New Book

A brief excerpt from Lilian Terry's new book:

Dizzy Gillespie,
or the Joyous Soul of Jazz

A Very Informal Portrait
by Lilian Terry

Introduction

This book is not about Dizzy Gillespie the great artist, the musical innovator, the technical magician, the composer and arranger who led the way to new, daring, harmonic and rhythmic inventions. Nor need we refer to the amazing instrumental performer. We shall not dissert on his historic importance nor will it be a biography, there being an excellent To Be or not to Bop translated in many languages.

You might consider this a “bedside” companion, to be picked up when convenient as each chapter tells a story by itself. This book, with its original photographs and posters, as well as various informal interviews, is aimed at giving you a different insight on the private, original, unpredictable yet thoughtful human being that was John Birks Gillespie as we knew him, spanning a period of 20 years.

If, while reading it, you catch a shadow of his rich laughter, his joy of living, his sharp humour and his husky, boisterous voice, and feel for a moment as if he were with us again, then this effort will have been worthwhile.