Today we celebrate the birthday of jazz great Dizzy Gillespie!  The music legend and cultural icon who championed bebop as a new musical art form would have turned 93 today.  Notorious for his famous balloon cheeks that inflated with every note and his trademark “bent” trumpet, Gillespie was a gifted improviser whose virtuoso style was one of a kind. Throughout the years Dizzy played alongside other notable acts such as Charlie Parker, Duke Ellington, Cab Calloway, Ella Fitzgerald and Louis Armstrong.  Gillespie was also well known as a great mentor who was generous with his knowledge, tutoring the like of Miles Davis, Fats Navarro and Max Roach.  Dizzy was one of the greatest trumpeters of all time and his contributions to jazz as well as his memorable performances (like this video clip of “Gillespiana” on a 1961 Ed Sullivan Show) will live on in music history.