A Heavenly Collaboration: Dizzy Gillespie and Dr. Jazz

In 1993, my friend Dizzy Gillespie invited me to join him on one of the jazz cruises where musicians perform and hang out with jazz-struck passengers. I had interviewed him before, but this would be in a more extensive and varied setting. Suddenly Dizzy canceled the trip, entering New Jersey's Englewood Hospital and Medical Center, where he had previously been a patient. There, dying of pancreatic cancer, Dizzy, who had health insurance, said to Francis Forte, his oncologist, and himself a jazz guitarist: “I can't give you any money, but I can let you use my name. Promise you'll help musicians less fortunate than I am." That was the Dizzy I knew, regarded by his sidemen as a teacher and mentor.

From that conversation began the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial Fund and the Dizzy Gillespie Cancer Institute at the hospital. By now more than a thousand jazz musicians unable to pay have received a full range of medical and surgical care by Dr. Forte and a network of more than 50 physicians in various specialties, financed by the hospital and donations.

The primary access to this unprecedented life-expanding jazz program is through the Jazz Foundation of New York, also known internationally for helping jazz musicians -- from preventing their being evicted to providing food and other necessities. Since most jazz players don't have medical or pension plans, some at last have a substantial safety net, all the more extensive thanks to Dizzy.