Jazz bassist John Lee does his best to keep the works of the legendary Dizzy Gillespie alive. Trailblazing music comes to the area Feb. 9 when The Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars perform at the State Theatre.
By: Susan Van Dongen
Talk about a college work-study program to die for. When jazz bassist John Lee was studying at the Philadelphia Musical Academy in the 1970s, the school had a deal where a student could go on the road and get credit for it. The one condition was the dean had to approve whoever hired the student. Mr. Lee famously took advantage of this opportunity and never looked back, spending his junior and senior years touring with Max Roach, a pioneering be-bop drummer who spent time performing with Charlie Parker.
"I was working in New York on the weekends," Mr. Lee says. "I got the job on Saturday and went into the dean’s office to tell him the following Monday morning. I said ‘I have to go on the road if you approve it.’ The dean was skeptical, like ‘Oh yeah, you got a job. Who with?’ When I told him it was Max Roach, he nearly fell out of his chair.
"He got the paperwork together and told me he was really proud of me and that he loved me," Mr. Lee says. "He was always like that with his students."
One of the ways in which Mr. Lee has repaid that trust is by keeping alive the music of Dizzy Gillespie the jazz master famous for his bullfrog cheeks and angled trumpet. Sixty years of trailblazing music comes to New Brunswick when The Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars perform at the State Theatre, Feb. 9. The All-Stars feature six of today’s most prominent jazz musicians in a tribute to the late trumpeter. The Jazz Institute of New Jersey’s acclaimed Youth Ensemble will be the opening act for this special evening of music.
Mr. Lee was born in Boston in 1952 and grew up listening to his minister father’s extensive collection of jazz records.
"When I was a little kid, I can remember my father talking about Dizzy," he says. "He was my father’s favorite. Unfortunately, he didn’t live to see me play with Dizzy. So I had this music around when I was a child, then I played with Dizzy for 10 years he was such a part of my life. It’s my favorite stuff to play."
The family moved to Philadelphia and Mr. Lee attended Overbrook High School, then the PMA (now Philadelphia College of the Performing Arts), where he bumped into fellow students Stanley Clarke and Gerry Brown who is now Stevie Wonder’s drummer.
"That school was a hotbed for talent," Mr. Lee says. "Quite a few students who came through the academy became successful in the world of music, which doesn’t always happen in a conservatory."
After playing bass with the Max Roach quartet, Mr. Lee worked in Europe with harmonica player extraordinaire Toots Theilemans. A composer, producer and teacher, Mr. Lee has also played with Larry Coryell, Gil Evans, Joe Henderson, Lonnie Liston Smith, Jimmy Heath, Freddie Hubbard and the McCoy Tyner Quintet. He started working with Dizzy Gillespie, and stayed with him until Dizzy’s death in 1992.
"He had three bands going on at once," Mr. Lee says. "The mainstay was the quintet. I did a world tour with Dizzy’s 70th Anniversary Big Bands, and then in the late 80s he conceived the United Nation Orchestra."
"He was an incredible genius, very warm," Mr. Lee says of the man born John Birks Gillespie and nicknamed "Dizzy" because of his antics in various bands, including Cab Calloway’s. "Working with him you’d see more than one side, you’d have different relationships," Mr. Lee says. "There was the father-son relationship, the employer, the brother-to-brother relationship."
The roster of artists in the Alumni All-Stars reads like a "Who’s Who" of the jazz world: trumpeter Jon Faddis, saxophonist Paquito D’Rivera, trombonist Slide Hampton, pianist Cyrus Chestnut and drummer Dennis Mackrel bring a wealth of solo experience to the stage. The individual musicians can also trace a personal association with Dizzy Gillespie, many of them as members of Dizzy’s United Nation Orchestra.
The concert at the State Theatre is part of two events combining live performance with a unique music education program for students at the Jazz Institute of New Jersey. The pros will interact with the young artists at a series of hands-on clinics, and the Youth Ensemble will also open for a concert by Stephon Harris on March 22.
For Mr. Lee, who got a boost from a beloved mentor 30 years ago, turning young musicians on to Dizzy Gillespie comes naturally.
"It’s more than keeping Dizzy’s music alive," he says. "Everybody involved in the program loves his music so much, and there’s so much variety, it always stays so interesting. Dizzy’s music encompasses swing, be-bop, bossa nova, samba and even some rhythm & blues and funk. It’s really the first fusion music in many ways."
The Dizzy Gillespie Alumni All-Stars performs at the State Theatre, 15 Livingston Ave., New Brunswick, Feb. 9 at 8 p.m. Tickets cost $16-$28. For information, call (732) 246-7469 or toll-free (877) 782-8311.
For directions to the State Theatre, click here.

