Gillespiana

As soon as I had joined Dizzy Gillespie's band, he said, "Why don't you write something for us?" His words triggered my imigination, and the ideas started to flow. Diz had been one of my greatest inspirations (still is), and the composition process was intense and exhilarating. A few days later, I took the sketches of "Gillespiana" to his home and played them on the piano. When I finished. He asked me "How are you going to orchestrate this work?" I replied "I hear a jazz quintet... plus a brass band." Diz immediately called Norman Granz who was at that time the head of Verve Records. With the telephone in his hand he asked me how long it would take to arrange it. "Three weeks," was my response. He told Norman, "Book a studio a month from now." And this is how "Gillespiana" was born