CD review: Dizzy Gillespie Quintet – Gillespiana: In Concert 1961 – 2024: Video, CD cover

November 20, 1961 Dizzy Gillespie brought on stage at the Falkoner Centret, Copenhagen the quintet version of his “Gillespiana Suite”, composed originally for his 16-piece orchestra by young Argentine composer/pianist Lalo Schifrin.

The suite was recorded in the previous year to become a huge success. This composition paved the way for Schifrin to become one of the most popular screen music composers. The program finishes with Gillespie’s own Kush which stayed in his repertoire for the next 15 years.

Readers with long memories will remember that this edition of Dizzy’s group toured Europe on a double bill alongside former Gillespie sideman John Coltrane’s quartet (seven UK dates were included earlier the same month, during one of which I recall Trane sneaking into the stalls to watch his old boss perform).

While bootlegs of the latter’s contributions have proliferated, the only documentation of Diz may be these 40 minutes from Stuttgart and nearly half-an-hour in Frankfurt, recorded for radio station SDR. His quintet was a continuation of the basic group for the previous year’s Lalo Schifrin-arranged big-band extravaganza Gillespiana, with the second strongest voice being Leo Wright who subsequently settled in Europe. Schifrin seems a bit overstretched on a couple of long solos with distressingly rudimentary left-hand voicings while Mel Lewis, already a valued studio musician, was a more than adequate emergency replacement.

Two 15-minute-plus pieces, ‘Kush’ and Ellington’s ‘The Mooche’, make an interesting comparison with the versions on An Electrifying Evening With… recorded nine months earlier. But there are also two lengthy versions of ‘Con Alma’, and the whole thing is well worth your time.

This CD combines two complete and related LPs. When Lalo Schifrin joined the Dizzy Gillespie Quintet in 1960, he was encouraged by Gillespie to write an extended work for him. “Gillespiana” was the result, an impressive five-movement suite that showcased the trumpeter’s talents with a large orchestra.

The latter half of this CD was recorded at Carnegie Hall the same day that “Gillespiana” was debuted live, but those five pieces are more conventional, highlighted by remakes of “Manteca” and “A Night in Tunisia” (the latter as the more involved “Tunisian Fantasy”). Only an overly silly version of “Ool-Ya-Koo” with Joe Carroll detracts from this otherwise superb release.

1. Gillespiana: Prelude (5:46)
2. Gillespiana: Blues (12:35)
3. Gillespiana: Panamericana (5:49)
4. Gillespiana: Africana (7:15)
5. Gillespiana: Toccata (13:34)
6. Kush (16:28)

Dizzy Gillespie: trumpet
Leo Wright: alto saxophone, flute
Lalo Schifrin: piano
Bob Cunningham: bass
Mel Lewis: drums