I first listened to John Birks “Dizzy’ Gillespie’s recordings as a young jazz drummer and admired how fast he could play the horn.
Drawing Dizzy was a great challenge. However, the more determinedly I sketched, the more focused I became and I knew I was approaching what I wanted to portray, which was very satisfying. In many creative endeavors things rarely come easily. A lot of effort is involved.
Dizzy composed “A Night in Tunisia” in the 40’s and I thought it would be a kick to draw him in African attire since he enjoyed dressing colorfully for concerts. His signature trademarks while playing were his inflated cheeks, with air enough to extend complex phrasing and his bent trumpet.
It took me many hours and sessions to draw Dizzy but I wanted to get it right. Using many pencil grayscale values and thousands of careful strokes brought forth Dizzy Gillespie, one of the founding greats of the bebop era. I hope you like my version.
A note on Dizzy’s bent trumpet: In January 1953, Dizzy threw a party for his wife at a club in Manhattan, where his trumpet’s bell got bent upward in an accident. He liked the sound so much he had a special trumpet made with a 45-degree raised bell, becoming his trademark.
