Peace Treaty: Dizzy Gillespie and Louie Armstrong

Presented as part of PIFA, the Philadelphia International Festival of the Arts. In honor of the opening sessions of the United Nations, Dizzy Gillespie asked Louie Armstrong for a peace summit regarding the new music of the time – bebop (which Armstrong hated)- at Madame JoJo’s, a popular jazz club in 1946 London. Gillespie and Armstrong debated verbally, but mostly musically, their feelings about bebop and its effect on the music scene. Relive that moment at Madame JoJo’s with the Arpeggio Jazz Ensemble and special guests Tony Smith and Michael Burton on trumpets. The song list includes Armstrong’s “Basin St. Blues,” “West End Blues,” and “Sleepy Time Down South,” and Gillespie’s “A Night in Tunisia,” “Salt Peanuts,” and “Manteca.”