Editing Dizzy Gillespie (section)

===Early life and career===
The youngest of nine children of Lottie and James Gillespie, Dizzy Gillespie was born in [[Cheraw, South Carolina]].<ref name="Africana">{{cite book |last1=Appiah |first1=Anthony |last2=Gates |first2=Henry Louis |title=Africana: The Encyclopedia of the African and African American Experience |url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TMZMAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA796|access-date=July 9, 2018 |year=2005 |publisher=Oxford University Press |isbn=978-0-19-517055-9|pages=796–}}</ref> His father was a local bandleader,<ref name="FinkelmanWintz2009">{{cite book |last1=Finkelman |first1=Paul |last2=Wintz |first2=Cary D. |title= Encyclopedia of African American History, 1896 to the Present: From the Age of Segregation to the Twenty-first Century Five-volume Set|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=6gbQHxb_P0QC&pg=RA1-PA303|access-date=July 9, 2018 |year=2009 |publisher=Oxford University Press, US|isbn=978-0-19-516779-5|pages=1–}}</ref> so instruments were made available to the children. Gillespie started to play the piano at the age of four.<ref>{{Cite news |url=http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dizzy-gillespie-is-born |title=Dizzy Gillespie is born – Oct 21, 1917 |work=History.com |access-date=March 13, 2017 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170624094617/http://www.history.com/this-day-in-history/dizzy-gillespie-is-born |archive-date=June 24, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> Gillespie's father died when he was only ten years old. He taught himself how to play the trombone as well as the trumpet by the age of twelve. From the night he heard his idol, [[Roy Eldridge]], on the radio, he dreamed of becoming a jazz musician.<ref name="Moody">{{cite news |last1=Reich |first1=Howard |url=https://www.chicagotribune.com/1993/03/28/dizzys-legacy/|title=Dizzy's Legacy: James Moody Carries on the Tradition of His Mentor |work=Chicago Tribune |date=March 28, 1993}}</ref>

He won a music scholarship to the [[Laurinburg Institute]] in North Carolina which he attended for two years before accompanying his family when they moved to Philadelphia in 1935.<ref name=":1">{{Cite journal|date=January 25, 1993|title=The Music World Mourns Death of Jazz Great Dizzy Gillespie|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=V8IDAAAAMBAJ&q=lorraine+Willis+sizzy+jet&pg=PA55|journal=Jet|volume= 83| issue =  13|pages=55}}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/dizzygillespie |title=Priestly, Brian. "The Definitive Dizzy Gillespie" |publisher=Vervemusicgroup.com |access-date=October 20, 2010 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110218162357/http://www.vervemusicgroup.com/dizzygillespie |archive-date=February 18, 2011 |url-status=dead }}</ref>

Gillespie's first professional job was with the [[Frank Fairfax]] Orchestra in 1935, after which he joined the respective orchestras of [[Edgar Hayes]] and later [[Teddy Hill]], replacing Frankie Newton as second trumpet in May 1937. Teddy Hill's band was where Gillespie made his first recording, "King Porter Stomp". In August 1937 while gigging with Hayes in Washington D.C., Gillespie met a young dancer named Lorraine Willis who worked a Baltimore–Philadelphia–New York City circuit which included the [[Apollo Theater]]. Willis was not immediately friendly but Gillespie was attracted anyway. The two married on May 9, 1940.<ref name=":0">{{cite book |last=Vail |first=Ken |title=Dizzy Gillespie: the Bebop Years, 1937–1952 |pages=6, 12 |publisher=Scarecrow Press |year=2003 |isbn=0810848805}}</ref>
[[File:Dizzy Gillespie 1955 Press Photo.jpg|thumb|Gillespie in a publicity photo (c. 1955)]]
Gillespie stayed with Teddy Hill's band for a year, then left and freelanced with other bands.<ref name="jmh"/> In 1939, with the help of Willis, Gillespie joined [[Cab Calloway]]'s orchestra.<ref name=":1" /> He recorded one of his earliest compositions, "Pickin' the Cabbage", with Calloway in 1940. After an altercation between the two, Calloway fired Gillespie in late 1941. The incident is recounted by Gillespie and Calloway's band members [[Milt Hinton]] and [[Jonah Jones]] in [[Jean Bach]]'s 1997 film, ''The Spitball Story''. Calloway disapproved of Gillespie's mischievous humor and his adventuresome approach to soloing. According to Jones, Calloway referred to it as "Chinese music". During rehearsal, someone in the band threw a spitball. Already in a foul mood, Calloway blamed Gillespie, who refused to take the blame. Gillespie stabbed Calloway in the leg with a knife. Calloway had minor cuts on the thigh and wrist. After the two were separated, Calloway fired Gillespie. A few days later, Gillespie tried to apologize to Calloway, but he was dismissed.<ref>{{cite web |title=Great Encounters #26: When Cab Calloway and Dizzy Gillespie fought over a thrown spitball |url= https://jerryjazzmusician.com/great-encounters-26-when-cab-calloway-and-dizzy-gillespie-fought-over-a-thrown-spitball/ |website=Jerry Jazz Musician|date= March 30, 2007 |access-date=February 24, 2016}}</ref>

During his time in Calloway's band, Gillespie started writing big band arrangements for [[Woody Herman]], [[Jimmy Dorsey]], and others.<ref name="jmh"/> He then freelanced with a few bands, most notably [[Ella Fitzgerald]]'s orchestra, composed of members of the [[Chick Webb]]'s band.<ref>{{Cite web |title=Dizzy Gillespie Page |url=http://www.soulwalking.co.uk/Dizzy%20Gillespie.html |access-date=2024-10-09 |website=Soulwalking.co.uk}}</ref><ref>{{Citation |last=America |first=Harlem Renaissance in |title=The Harlem Renaissance |date=2016-12-05 |work=Harlem Renaissance in America Art History |url=https://www.coreybarksdale.com/harlem-renaissance/dizzy-gillespie.html |access-date=2024-10-09 |publisher=Harlem Renaissance in America |language=en}}</ref>

Gillespie did not serve in [[World War II]]. At his [[Selective Service]] interview, he told the local board, "in this stage of my life here in the United States whose foot has been in my ass?" and "So if you put me out there with a gun in my hand and tell me to shoot at the enemy, I'm liable to create a case of 'mistaken identity' of who I might shoot." He was classified [[4-F (Selective Service System)|4-F]].<ref name="Plummer">{{cite book |last1=Plummer |first1=Brenda Gayle |title=Rising wind : Black Americans and U.S. Foreign Affairs, 1935–1960 |page=74}}</ref><ref>{{Cite web |url=https://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/remembering-life-jazz-icon-dizzy-gillespie-article-1.2405917 |title=Remembering the life of jazz icon Dizzy Gillespie – NY Daily News |website=[[New York Daily News]] |access-date=January 10, 2020 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170811074658/http://www.nydailynews.com/entertainment/music/remembering-life-jazz-icon-dizzy-gillespie-article-1.2405917 |archive-date=August 11, 2017 |url-status=dead }}</ref> In 1943, he joined the [[Earl Hines]] band. Composer [[Gunther Schuller]] said,

<blockquote> ... In 1943 I heard the great Earl Hines band which had Bird in it and all those other great musicians. They were playing all the flatted fifth chords and all the modern harmonies and substitutions and Gillespie runs in the trumpet section work. Two years later I read that that was 'bop' and the beginning of modern jazz ... but the band never made recordings.<ref name="Gourse2009">{{cite book|last=Gourse|first=Leslie |title=Sassy: The Life of Sarah Vaughan|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=kvImwPArpeYC&pg=PA21|access-date=10 December 2018|date=5 August 2009|publisher=Da Capo Press|isbn=978-0-7867-5114-3|pages=21–}}</ref></blockquote>

Gillespie said of the Hines band, "[p]eople talk about the Hines band being 'the incubator of bop' and the leading exponents of that music ended up in the Hines band. But people also have the erroneous impression that the music was new. It was not. The music evolved from what went before. It was the same basic music. The difference was in how you got from here to here to here ... naturally each age has got its own shit."<ref name="Dance">{{cite book |last1=Dance |first1=Stanley |title=The World of Earl Hines |date=1983 |publisher=Da Capo Press |isbn=0-306-80182-5 |page=260}}</ref>

Gillespie joined the [[big band]] of Hines's long-time collaborator [[Billy Eckstine]], and it was as a member of Eckstine's band that he was reunited with [[Charlie Parker]], a fellow member. In 1944, Gillespie left Eckstine's band because he wanted to play with a small combo. A "small combo" typically comprised no more than five musicians, playing the trumpet, saxophone, piano, bass and drums. Dizzy recommended [[Fats Navarro]] for the job with Eckstine, who proved to be an ample replacement.<ref>{{Cite book |last=Gillespie |first=John Birks |title=To Be or not To Bop |date=1979 |publisher=[[University of Minnesota Press]] |isbn=9780816665471 |location=111 Third Avenue South, Suite 209 |pages=202 |language=en}}</ref>