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I think of Dizzy Gillespie as that guy with the bent trumpet who puffed hes cheeks out like a blowfish and played bebop music with Charlie Parker. I didn’t know that Diz was a singer, too. In this clip he trades singing and trumpet licks with Louis Armstrong. At the very end Jackie Gleason walks on stage. I found another clip of Dizzy singing, and dancing too - on The Muppet Show. Maybe another time.

The Dizzy Gillespie Quintet: Dizzy Gillespie, trumpet, vocal - Les Spann, guitar - Junior Mance, piano - Sam Jones, double bass - Lex Humphries, drums. TIMEX ALL STAR JAZZ SHOW #4 Recorded on 7th January 1959 in New York City and hosted by Jackie Gleason.

I have expressed the opinion before that Sister Rosetta invented rock and roll. She was a powerful, moving gospel singer that played guitar licks back in the 30s that Chuck Berry would later crib. Here she is on the English television show, “Blues and Gospel Train” in 1964. The set is an actual train station platform.

Tonight we have Mississippi John Hurt, who is on Pete Seeger’s TV show Rainblow Quest some time in the mid 1960s. If I seem to be paying a lot of attention to fingerstyle guitar players I don’t apologize - it’s my blog and I’ll cry if I want to.

Sittimg around the table with John and Pete are Hedy West, a folksinger from Northern Georgia who wrote the classic “Five Hundred Miles” and Paul Cadwell. Paul Cadwell was, or is, a banjo player, but seems to have fallen into obscurity. Any information that you have about his would be appreciated.

Pete Seeger financed the making of “Rainbow Quest” with his own money. Some might argue, after seeing this clip, that the money would have been better spent on a new sweater, but we are left with a historic collection of performances unavailable anywhere else. It is widely available on a collection of DVDs.