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To Be, or Not . . . to Bop Dizzy Gillespie with Al Fraser Table of Contents		$19.95 paper ISBN: 978-0-8166-6547-1
Innovative memoir of jazz genius Dizzy Gillespie tells the story of black American music during one of its greatest periods You don’t have to know John Birks “Dizzy” Gillespie’s songs to feel his influence. The self-taught trumpet player rose from a poor but musically driven upbringing to become a jazz mastermind, founding the bebop movement and giving rise to Afro-Cuban music. This extensive biography is intertwined with reflections from famous Gillespie associates Cab Calloway, Count Basie, Miles Davis, Thelonious Monk, Mary Lou Williams, Ella Fitzgerald, and many others. They provide numerous perspectives of Gillespie’s early start on the road to fame and the spirited times that would follow. To Be, or Not . . . to Bop is a unique account that serves as both a rollicking history lesson in American music and culture and a towering play-by-play of a life not to be forgotten. “To Be, or Not . . . to Bop, a joyous, boisterous chronicle, is also a desperately needed history that will long endure as a testament to a giant of modern jazz.” —New York Times, 1980 “The reissue of his biography is an opportunity to see [Dizzy Gillespie’s] accomplishments through his own bespectacled eyes and gain an additional sense of his style.” —Shepherd Express Dizzy Gillespie (1917–1993) was an American jazz trumpet virtuoso as well as a bandleader, singer, and composer. Al Fraser was a longtime friend of Gillespie. He has been a professor of African American studies. 560 pages | 102 b&w plates | 6 x 9 | 2009 TABLE OF CONTENTS Chronology Preface Tan Yo’ Hide School Days Ice Cream City Hard Times Horns Galore B-flat . . . Laurinburg H.N.I.C. Becoming Me . . . Glory Road Parlez-Vous . . . ? Lorraine Stompin’ at the Savoy World’s Fair The Flatted Fifth “Klook-Mop” “Hot Mallets” (9-11-39) Diz the Wiz Wholly Matrimony Spitball . . . Minton’s Playhouse Little John Special Pickin’ the Cabbage Incubator No Dancing The Onyx The Downbeat Hepsations ‘45 Three Deuces California The Spotlight (The Big Band, 1946) Beboppers . . . the Cult “To Heaven on a Mule” Cheeks Chano Pozo, Afro-Cuban High Seas Groovin’ High Godfather Headache Playin’ it Cool Dee Gee Records Machinations Bendin’ the Horn Bird and Diz School for Jazz Changes World Statesman Samba Higher than Ike Ancestry Striving Diz for President The Cruel World Gettin’ Religion Dizziness Evolutions Honors Selected Discography Filmography Honors and Awards Index

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