Music Monday - Dizzy Gillespie and Don Byas

Things are sort of dull around the Music Monday composing room, so for the next few weeks the cracked editorial staff has decided on a new feature for the day:

The artwork of David Stone Martin on record covers.

One exciting work of art (called Illustration by some) will be presented here each week until they run out. Most scans are from the editor's personal library and the original copyrights apply.

They are presented here for admiration and educational purposes only.

Next Friday, October 21, marks the birthday of two Jazz legends:
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie born in 1917 and Don Byas born in 1912.

David Stone Martin did several covers for Dizzy Gillespie and at least two for Don Byas.

Dizzy Gillespie made many recordings here are a few from late in his life.
1977: Free Ride
1981: Digital at Montreux, 1980 (Toots Thielemans, Bernard Purdie)
1985: New Faces (with Robert Ameen, Branford Marsalis, Kenny Kirkland, Lonnie Plaxico, Charlie Christian)
1988: Oop Pop a Da (with Moe Koffman)
1989: Live at the Royal Festival Hall London July 10, 1989
1989: The Symphony Sessions (with Ron Holloway, Ed Cherry, John Lee, Ignacio Berroa)
1990: The Winter in Lisbon
1990: Rhythmstick (CTI Records)
1991: Live! at Blues Alley (with Ron Holloway, Ed Cherry, John Lee, Ignacio Berroa)
1992: Groovin' High
1992: To Bird With Love
1995: In Paris v.2 Vogue RCA 1995
2000: Dizzy For President Douglas Records

Here are a few recordings from Don Byas.
Don Byas in Paris (1946–49)
Those Barcelona Days 1947-1948
Le Grand Don Byas (1952–55)
The Mary Lou Williams Quartet featuring Don Byas (1954)
Don Byas with Beryl Booker (1955)
A Tribute to Cannonball (with Bud Powell, 1961)
Amalia Rodrigues with Don Byas (1973)
A Night in Tunisia (1963)
Walkin' (1963)
Anthropology (1963)
Autumn Leaves (live with Stan Tracey, 1965)
Don Byas Quartet featuring Sir Charles Thompson (1967)
Ben Webster meets Don Byas (1968)

From WIKI:
John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (October 21, 1917 – January 6, 1993) was an American jazz trumpet player, bandleader, singer, and composer dubbed "the sound of surprise".

Together with Charlie Parker, he was a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan, Jon Faddis[2] and Chuck Mangione.

Gillespie was a trumpet virtuoso and gifted improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge[5] but adding layers of harmonic complexity previously unknown in jazz. Dizzy's beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks and his light-hearted personality were essential in popularizing bebop

From WIKI:
Both of Byas's parents were musical: his mother played the piano and father the clarinet. Byas started his training in classical music, first on the violin, then on the clarinet and finally on the alto saxophone, which he played until the end of the 1920s. Multi-instrumentalist Benny Carter was his idol at this time. He started playing in local orchestras at the age of 17, with the likes of Bennie Moten, Terrence Holder and Walter Page's Blue Devils. At Langston College, Oklahoma, he founded and led his own college band, "Don Carlos and His Collegiate Ramblers", during 1931-32.

Byas switched to the tenor saxophone after he moved to West Coast and played with various Los Angeles bands. In 1933, he took part in a West coast tour with Bert Johnson’s Sharps and Flats. He was a member of various other bands in the area including those of Lionel Hampton, Eddie Barefield, Buck Clayton (1936), Lorenzo Flennoy and Charlie Echols.