posted on 19 Apr 2020

Dizzy by Jonah Winter, illustrated by Sean Qualls

I’ve commented before on this site about just how top notch the US publishing industry seems to be at commissioning and publishing non-fiction titles for younger readers that showcases the political, artistic and cultural heritage of their recent history. This book about the life and achievements of the great jazz trumpeter, Dizzy Gillespie, is another case in point.

The book which was originally published in 2006 in the States won plenty of awards and high quality reviews but I doubt very much that it made its way in any numbers to these shores – we picked it up on one of our trips to North Carolina where the book still has a place on the shelves of Barnes and Noble.

Most of these illustrated biographies follow a very similar format – they tell the simple outline of the person’s life story, how they overcame the barriers they faced, forged a very special place in the history of their art and end with the uplifting message about how everyone can find their true vocation. At this level they are perhaps open to the accusation of being a touch superficial and too reliant on the ‘you can achieve anything if you stay true to your vision’ homilies that seem to be, for my taste at least, rather too popular in the States.

However, the success or failure of these books usually hinges on two things – the quality of the text and the power of the illustrations – and in this case the book is a fabulous triumph in both of these particulars. Jonah Winter makes something of a speciality of these illustrated biographies and in this case the text is an especially delightful experience because he’s written it in what I can only call a syncopated jazz rhythm, complete with unexpected line breaks, sudden swoops and sharp angles. It’s the literary equivalent of musical poetry that reminded me (albeit a little distantly) of some of the techniques applied by Toni Morrison in her novel for adults, Jazz (1992).

The illustrations by Sean Qualls work perfectly in step with the words on the page and really lift the book to a different level. Qualls has been given a generous, large format to work with and he takes full advantage of it – often spilling right across the open double page spread.

In truth this isn’t just the biography of a single person because it’s also the story of the emergence of the Bebop jazz movement as it grew from its roots in the more traditional swing jazz. Big band jazz had dominated the scene until musicians like Gillespie, Monk and Parker came along to dismantle the format and reconstruct it as a new style of music that revelled in breaking all the rules. Gillespie himself grew up as a rule breaker and a non-conformist and with a ‘bebop’ frame of mind that just had to come out in any way possible. From the very outset jazz music was as much therapy as entertainment for Gillespie and the big band format was never going to be able to contain his ‘Dizzy’ deeds and his chaotic character. Put simply, John Birks ‘Dizzy’ Gillespie was born to be the embodiment of bebop.

Copies can be found online and are not too expensive but you’ll have to wait for them to come from the USA.

 

Terry Potter

April 2020

 

(Click on any image below to view the images in a slide show format)