January 9, 1945: Dizzy Gillespie records "Salt Peanuts," which he had written with Kenny Clarke. It becomes perhaps the most familiar recording of "bebop" jazz.
Both men had recorded with Ella Fitzgerald's orchestra. John Birks Gillespie was nicknamed "Dizzy," not because he was seen to be crazy, the way baseball pitcher Jay "Dizzy" Dean was. In fact, he was among the most intelligent men ever to record music. Rather, "Dizzy" referred to the speed of his trumpet playing.
His intellectualism, his beret, and his trumpet with the turned-up bulb made him an icon of music, not just of jazz. From starting bebop with Charlie Parker in the 1940s to appearing on The Muppet Show in 1980, Diz was jazz for millions. Clarke would never be as famous, but he went on to drum for The Modern Jazz Quartet, so he was nearly as influential.
The writers of the "Beat Generation" loved jazz, especially bebop, and wrote extensively about it, especially On the Road author Jack Kerouac. Jack was deeply saddened when Parker died as a result of his alcoholism on March 12, 1955 -- Kerouac's own 33rd birthday. Kerouac would die as a result of his own alcoholism, on October 21, 1969 -- Gillespie's 52nd birthday.
Clarke died in 1985, Gillespie in 1993.
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January 9, 1945 was a Saturday. Baseball and football were out of season. The NBA hadn't been founded yet. There was 1 game played in the NHL: The New York Rangers beat the Toronto Maple Leafs, 5-4 at Maple Leaf Gardens in Toronto.
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