The jazz star who wanted to rule the world

Hard rock legend Alice Cooper has run for President of the United States in every election since 1972, and while his campaigns were seen by many as a novelty, he at least got a good song out of them in “Elected.” Controversial rapper Kanye West is a more recent example of an artist who has twice announced he will run for the same office, although his 2024 campaign was cut short, unlike his 2020 attempt when he received about 70,000 votes in 12 states .

One perhaps lesser-known example of a musician who previously ran for president is jazz icon Dizzy Gillespie. Although the trumpeter’s 1964 election campaign may also have been conducted in jest, he presented himself with several ideas beyond the original idea and put considerable effort into public appearances where he delivered his rhetoric.

The bebop musician always had a playful side, his often wacky sense of humor coming out in song or on stage. Fellow jazz musician Sonny Rollins once said that people viewed Gillespie “as an entertainer, almost a comedian, as well as a musician.”

Huge amounts of serious bribes were poured into creating badges, banners and other merchandise to support Gillespie’s bid for leadership as an independent candidate, and he later recounted in his memoirs: “I made campaign speeches and mobilized people. What I really wanted to do was see how many votes I could get and see how many people thought I would make a good president.”

Aside from speeches and concert appearances, he was decidedly more outspoken in other aspects of his campaign, deciding to announce a proposed cabinet full of other jazz musicians that would include Miles Davis as director of the CIA, Duke Ellington as secretary of state, and Phyllis Diller as his partners. However, his efforts did not exhaust themselves, and he promised that he would fund civil rights campaigns and the efforts of Martin Luther King, causes for which he had a sincere passion. As Gillespie told Sonny Rollins, it was “a joke, but not a joke.”

While Democrat Lyndon B. Johnson would go on to win the presidency in 1964, Gillespie would announce another short-lived campaign in 1971, from which he ultimately dropped out. Had he not done so, perhaps shaping the Gillespie/Cooper ballot could have been an even nastier prospect.

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