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Groovin' High The Life Of Dizzy Gillespie  Alyn
ShiptonOxford University Press, 2001 Paperback. 224pp. b&w illustrations £12.99 
Dizzy Gillespie was
one of the most important and best-loved musicians in jazz history. With
his dark glasses, goatee, jive talk, and upraised trumpet bell, he was the
hipster who most personified bebop. The musical heir to Louis Armstrong,
he created the modern jazz trumpet-playing style and dazzled aficionados
and popular audiences alike for over fifty years.
In this first full biography, Alyn Shipton covers all aspects of Dizzy's remarkable life and career, taking us through his days as a flashy trumpet player in the swing bands of the 1930s, his innovative bebop work in the 1940s, the worldwide fame and adoration he earned through his big band tours in the 1950s, and the many recordings and performances which defined a career that extended into the early 1990s. Along the way, Shipton convincingly argues that Gillespie - rather than Charlie Parker as is widely believed - had the greatest role in creating bebop, playing in key jazz groups, teaching the music to others, and helping to develop the first original bebop repertory. Shipton traces the Gillespie-Parker relationship starting in the bands of Earl Hines and Billy Eckstine in the 1940s, to their famous 1944-46 group that set the form for bebop, and culminating in their extraordinary concert at Massey Hall in Toronto in 1953. Shipton also explores the dark side of Dizzy's mostly sunny personal life, his womanizing, the illegitimate daughter he fathered and supported - now a respected jazz singer in her own right - and his sometimes needless cruelty to others. CONTENTS: ALYN SHIPTON presents jazz radio programmes for the BBC and is a critic for The Times (London). For many years he was a music publisher, seeing into print the autobiographies of numerous jazz musicians, including Barney Bigard, Buck Clayton, Andy Kirk, and Rex Stewart. He has written biographies of Fats Waller and Bud Powell and has edited the memoirs of Danny Barker and Doc Cheatham. He lives in the UK. "Dizzy Gillespie did more than change jazz. He also challenged our most deeply held views on what a jazz musician could be and do. …Shipton has carefully researched his subject, and writes with conviction, honesty and passion…" TED GIOIA, author of The History of Jazz. |
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HARDBACK EDITION still available
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