Real name: John Birks Gillespie

Effective period / Period of releases: 1945 - 2020

American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise". (born October 21, 1917, Cheraw, South Carolina, USA; died January 6, 1993, Englewood, New Jersey, USA)

Together with Charlie Parker he was the predominant figure in the development of bebop (bop), which laid the foundation for modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Jon Faddis and Chuck Mangione.

He was also one of the key founders of Afro-Cuban (or Latin) jazz, adding Chano Pozo's conga to his orchestra in 1947, and utilizing complex poly-rhythms early on.

Career Highlights:
Awarded New Star Award from Esquire Magazine (1944)
Performs at first integrated concert in public school, Cheraw, SC (1959)
First jazz musician appointed by US department of State to undertake cultural mission (1972)
Awarded Handel Medallion from the City of New York (1972)
Received Paul Robeson Award from Rutgers University Institute of Jazz Studies (1972)
Performs at White House for President Carter and the Shah of Iran (1977)
Performs "Salt Peanuts" with President Carter at White House Jazz Concert (1978)
Inducted into Big Band and Jazz Hall of Fame (1982)
Received Lifetime Achievement Award from the National Association of Recording Arts and Sciences (1989)
Received National Medal of Arts from President Bush (1989)
Received Duke Ellington Award from the society og Composers, Authors, and Publishers (1989)
Awarded Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award (1989)
Received Kennedy Center Honors Award (1990)
Received fourteen honorary degrees, including Ph.D. Rutgers University (1972), Ph.D. Chicago Conservatory of Music (1978)
Awarded a Star on the Hollywood Walk of Fame for recording