Grooving' High: The Life of Dizzy Gillespie by Alyn Shipton

Though the great bebop trumpeter was overshadowed by Charlie Parker and Miles Davis, Gillespie's dress, particularly his goatee and beret, has influenced a tranche of Bohemian youth since the Forties. In this prodigiously researched biography, Shipton insists that Gillespie's impact was much more profound: "he was a far more wide-ranging, innovative and original musician than Parker." Like Armstrong, his reputation suffered from jokiness and longevity. In parallel with his musical reassessment, Shipton describes Gillespie's personal odyssey from knife-wielding hothead and womaniser to Baha'i believer and humanitarian.