FYI--Dizzy Gillespie Legacy

-

The late jazz legend Dizzy Gillespie did not only leave us with his be-bop-Latin jazz fusion, but in his memory, a fund to help ailing musicians with healthcare costs was also established. When the jazz musician was dying from pancreatic cancer at the Englewood Hospital and Medical Center in New Jersey, he told his oncologist, Dr. Forte, "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."
According to the liner notes for The Complete Joao Gilberto Songbook (CD, Motema), "In late 1993, Englewood Hospital and Medical Center Foundation honored his request by establishing the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial Fund which raises money to help underwrite the costs of hospitalization, diagnostic tests...for jazz musicians in need, but unable to pay."
Dr. Forte organized physicians to give free care to musicians both at offices and at home.
To learn more about this fund, go to http://www.motema.com/artist/jazz_therapy
If you would like to donate to the Dizzy Gillespie Memorial Fund, make out and send a check to:
The Englewood Hospital & Medical Center Foundation (DG Fund),
350 Engle Street, Englewood, NJ 07361

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Introduction to Peyote Songs & The Native American Church

-
Image
Father Peyote: Songs of the Native American Church Introduction to the Peyote Church Ceremony This is an archival article written in 2003.  It's not updated.  For more recent recordings, go to Canyon Records website, http://www.canyonrecords.com When some people speak of Native American ceremonies, the peyote ceremony or the ingestion of the hallucinogen peyote (contains mescaline) usually surfaces. However, there is too much false information being passed around in the non-native community surrounding peyote meetings. The first thing people need to know about the Native American connection to peyote is that the plant is sacred medicine ingested as a sacrament during healing ceremonies of the Native American Church. The second thing, people need to know is that the Native American Church is not a set structure like the Christian Church. The peyote meeting could take place in a Navajo hogan or a teepee. And finally, since the peyote meeting does in part derive from Nat
Read more

The Practice--Treasure Hunt from the book Whole Music

-
Image
Excerpt from Whole Music The Practice: Musical Treasure Hunt Similar to treasure hunts from our childhood, I’m going to send you on a music treasure hunt in which the pleasures are many.  Pretend that you are a song catcher visiting other cultures where you collect new sounds. While I mentioned sound healers earlier, another important player with music preservation are ethnomusicologists who combine cultural anthropology with music preservation.  Two famous song catchers are the late Alan Lomax, and the world beat drummer Mickey Hart.  I recommend learning more about these song catchers through books, and documentaries. 1) Step One-- Head over to YouTube, and look up the following music traditions: ·          Aboriginal Didgeridoo ·          Finnish Runo-Songs (Traditional singer) ·          Gregorian chants ·          Griot Music of Mali (Acoustic, not pop music) ·          Sanskrit Chants Sung by Hindu Indians in Context (aka Kirtans)
Read more

Talking about Timbre

-
Image
Wikipedia As I mention in my book Whole Music , when I was a child I fell in love with timbre and the voices of the individual instruments we listened to in music class.  Each instrument conjured a specific emotions or feeling in me.  The French horn caused me to feel majestic and the cello invoked melancholy.  My moods would shift with each instrument that I heard and my moods would shift quickly. Today, I listen to more than timbre, but I have an understanding of how tone, frequencies of the tone and timbre (the color of the tone) affect me on all levels.  And I wonder what listening to an entire symphony does with its many voices, themes, keys, musical passages etc... In the concept of "whole music" I prefer not to separate musical components, but in the case of this post, I will present solo instruments for your listening and feeling pleasure. If you keep a music journal (and I hope that you do by now), write down the emotions that come up with each instrument.  R
Read more