The swing era may have been the age of the big bands, but bandleaders often found it worth their while to break small groups out of their larger orchestras.
He could split the stratosphere with his high notes, play you sweet and low with his ballads--and woe to any other trumpeter who showed up ready to jam.
This week on Night Lights it’s “Jazz Goes to the Cold War,” a program about the U.S. State Department’s sponsorship of international jazz tours during the 1950s and 1960s. In 1956, as both the Cold War and the civil-rights movement heated up, the American government asked Dizzy Gillespie to assemble a new big band to promote the image of American freedom around the globe. Gillespie obliged, although he made it clear…