Jazz trumpeter, performer, bandleader, singer, composer, and teacher, who pioneered and popularized the music form of bebop—considered the first modern style of jazz—and taught other famous musicians such as fellow trumpeter Miles Davis. He was involved in the Afro-Cuban music movement that helped bring Afro-Latin American music styles and dances like salsa to the United States. Along with playing unusual kinds of rhythms and harmonies, part of his distinctive style came from playing the trumpet that was modified to sound like one that was bent upward in an accident (Idaho). During the 1980s, Gillespie came to Roanoke to play at the city’s July 4th celebrations.
Cab Calloway
(1907-1994)
Calloway was a bandleader, dancer, and movie star who headlined at the Cotton Club and other venues around the world. He mixed music with theatrical performances, and whose band included many famous future musicians such as Dizzy Gillespie (Britannica). Calloway was the first African-American to have a single song’s record sell over a million copies and the first to have his own syndicated radio show. He played in numerous movies over the decades, including The Blues Brothers in 1980. In 1993 Congress awarded him the National Medal of Arts.
