Allmusic‘s Scott Yanow wrote, “Dizzy Gillespie’s contributions
to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all
time (some would say the best), Gillespie was such a complex
player that his contemporaries ended up copying Miles Davis and
Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis’s
emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy’s style was successfully
recreated . . . Arguably Gillespie is remembered, by both
critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters
of all time.” Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser,
building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers
of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. His beret and
horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched
cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in
popularizing bebop. In the 1940s Gillespie, together with
Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of
bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other
musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis,