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

For a long time after Dizzy Gillespie had passed away on 6th January 1993, I was unable to open up the memories of a friendship as unusual as it had been miraculous in our life. Even now, so many years later, having been asked time and again to tell my tale, I cannot help the emotional involvement.

This is not about Dizzy the great artist, the musical innovator, the technical magician. We shall not dissert on his historic importance nor will it be a biography, as we have an excellent “To be or not to bop” in many languages. This is just an album of memories shared together, spanning a period of 20 years. And 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 as if he were with us again, then this effort will have been worth while.