WBZ-AM: EntertainmentDizzie Gillespie gets one more big gig, at the auction house
Thursday September 15, 2005
MORRIS PLAINS, N.J. (AP) Dizzie Gillespie can still draw a paying crowd.
An auction of items from the late jazz legend's Englewood home drew musicians, former colleagues and Web site viewers from as far away as Switzerland.
Among items that were auctioned Wednesday was a gold-plated piccolo trumpet that fetched $1,200 and a dog license for the musician's pet poodle, Maestro, which sold for $90. Nearly 1,000 lots were up for bid.
The auction was held to settle the Gillespie estate among the jazz player's 48 heirs. Gillespie died in 1993; his wife, Lorraine, died in 2004.
The event received live coverage on eBay. Among those in the audience were musicians who played with Gillespie, who is credited with founding jazz's bebop movement with Thelonious Monk and Charlie Parker in the 1940s.
The musician who made a trademark out of his bent trumpet, puffed-out cheeks and his ability to go into the highest registers of the trumpet range also has received some credit for bringing Afro-Cuban elements into modern jazz.
Other items sold included a signed photo with a love message to Gillespie's wife, which sold for $12,000; letters from every U.S. president from John F. Kennedy to Bill Clinton; and a few campaign buttons from Gillespie's half-serious run for president in 1964, during which he drew attention to the civil rights movement.
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