Onomatopoeia. Onomatopoeia is the use of words or phrases like meow or beep that sound like what they name. As you read this selection and the Related Reading, look for examples of onomatopoeia.
Memoir. A memoir is a nonfiction narration that tells a story. Memoirs focus on a person’s experiences and reactions to historical events. Memoirs can be autobiographical (about one’s own life) or biographical (about someone else’s life). They differ from strict autobiography or biography by stressing experiences and events rather than an individual’s life. Dizzy Gillespie’s memoir is autobiographical, but it includes many long quotations from other people. The quotations are anecdotes, which are short narratives of interesting or amusing incidents. Why do you think he included these quotations in his memoir?
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• History Connection. Jazz is a music form first developed by African Americans in New Orleans around 1900. The Jazz Age refers to the increased popularity of jazz in the 1920s. Jazz is generally considered a major contribution of the United States to the world of music.
• Music Connection. Jazz is characterized by free improvisation (music made up on-the-spot rather than by following written or memorized music), virtuoso (highly skilled) solo performances, syncopated rhythm (accents in unexpected places), and a variety of original vocal and instrumental styles of varying complexity: bebop, big band, cool, Dixieland, fusion, hot, modern, New Orleans, progressive, ragtime, and swing.
In what ways do people in this selection describe bebop?
Describe how you’ve explained to someone a new sound that had no name and that didn’t sound like anything else.
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