To Be, or Not ... to Bop: Memoirs

How wonderful that this book has finally been reissued. Snap it up before it goes out of print again! This extraordinary book was written by Dizzy Gillespie and Al Frazer about Dizzy's life as one of the creators of bebop. The main text is Dizzy in his own words, but this is interspersed with interviews from other people who were there at the time who provide their own recollections of the same incidents. This book is a unique picture into the world of jazz by one of its most flamboyant players. This book, along with the Miles Davis Autobiography Miles and Ross Russel's book on Charlie Parker Bird Lives!: The High Life And Hard Times Of Charlie (yardbird) Parker are essentials for any jazz lover.

Jazz has been a lifelong love of mine, and Dizzy is at the top of the heap! Have always loved his music, and in this book, he gives us a generous lesson on jazz from beginning to end. He lets us in on how he got the name "Dizzy", as well as other interesting peeks into his life - always with humour and an upbeat attitude. From Page 1 onward, you can visualize Mr. G.,---- body keeping time to the beat in his head, those rubber cheeks expanded, his admirers ... male and female, musicians and non-musicians... listening and swaying and tapping with admiration and awe. This book is a lesson in music. I used to wonder why the drummers from America sounded so different from the drummers in other countries, say the Caribbean. Why is it that a certain sound sets American music apart from all the music elsewhere in the world. Well, Dizzy explains all of this in his down-to-earth and charming manner. Reading this book is almost like getting a degree in musicology....except it's a lot more fun. He sugarcoats nothing, and puts everything out there for you to see. Well written, informative, great fun, and a lot of history too. To repeat myself, I loved it!

What a magnificent book. Dizzy lived the history of Jazz. In this book you learn all about Jazz, it's roots, changes and future. You learn about all the great musicians, their styles and influences. You also discover some lessor named musicians who were instrumental in the development of the "modern music" or "bop". For you musicians, Dizzy spends some time discussing the melody and harmonic changes which created bop. WHile this was over my head it did not bore me. Extremely well writen and edited there are wonderful comments from all the great jazz musicians themselves interspaced throughout Dizzy's own words. It inspired me to go out and find many records from the recording dates he described. To now appreciate the men, events and background of these sessions makes the records even more enjoyable. Thank goodness most libraries have preserved this book. Enjoy.