John Birks 'Dizzy' Gillespie (1917-1993) was an American jazz trumpeter, composer, and bandleader who, alongside Charlie Parker, shaped bebop into a distinct musical language in the 1940s. His trumpet virtuosity - marked by dazzling harmonic complexity, a bent-bell horn, and those famously puffed cheeks - made him one of the most recognizable figures in jazz history. He also pioneered Afro-Cuban jazz and, from 1956, toured the world as the first jazz musician appointed cultural ambassador by the U.S. State Department. The 2024 documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, nominated for an Academy Award, revisits how his music was woven into Cold War geopolitics.
The documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, featuring Gillespie in archive footage, won Best Art Film at the Rose d'Or awards in 2025 and continued to appear on best-of lists.
Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat, which prominently features Gillespie's music and role as a Cold War jazz ambassador, was nominated for Best Documentary Feature at the 97th Academy Awards.
The documentary Soundtrack to a Coup d'Etat had its world premiere at the Sundance Film Festival on January 22, 2024, with Gillespie appearing via archive footage.
