Dizzy Gillespie: You Stole My Wife, You Horsethief

Track

You Stole My Wife, You Horsethief

Artist

Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet)

CD

The Dizzy Gillespie Story 1939-1950 (Proper Box 30)

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Musicians:

Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet), John Coltrane (alto sax), Jimmy Heath (alto sax), Paul Gonsalves (tenor sax), Al McKibbon (bass), Specs Wright (drums),

Willie Cook, Don Slaughter, Elmon Wright (trumpets); Matthew Gee, Sam Hurt, Charles Greenlee (trombones); Jesse Powell (tenor sax), Al Gibson (baritone sax), Johnny Acea (piano), John Collins (guitar)

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Composed by Paul Reis & Harris Sims. Arranged by Buster Harding

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Recorded: New York, November 21, 1949

Albumcoverdizzygillespiestory1939-1950

Rating: 70/100 (learn more)

"Every generation of blacks since slavery," asserted Dizzy Gillespie, "has had to develop its own way of Tomming, of accommodating itself to a basically unjust situation." No white person would dare claim that all blacks since slavery have been Tomming, but perhaps Diz meant by this signifyin'—a thinly veiled Afro-American put-on. Through such expedient, it's arguable that Tomming is an adaptation whereby wily blacks outsmart the Man through subversive playacting. Even so, this out-of-tune farce replete with whinnying trumpet makes us side with Miles Davis: "I love Dizzy, but I hated that clowning shit he did for white folks."

Reviewer: Alan Kurtz

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