| Dizzy GillespieMore than 40 years ago, Dizzy Gillespie began to explore the varied music of countries and cultures throughout the world. He is universally credited as the catalyst that incorporated Afro-Cuban, Brazilian and Caribbean music and rhythms into the jazz idiom. Gillespie believes that "jazz celebrates the internationality of music - our common language, our common bond." His daring integration of Latin, Caribbean and other ethnic influences has added a vibrant indelible dimension to jazz, and to music in all its popular forms.
Mr. Gillespie created the United Nation Orchestra in 1988 to showcase the varied cultural and rhythmic influences that he considers vital to the development of jazz, something he undertook when the late Chano Pozo joined his first great big band in 1946.
The United Nation Orchestra is a unique ensemble - three Cubans, three Brazilians, a Panamanian, Puerto Rican, Dominican and six black Americans of varying backgrounds - a selection of some of the genre's most gifted talents. It is truly an all-star orchestra, as 10 members of the ensemble are bandleaders in their own right. Since its inception, the United Nation has enthralled capacity audiences in 20 countries on 4 continents. | Discography
Media Files
|
