“Jazz is too good for Americans!”
Being disgusted with Congress is, of course, nothing new…In an excerpt from Dizzy Gillespie’s 1979 autobiography (written with Al Fraser) to BE, or not . . . to BOP, Dizzy reminds us of the thick-headed politicians of 1957 who questioned the “exorbitant” fees paid to him and his band during their 1956 State Department-sponsored tour of Africa, the Middle East, Asia, Europe and South America.
In this excerpt — from a chapter titled “Higher Than Ike” — Dizzy cynically writes about the “thanks” he received from members of Congress following the tour, as well as the controversy concerning his
...August 30th, 2018