Greetings To BigH & McCoy, From Dizzy Gillespie

[SlideRuleEra]

My wife and I made a trip this week to my (and Dizzy Gillespie's) home town, Cheraw, SC - it's time for fresh peaches in that part of South Carolina. Got a good photo of his larger-than-life (7 feet tall) statue on the town green. Had hoped to get some photos at the park marking his birthplace, it has a low fence around the perimeter with the musical notes of "Salt Peanuts" made into the fence. Unfortunately, had a frog-strangler thunderstorm just after taking the attached photo... so will have to get the fence on another trip.

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[BigH]

Many thanks for the snap SRE! Appreciate it. Love the statue - a bit cheeky, though - but that was Dizzy's trademark! My "claim to fame" was being born near Richmond Indiana, home of the Star Piano Company. in the 1920s they brought all the dixieland jazz greats, Jelly Roll Morton, King Oliver, Louis Armstrong and others to Richmond to record. A jazz expert in Toronto once called Richmond a "suburb" of Chicago - yet it is 80 miles east of Indianapolis and 40 miles west of Dayton! Bought some jazz vinyls some 40 years ago of a French Label - BYG and they had all these recordings - first time, then, that I realized what Richmond had been (my dad knew but never said). Second "claim to fame" was that the writer of "Time Won't Let Me" by The Outsiders lived next door when I was a kid - used to deliver papers to his parents house and he'd be on the porch playing the guitar. Had differences and left them to form The Intruders - and died in a car accident after a gig in Ashtabula-On-The-Lake (Ohio).

 

[dgillette]

I don't think I ever really understood any of the words, other than "Time won't let me, no. Time won't let me, no." I do remember the Outsiders. I think I might once have seen them on Cleveland TV.

Saw Diz in Delaware, Ohio, of all places, ca. 1978. Introduced 'Night in Tunisia' as 'Night in Toledo' and claimed to have written it in Sandusky OH on a trash can lid. (Sandusky had the closest McDonalds and movie theater when I was a kid.)

 

[SlideRuleEra]

BigH - Didn't know that Richmond was a recording center. Have been to Richmond; when I was on Air Force active duty in the early 1970's was stationed for four years at Wright Patterson AFB, OH. On weekends, friends and I made it a point to learn about Dayton and the surrounding area. Remember going to Richmond to see many of the numerous covered bridges in that vicinity.

dgillette - Later, went to Sandusky... but did not have the nerve to ride the giant rollercoaster at Cedar Point. Did enjoy going to South Bass Island.

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[Mccoy]

LOL, thank you very much sliderule for the delightful greetings, I find the staute pretty quintessential as far as the personality of the great musician goes.

I went to a couple of Dizzy's concerts and gotta confess that seeing him blowing his multicoloured bent trumpet with baloon-like cheeks and seeing his funny faces was a show by itself.

 

[SlideRuleEra]

McCoy - Glad that you and BigH enjoyed the photo. Considering all the "jazz" conversations you two have, this photo-op was too good to pass up.

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