To Be, or Not . . . to Bop
Dizzy Gillespie
with Al Fraser
University of Minnesota Press | 576 pages | 102 b&w photos | 2009
ISBN 978-0-8166-6547-1 | paperback | $19.95

Innovative memoir of jazz genius Dizzy Gillespie tells the story of black American music during one of its greatest periods
This 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 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

"[Gillespie] is at once one of the most brilliant, creative, funniest, and best-liked innovators in the history of jazz. In these pages, more often by accident than design, he shows us why. To Be, or Not . . . to Bop is indispensable." —Los Angeles Times, 1979


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