Search - Dizzy Gillespie :: Gillespania & Carnegie Hall Concert

Gillespiana! with Lalo Schifrin arrangements

Michael St John | St. Paul, MN | 11/19/2001

(5 out of 5 stars)

"This set from '60-61 might be the best album Dizzy recorded for the Verve label. GILLESPIANA is a suite written and arranged for Dizzy's big band, by Lalo Schifrin. The five movements take you on a world tour of exotic rhythms and sounds representing facets of Dizzy's musical personality. Schifrin's arrangements sound very fresh, not quite like how any of Dizzy's bands ever sounded before, and yet still sounding very much like Dizzy. The band is really up for this date, and Diz particularly hits a special zone.About five months after the suite was recorded, most of the band assembled again for a March '61 concert in Carnegie Hall. Most of the tunes are familiar parts of Dizzy's book, but Schifrin's arrangements again give the pieces a little special lustre.Some other more recent reissues may have overshadowed this CD (reissued in '93), but it is no mere minor curiosity. It's some of the best music I've heard by Diz, and should be part of any representative collection of his work."