Groovin' High is a jazz standard composed by Dizzy Gillespie, with Frank Paparelli and Charlie Parker also credited as composers in some sources. Its complex melody is superimposed on the chord structure of the 1920 standard "Whispering" by Vincent Rose. The tune follows an A-B-A-C form, and the A sections include a third motif that recalls a cuckoo call. Gillespie described it as a pleasant medium-tempo tune that showed his skill with six instruments, and its feel is that of medium-tempo bebop.
The original recording was made on 9 February 1945 by Gillespie with Cozy Cole, Slam Stewart, Remo Palmieri, Clyde Hart and Charlie Parker, and was released by Musicraft. Often described as the first famous bebop recording, it shocked contemporaries and helped change jazz, and it was quickly adopted as a classic. Notable performances include a December 1945 Armed Forces Radio broadcast featuring a 16-bar solo by Parker, and a concert by Gillespie and Parker at Carnegie Hall on 29 September 1947. The title has been reused on many compilations and on a 2001 Gillespie biography.
