Celebrating With a Trumpet Maestro

Who says your birthday comes but once a year? Certainly not Dizzy Gillespie.

The trumpet maestro will be 75 in October, but he’s been the subject of birthday celebrations for several months. During the month of January, for instance, Gillespie spent four weeks at the Blue Note nightclub in New York City, appearing at “Diamond Jubilee” bashes with four different configurations. These included a be-bop quintet, a big band and a pair of weeklong jam sessions that spotlighted saxophonists, then trumpeters.

The latter group is heard on “To Diz With Love, Volume One,” just released on Telarc Records. Here Gillespie is in the company of fellow brassmen Wynton Marsalis, Wallace Roney--in Los Angeles this week performing through Sunday with Tony Williams’ quintet at Catalina Bar & Grill--Red Roney, Jon Faddis, Charlie Sepulveda, Claudio Roditi and Doc Cheatham.

For the session, they joined Gillespie in pairs: Marsalis and Sepulveda on “Straight No Chaser”; Roney and Roditi tear up “A Night in Tunisia” and “Billie’s Bounce”; Faddis and Cheatham guest on “Mood Indigo.”

Gillespie’s playing was first-rate, according to John Snyder, who co-produced the sessions with Charlie Fishman, Gillespie’s manager. “The guests all played at a high level and Diz seemed to rise to the occasion,” said Snyder. “In many respects, his playing set the standard” for the proceedings.

“To Bird With Love, Vol. One,” which features Gillespie with such saxophonists as Benny Golson, Antonio Hart and Clifford Jordan, is due out on Telarc in the fall.

Rim Shots: Clint Eastwood, Joe Williams and Louie Bellson will be among the notables honoring Ella Fitzgerald at a tribute concert-dinner being held tonight at 7 in the Grand Ballroom of the Beverly Hilton Hotel. Proceeds from the evening, which is being sponsored by USC Friends of Music, go to establish the Ella Fitzgerald Scholarship award at USC. Information: (213) 740-6474. . . . Bassist Christian McBride, who’s with pianist Benny Green’s trio, also at Catalina Bar & Grill through Sunday, was named Jazzman of the Year by Rolling Stone magazine.

In the Bins: Vibist Bobby Hutcherson’s “Farewell Keystone,” a reissue from Evidence Records, was taped at the now-defunct San Francisco jazz haunt, Keystone Korner, in 1982 and features a crew of ace musicians, among them pianist Cedar Walton, saxophonist Harold Land and drummer Billy Higgins. Walton and Higgins appear with Eastern Rebellion, which also includes saxman Ralph Moore, Tuesday through June 7, again at the Catalina Bar & Grill. . . . Andy Simpkins’ “Comin’ at Ya” (Mama Foundation Records) finds the ex-Three Sounds’ bassist leading a solid quintet with saxman Pete Christlieb and trombonist Mike Fahn and playing such mainstream classics as Miles Davis’ “Half Nelson” and Frank Rosolino’s “Blue Daniel.” . . . Saxophonist Clifford Jordan’s “Down Through the Years” (Landmark) places the venerable hornman in front of his vital big band, offering such selections as his own “Highest Mountain.”