Dizzy Gillespie, the trumpet player whose role as a founding father of modern jazz made him a major figure in 20th-century American music and whose signature moon cheeks and bent trumpet made him one of the world's most instantly recognizable figures, died yesterday at Englewood Hospital in Englewood, N.J. Mr. Gillespie, who was 75, had been suffering for some time from pancreatic cancer, his press agent, Virginia Wicks, said. In a nearly 60-year career as a composer, band leader and innovative player, Mr. Gillespie cut a huge swath through the jazz world. In the early 40's, along with the alto saxophonist Charlie (Yardbird) Parker, he initiated be-bop, the sleek, intense, high-speed revolution that has become jazz's most enduring style. In subsequent years he incorporated Afro-Cuban music into jazz, creating a new genre from the combination. In the naturally effervescent Mr. Gillespie, opposites existed. His playing -- and he performed constantly until nearly the end of his life -- was meteoric, full of virtuosic invention and deadly serious. But with his endlessly funny asides, his huge variety of facial expressions and his natural comic gifts, he was as much a pure entertainer as an accomplished artist. In some ways, he seemed to sum up all the possibilities of American popular art. John Birks Gillespie was born in Cheraw, S.C., on Oct. 21, 1917. His father, a bricklayer, led a local band, and by the age of 14 the young Gillespie was practicing the trumpet. He and his family moved to Philadelphia two years later, and Mr. Gillespie, though he thought about entering Temple University, quickly began a succession of professional jobs. He worked with Bill Doggett, the pianist and organist, who fired him for not being able to read music well enough, and then Frank Fairfax, a big-band leader whose orchestra included the trumpeter Charlie Shavers and the clarinetist Jimmy Hamilton. Mr. Gillespie was listening to the trumpeter Roy Eldridge, copying his solos and emulating his style, and was soon performing with Teddy Hill's band at the Savoy Ballroom on the basis of his ability to reproduce Mr. Eldridge's style. According to legend, it was Mr. Hill who gave Mr. Gillespie his nickname because of his odd clothing style and his fondness for practical jokes. Mr. Gillespie began cultivating his personality, putting his feet up on music stands during shows and regularly cracking jokes. But by May 1937 he was also recording improvisations with the Hill band and helping the performances by setting riffs behind soloists. Two years later, Mr. Gillepsie was considered accomplished enough to take part in a series of all-star recordings with Lionel Hampton, Benny Carter, Coleman Hawkins, Ben Webster and Chu Berry. He soloed on "Hot Mallets." That year, 1939, he joined Cab Calloway's band, one of the leading black orchestras of the era. Though a dance band, its musicians, who included the bassist Milt Hinton and the guitarist Danny Barker, liked to experiment. Mr. Gillespie would work on the harmonic substitutions that eventually became be-bop. Mr. Gillespie was a regular soloist with the band, and by then his harmonic sensibility was beginning to take shape. It was while touring with the Calloway band in 1940 that Mr. Gillespie met Charlie Parker in Kansas City. And it was with him that Mr. Gillespie began formulating the style that was eventually called be-bop. Along with a handful of other musicians, including Thelonious Monk and Kenny Clarke, Mr. Gillespie and Mr. Parker would regularly experiment. On live recordings of the period, especially the two solos on the tune "Kerouac," recorded in 1941 at Minton's Uptown Playhouse, a club in Harlem, can be heard his increasing interest in harmony, sleeker rhythms and a divergence from the style of Mr. Eldridge. Mr. Gillespie was blunt about his relationship with Mr. Parker, calling him "the other side of my heartbeat," and freely giving him credit for some of the rhythmic innovations of be-bop. At the same time that Mr. Gillespie was experimenting with the new style, he was regularly arranging and recording for Mr. Calloway, including one of his better improvisations on "Pickin' the Cabbage," a piece he composed and arranged. In September 1941, at the State Theater in Hartford, Mr. Gillespie was involved in an incident that shaped his reputation and his career. Mr. Calloway saw a spitball thrown on stage and thought Mr. Gillespie had done it; the two men fought, and Mr. Gillespie pulled a knife and put a cut in Mr. Calloway's posterior that required 10 stitches to close. Mr. Gillespie was fired from that job, but spent the next several years working with some of the biggest names in jazz, including Coleman Hawkins (who recorded the first version of Mr. Gillespie's classic "Woody 'N' You"), Benny Carter, Les Hite (for whom he recorded "Jersey Bounce," considered the first be-bop solo), Lucky Millinder, Earl Hines, Ella Fitzgerald and Duke Ellington. For Mr. Millinder he made "Little John Special," which includes a riff of Mr. Gillespie's that was later fleshed out into the composition "Salt Peanuts," one of his best-known pieces. The early 40's were a turbulent time for jazz. Be-bop was slowly making itself felt, but at the same time a series of disputes between recording companies and the musicians' union resulted in a recording ban, so Mr. Gillespie and Mr. Parker were rarely recorded. In 1943 Mr. Gillespie led a band with the be-bop bassist Oscar Pettiford at the Onyx Club on 52d Street in Manhattan. And in 1944, the singer Billy Eckstine took over part of the Earl Hines band and created the first be-bop orchestra, of which few recorded performaces exist. Mr. Gillespie was the music director, and the band featured his "Night in Tunisia." It was in 1945 that Mr. Gillespie began to break out. He undertook an ambitious recording schedule, recording with the pianist Clyde Hart and with Mr. Parker, Cootie Williams, Red Norvo, Sarah Vaughan and Slim Gaillard. And he began series of his own recordings that have since become some of jazz's most important pieces. Recording under his own name for the first time, he made "I Can't Get Started," "Good Bait," "Salt Peanuts" and "Be-bop," during one session in January 1945. He followed it up with a recording date featuring Mr. Parker that included "Groovin' High," "Dizzy Atmosphere" and "All the Things You Are." These recordings, with their tight ensemble passages, precisely articulated rhythms and dissonance as part of the palate of jazz, were to influence jazz forever. Though Mr. Gillespie enjoyed playing for dancers, this was music that was meant first and foremost to be listened to. It was virtuosic in a way not heard before, and it was music that sent music students scurrying to their turntables to learn the improvisations by heart. They were also the recordings that captured Mr. Gillespie at his most impressive. His lines, jagged and angular, always seemed off balance. He used chromatic figures, and was not afraid to resolve a line on a vinegary, bitter note. And his improvising was eruptive; suddenly, a line would bolt into the high register, only to come tumbling down. Mr. Gillespie did more than just record in 1945. He put together the first of his big bands, and then formed a quintet with Mr. Parker that Mr. Gillespie called "The height of perfection in our music." It included Bud Powell on piano, Ray Brown on bass and Max Roach on drums. Later that year, Mr. Gillespie reformed the big band, called the Hepsations of 1945. Despitea tour of the South that was almost catastrophically unsuccessful, the band stayed together for the next four years. Another Revolution: Afro-Cuban Jazz It was with this big band, whose name became the Dizzy Gillespie Orchestra, that Mr. Gillespie created his second revolution in the late 1940's. An old friend, the Cuban trumpeter Mario Bauza, who had made it possible for him to join the Calloway orchestra, introduced Mr. Gillespie to the Cuban conga player Luciano (Chano Pozo) Gonzales. "Dizzy used to ask me about Cuban rhythms all the time," said Mr. Bauza. "I introduced him to Chano Pozo, and they wrote 'Manteca.' It was a good marriage of two cultures. That was the beginning of Afro-Cuban jazz. That blew up the whole world." Mr. Gillespie quickly produced the sketches for "Cubana Be" and "Cubana Bop," which were finished by the composer and arranger George Russell and included some of the first modal harmonies in jazz. And in "Manteca," Mr. Gillespie's collaboration with Mr. Pozo, he created a work that is still performed and quoted regularly, by both Latin orchestras and by jazz musicians. Without the sophisticated arrangements and the conjunction of Latin rhythms and jazz harmonies that Mr. Gillespie provided, both jazz and Latin music would be radically different today. The band's highest moments, however, were when Mr. Gillespie -- in a move that characterized his career -- hired some of the young be-boppers on the scene. Among them were the pianist John Lewis, vibraphonist Milt Jackson, bassist Ray Brown and drummer Kenny Clarke, who went on to form the Modern Jazz Quartet. "It was an incredible experience because so much was going on," Mr. Lewis recalled. "Not only was he using these great be-bop arrangements but he was so encouraging. It was my first job, a formative experience." Mr. Gillespie's was the last great evolutionary big band, and during its tenure he hired the best soloists, from Jimmy Heath, James Moody and Sonny Stitt to John Coltrane and Paul Gonzalves. Arrangements like "Things to Come," with their exhilarating precision, were be-bop and orchestral landmarks, with dense harmonies and flashy rhythms. And it was with his big band that Mr. Gillespie fully developed the other side of his musical personality. With songs like "He Beeped When He Should Have Bopped," "Ool Ya Koo", "Oo Pop A Da" and others, he began popularizing the Bohemian, Dadaesque aspects of be-bop. Mr. Gillespie was a keen popularizer, and with his sense of comedy managed to make his shows into an extraordinary mixture of entertainment and esthetics. In so doing, he was following in the path of his ex-bandleader, Mr. Calloway, as well as Louis Armstrong and Fats Waller. From then on, he cultivated an audience that went beyond the average jazz fan, and it was this reputation that helped in his later career. And at the same time, be-bop fashion made an appearance, with Mr. Gillespie, in thick glasses and a beret, leading the way. The big-band business slowed down considerably in the late 1940's and early 50's, and Mr. Gillespie teamed with Stan Kenton's orchestra as a featured soloist. Then he began using a small group again. He formed his own record company in 1951, Dee Gee, which folded soon after. Mr. Gillespie and Mr. Parker recorded for Verve, with Mr. Monk, and he and Mr. Parker performed at Birdland in Manhattan the next year. He toured Europe and in 1953 joined Mr. Parker, Mr. Powell, Mr. Roach and the bassist Charles Mingus for a concert at Massey Hall in Toronto that became legendary for its disorganization and for acrimony among performers. It was also in 1953 that someone fell on Mr. Gillespie's trumpet, and bent it. When he played the misshapen instrument, Mr. Gillespie found he could hear the sound more clearly, and so decided to keep it. Along with those cheeks, it became his trademark. During the 1950's Mr. Gillespie recorded with with Stan Getz, Stuff Smith, Sonny Stitt, Mr. Eldridge and others. In 1956, he formed another big band and, at the behest of the United States State Department, toured the Middle East and South America. In 1957, Mr. Gillespie presided over "The Eternal Triangle," a recording that includes Mr. Stitt and Sonny Rollins and some of the hardest trumpet blowing ever recorded. Through the 1960's and 70's, Mr. Gillespie toured frequently, playing up to 300 shows a year, sometimes with an electric bassist and a guitarist, sometimes with a more traditional group. And in 1974 he signed with Pablo Records and began recording prolifically again. He won Grammies in 1975 and 1980, and he published his autobiography, "To Be or Not to Bop," in 1979. In the last decade, Mr. Gillespie's career seemed recharged, and he became ubiquitous on the concert circuit as a special guest. He formed a Latin big band that performed with Paquito De Rivera, among others, and he constantly shuffled the personnel of his small groups. Last year, in honor of his 75th birthday, Mr. Gillepsie played for four weeks at the Blue Note club in Manhattan, a stint that featured perhaps the greatest selection of jazz musicians ever brought together for a tribute. The month covered his career, from small groups, to Afro-Cuban jazz to a big band. As usual, he was his witty amiable self, in command of both the audience and his trumpet. Mr. Gillespie is survived by his wife of 52 years, Lorraine. Dizzy Gillespie's recorded output was immense, spanning nearly 60 years and comprising hundreds of albums. Not all of his important recordings have been issued on CD, but the vinyl versions are worth hunting for. Afro Cuban Jazz Verve The Be-Bop Revolution RCA Bird and Diz Verve The Development of an American Artist Smithsonian Diz and Getz Verve Dizzy and the Double Six of Paris Phillips Dizzy at Newport Verve Dizzy on the French Riviera Phillips Dizzy's Diamonds Verve Duets Verve The Gifted Ones (with Roy Eldridge) Pablo Live at the Royal Festival Hall Enja Oscar Peterson and Dizzy Gillespie Pablo Portrait of Duke Ellington Verve Shaw Nuff Musicraft Sonny Side Up (with Sonny Stitt) Verve