About this Item
Once listed, this will be the Only signed copy for sale on the Internet. And what an inscription it is. This book was previously owned by Dizzy Gillespie. The inscription is on the half-title page. It reads: 9/17/76, To John Birks Gillespie: A figure of reverence and majesty in the world of music and art. The entire world is in your debt for so many fine contributions to humanistic art. Your performances and conception within the framework of black classical music will be immortal. I remain yours respectfully, Ortiz M. Walton, Ph.D.' This paperback was bound poorly. Six early pages beginning with the Preface are detached. There are several instances later on where there's a crack between two facing pages and partial detachments that will likely become full detachments. Positively, the pages are very clean. And there are no markings, no attachments, and no extraneous writing. The condition of the covers can be seen in the covers, including the loss at the top edge of the spine. Ortiz Montaigne Walton was the first African-American member of the Buffalo Philharmonic Orchestra and a prominent figure in African-American studies. He performed in Buffalo for three seasons, before moving on to become the first African-American member of the Boston Symphony Orchestra. Mr. Walton later was principal contrabassist with the Cairo Symphony Orchestra in Egypt and performed a number of acclaimed solo recitals in New York's Carnegie Hall, Chicago and San Francisco. He recorded classical works for the bass violin with the National Philharmonic Orchestra of London and in Paris. Born in Chicago, he studied music at Tanglewood, Hartt and New York's Mannes School. Mr. Walton returned to Chicago and worked for social service agencies after leaving the Cairo Symphony in 1965. He earned a bachelor's degree in psychology at Roosevelt University in Chicago and master's and doctoral degrees in sociology from the University of California at Berkeley, where he fought to establish the ethnic studies department and taught Afro-American studies. He also taught at the University of California at Santa Cruz. He was an accomplished musician and scholar. He wrote several books on music, notably "Music: Black, White and Blue," hailed as a groundbreaking assessment of African-American music, and was regarded as a leading figure in establishing the importance of African-American culture. Also a champion of Duke Ellington, he wrote "Coronation of the King: Contributions by Duke Ellington to Black Culture." ' 'John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie was an American jazz trumpeter, bandleader, composer, educator and singer. He was a trumpet virtuoso and improviser, building on the virtuoso style of Roy Eldridge but adding layers of harmonic and rhythmic complexity previously unheard in jazz. His combination of musicianship, showmanship, and wit made him a leading popularizer of the new music called bebop. His beret and horn-rimmed spectacles, his scat singing, his bent horn, pouched cheeks, and light-hearted personality provided some of bebop's most prominent symbols. In the 1940s Gillespie, with Charlie Parker, became a major figure in the development of bebop and modern jazz. He taught and influenced many other musicians, including trumpeters Miles Davis, Jon Faddis, Fats Navarro, Clifford Brown, Arturo Sandoval, Lee Morgan,Chuck Mangione, and balladeer Johnny Hartman. Scott Yanow wrote, "Dizzy Gillespie's contributions to jazz were huge. One of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time, Gillespie was such a complex player that his contemporaries ended up being similar to those of Miles Davis and Fats Navarro instead, and it was not until Jon Faddis's emergence in the 1970s that Dizzy's style was successfully recreated. Gillespie is remembered, by both critics and fans alike, as one of the greatest jazz trumpeters of all time". Seller Inventory # 003912
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