Dizzy Gillespie and the Birth of Bebop

Rating:
Summary: Well written and researched biography of Jazz legend
Review: My only criticism of this appealing book is that it skirts the issue of Gillespie's having fathered and supported an out -of-wedlock child;singer Jeanie Bryson. Ms. Gourse fudges,"Dizzy and (his wife) Lorraine had no children." Quite right, but even in a book for young readers, there is room for a little candor.Diz was a great musician, not a saint. Those who insist on portraying him as one have their work cut out for them. I hope to find this and other books about our heroes in the ection marked "biography", not "mythology". Oh, and as for drug use, Dizzy did his share , but his shrewd instincts for self-preservation kept him from the self-destructive excesses of, say, a Charlie Parker.His spectacular story needs to be told, with all its complexity and contradictions.