Recognized by the staff at the Laurinberg Institute of North Carolina as a prodigy, he was given a scholarship to be in the band in 1932. Throughout his stay at the Laurinberg Institute, he studied both the trumpet and the piano vigourously. Starting himself along a road that would continuously pave the way for something valuable, new and historic.1 Gillespie did not know that he would become a pioneer in a new style called Bebop, or that he would become a role model for other musicians.

On several occasions Dizzy got together with musicians such as Charlie Christian, Thelonius Monk, Kenny Clarke, and Charlie Parker at Minton’s Playhouse in Harlem to jam. In order to scare off the less talented players, they would prepare complex chord changes. In after-hour sessions, Gillespie and Parker took old, popular pieces and expanded them to new compositions. The melodies were intricate and explosive, but were based on the harmonic pattern of the old song. Gillespies “Anthropology” was based on Gershwin’s “I Got Rhythm”. This song would become the harmonic background for many songs in which Gillespie would copy its pattern. In the song “Anthropology”, the rhythm section, or bass, drums and piano would play the harmonic pattern, while Gillespie and Parker play the melody or alternate solos. Even though the harmonic background was identical, what he and Parker created was something new. In the song “Salt Peanuts”, Gillespie also copies this pattern. Through improvisation, Gillespie expanded the previous pattern into something tremendously more complex, both harmonically and melodically.

Bebop also follows a basic format. A: First chorus – band plays the melody in unison. B: Middle choruses – improvised solos, each player in turn improvises for as many choruses as desired. C: Trading fours or eights (optional) – keeping the form, each player improvises in turn for four bars in alteration with the drums. D: Last chorus: band plays the melody in unison.7 Bebop took the harmonies of the old jazz and superimposed on them additional substituted chords.8

Dizzy left Calloway’s band and joined Billy Eckstine’s Orchestra, but soon left to form his own band. In 1942, Gillespie and Parker started playing together more regular

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