The Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Latin Experience is a legacy jazz band anchored by Gillespie bassist John Lee and Mario Grillo (Machito Jr). Other versions of this band include the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban All-Stars.
Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Latin Experience
The Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Latin Experience featuring Mario Grillo (Machito Jr) plays the Blue Note in Greenwich Village on Mon, Sep 27, 2021 at 8pm & 10:30pm (6pm & 10pm doors). From $20. 🇨🇺
Dizzy Gillespie Orchestras in NYC
It’s the next generation of Dizzy Gillespie’s Bebop and Machito’s Cubop. Bebop and Cubop, or modern jazz and Latin jazz, were born together in 1940s New York City. Gillespie was leading things at places like Minton’s Harlem. Machito (and Mario Bauzá) were leading the Afro-Cubans at the Palladium Ballroom.
Jazz and Latin jazz are forms of Caribbean music that were separated at birth. Dizzy reconnected jazz with its Latin roots in 1947 when he asked Machito’s arranger Mario Bauzá for a conga player. Bauzá introduced Chano Pozo to Gillespie. Together, they co-wrote classics such as Manteca and Tin Tin Deo. Congas now seem a standard part of the jazz story, but it was Dizzy who brought them into mainstream jazz.
In 1975, Machito’s son Mario Grillo (Machito Jr.) joined his legendary father in Dizzy’s band to record “Afro-Cuban Jazz Moods” with arrangements by Chico O’Farrill (Arturo O’Farrill’s father). That is the foundation for the Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban Experience or All Stars. It can also be Afro-Latin.
After Dizzy passed away in 1993, his longtime bassist John Lee got the naming rights and now leads the various Dizzy Gillespie orchestras.
Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban All-Stars
The Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Latin Experience featuring Paquito D’Rivera plays the Blue Note in Greenwich Village on Mon, Sep 6 & 13, 2021 at 8pm & 10:30pm (6pm & 10pm doors). From $20. 🇨🇺
The Dizzy Gillespie Afro-Cuban All-Stars play the Blue Note Jazz Festival at the Blue Note in Greenwich Village on Tue, June 18, 2019 at 8 & 10:30pm. $35 🇨🇺