To Be or Not to Bop became a great trumpeter and even the origin of his signature bent trumpet. Various compositions and albums have been named after Gillespie's book title. 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
Dizzy Gillespie Center for the Performing Arts ceremonies celebrating the centennial of American jazz, Gillespie received the Kennedy Center Honors Award and the American Society of Composers, Authors, and Publishers "Duke Ellington Award" for 50 years of achievement as a composer, performer, and bandleader. In 1993 he received the Polar Music Prize in Sweden. In 2002, Gillespie was posthumously inducted into the International Latin Music Hall of Fame for his contributions to Afro-Cuban music. He was honored on December 31, 2006 in A Jazz New Year's Eve: Freddy Cole & the Dizzy Gillespie All-Star Big Band at The John F. Kennedy Center