carlos Jobim. Gillespie explained that Philips Records had recorded Gillespie when he performed at Juan-les-Pins (another engaging example of Gillespie articulating his words) in France in July of 1962 (where White was his bassist).

This video is valuable not only for the many opportunities to appreciate Gillespie’s technique but also to see how, even as the host, he saw no reason to keep the spotlight entirely to himself.