Dizzy Gillespie Birthplace — Cheraw, South Carolina

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was born on October 21, 1917, at 528 Huger Street in Cheraw, South Carolina — a small town in the Pee Dee region that would produce one of the most influential musicians in jazz history. The youngest of nine children, Gillespie grew up in a musical household and taught himself trumpet as a teenager. He moved north in the late 1930s and by the early 1940s was at the centre of the bebop revolution, co-creating — alongside Charlie Parker — an entirely new musical language that transformed jazz from popular entertainment into a serious art form.

Gillespie's innovations were technical as much as conceptual: his extraordinary range, lightning-fast runs, use of altered harmonies, and Afro-Cuban rhythmic experiments (particularly with percussionist Chano Pozo) reshaped what a jazz trumpet player could do. His bent bell — a trademark resulting from an accident when someone sat on his trumpet in 1953, which he found improved the sound projection — became as iconic as the instrument itself, along with his puffed cheeks and beret. He was also a bandleader, composer, educator, and tireless advocate for jazz as a global language.

Cheraw celebrates Gillespie as its most distinguished native son. The Dizzy Gillespie Homeplace at 528 Huger Street is listed on the National Register of Historic Places and has been preserved. The town hosts an annual Dizzy Gillespie Festival and a life-size bronze statue stands in his honour. Despite his international stature, Gillespie maintained affection for Cheraw throughout his life. He died in Englewood, New Jersey, on January 6, 1993.