Dizzy Gillespie band members
Dizzy Gillespie (trumpet)
Sam Rivers (bass)
John Lee (electric bass)
Ignacio Berroa (drums)

Willie Dixon band members
Willie Dixon (vocals, double bass)
Baby Doo Caston (keyboards)
Chicago Allstars

This six-part series commemorates some of the great jazz names who died in the early 1990s: Dizzy Gillespie, Kenny Drew, Red Rodney, Stan Getz, Willie Dixon, Dexter Gordon and Art Blakey.

Each programme consists of two quarter-hour performances from one of them.

Dizzy Gillespie (1917-93)
One of the great trumpet players of all time who was regarded as the architect of bebop. His work with small and big bands for 50 years saw the composition of such songs as Nites in Tunisia and a number of major albums, earning him the rightful reputation as a jazz legend.

Willie Dixon (1915-92)
Dixon was one of the most influential of all rhythm'n'blues men, and wrote some of the great R'n'B songs such as Little Red Rooster, Seventh Son and Back Door Man which were recorded by the Rolling Stones, Muddy Waters, Van Morrison, Eric Clapton and many others.