2012 · Album
Dear Diz (Every Day I Think of You)
Recorded 2012 · Originated on Sandoval's label · Personnel: Arturo Sandoval (trumpet), Gary Burton (vibraphone), Eddie Daniels (clarinet, saxophone), Joey DeFrancesco (organ), Bob Mintzer (saxophone, bass clarinet)
Sandoval's Tribute to Dizzy's Spirit
A big-band salute from one trumpeter to the giant who showed him the way forward.
Arturo Sandoval assembled an all-star ensemble to honor Dizzy Gillespie, the bebop pioneer who shaped his own path as a trumpeter. The lineup included Gary Burton on vibraphone, Eddie Daniels on clarinet and saxophone, Joey DeFrancesco on organ, and Bob Mintzer on saxophone and bass clarinet, anchoring a larger orchestration built around Sandoval's lead. The session was conceived as a direct conversation with Gillespie's legacy—not a museum piece, but a working band thinking through what Dizzy's innovations sounded like filtered through contemporary ears and a full ensemble sound.
Sandoval had long admired Gillespie, and this album is his clearest statement of that debt. Rather than restaging bebop classics, Sandoval and his collaborators explored what happens when you bring Gillespie's harmonic language and rhythmic swagger into a modern big-band context. The interplay between Burton's vibraphone and DeFrancesco's organ creates a texture that pulls the music toward both swing tradition and contemporary groove. Mintzer's reed work provides extra color in an arrangement-heavy setting. This is Sandoval doing something different from his more straightahead small-group work—a larger canvas, more written parts, less room for the raw virtuosity he's known for.
The album resonated widely enough to win the Grammy Award for Best Large Jazz Ensemble Album in 2013, validating Sandoval's instinct that Gillespie's influence was worth examining at scale, and that a contemporary ensemble could honor that influence without simply imitating it.
Who's playing
Shelly Bergpiano
Zane Musaalto saxophone
Bob Mintzertenor saxophone
Plas Johnsontenor saxophone
Bob Sheppardtenor saxophone
Joey DeFrancescoHammond organ
Gary Burtonvibraphone
Eddie Danielsclarinet
Where next?
More by Arturo Sandoval
All 34 albums →
The musicians on this record
Their own records, close in time
