To Be or Not to Bop To Be or Not to Bop To Be or Not to Bop: Memoirs of Dizzy Gillespie is a 1979 book written by jazz musician, composer and band leader Dizzy Gillespie. The book was released in July 1979 by Doubleday. The University of Minnesota Press re-released the book in 2009. He is known for being the father of bebop. This book tells about his life, and what he went through to make this music flourish. The book introduces Dizzy and his friends like Charlie "Bird" Parker as they struggled to make money by playing. Later on it tells of how Dizzy
The Genius of Charlie Parker Vol. 2" [Savoy MG 12009] and "The Charlie Parker Story" [Savoy MG 12079]) completing the reissue of the previously released master takes, and the original issue of most of the unreleased takes from these seven sessions. Parker's entire Savoy ouvre was finally issued on "Charlie Parker: The Complete Savoy Studio Sessions" in 1978. The master take of "Koko", included here, is controversial in that it is unclear who, precisely, plays trumpet and\or piano on the track. The liner notes credit Miles Davis with trumpet for the session, but also credit Dizzy Gillespie with both trumpet and piano. Several sources claim