Gillespie's trademark trumpet featured a bell which bent upward at a
45-degree angle rather than pointing straight ahead as in the
conventional design. According to Gillespie's autobiography, this was
originally the result of accidental damage caused by the dancers
Stump and Stumpy
falling onto the instrument while it was on a trumpet stand on stage at
Snookie's in Manhattan on January 6, 1953, during a birthday party for
Gillespie's wife Lorraine.
[58]
The constriction caused by the bending altered the tone of the
instrument, and Gillespie liked the effect. He had the trumpet
straightened out the next day, but he could not forget the tone.
Gillespie sent a request to
Martin
to make him a "bent" trumpet from a sketch produced by Lorraine, and
from that time forward played a trumpet with an upturned bell.
[59]
Gillespie's biographer Alyn Shipton writes that Gillespie probably
got the idea for a bent trumpet when he saw a similar instrument in 1937
in Manchester, England, while on tour with the
Teddy Hill
Orchestra. According to this account (from British journalist Pat
Brand) Gillespie was able to try out the horn and the experience led
him, much later, to commission a similar horn for himself.
Whatever the origins of Gillespie's upswept trumpet, by June 1954 he
was using a professionally manufactured horn of this design, and it was
to become a visual trademark for him for the rest of his life.
[60] Such trumpets were made for him by Martin (from 1954),
King Musical Instruments (from 1972) and
Renold Schilke (from 1982, a gift from
Jon Faddis).
[59] Gillespie favored mouthpieces made by
Al Cass. In December 1986 Gillespie gave the
National Museum of American History his 1972 King "Silver Flair" trumpet with a Cass mouthpiece.
[59][61][62] In April 1995, Gillespie's Martin trumpet was auctioned at
Christie's in New York City, along with instruments used by other famous musicians such as
Coleman Hawkins,
Jimi Hendrix and
Elvis Presley.
[63]
An image of Gillespie's trumpet was selected for the cover of the
auction program. The battered instrument was sold to Manhattan builder
Jeffery Brown for $63,000, the proceeds benefiting jazz musicians
suffering from cancer.
[64][65][66]