European Stars and Stripes (Newspaper) - January 17, 1993, Darmstadt, Hesse                                Packs pm in for a by Timothy Cahill new York Bureau. D Izzy Gillespie departed from this life the Way he lived it it filling the world with music High spirits and love. He was a Man drawn naturally to company and the Community of others he seemed to always have people around him Nusi cans students fans friends. This week when Diz said his final goodbye he did it by bringing a great crowd of people together strangers mostly who did t feel like strangers listening to the music he wrote and the stories of friends he made through his Long lifetime. On tuesday the worlds Best jazz musicians including almost All the top trumpet players gathered together with More than 6,000 new yorkers to fill the Cathedral of St. John the divine and remember John Birks Gillespie no one understands death better than jazz musicians. It is enough to make a person want to pick up a Horn and learn How to play it to be sent off by ones Fellows the Way Diz was plumed by their playing. The tears shed for him were dried now. Gillespie died Jan. 6. On Jan. 9, dizzy a wife Lorraine and a close Circle of family and friends buried him in the same Queens cemetery that holds jazz a other ambassador of Good will Louis Armstrong. What was left then was to Praise him. The faithful started arriving  Church three hours before the memorial service began. St. John the divine a is a great gothic Cathedral the biggest of its kind in the world As wide As a City Block As Long As two football Fields. The vast roof rises into Semi darkness 175 feet from the Stone floor. When it was built 100 years ago its charter proclaimed it a a House of prayer for All Peoples a it has become the place new York City turns to for important Public remembrances. The Early arrivals watched technicians transform the Cathedral into the biggest jazz club in Manhattan. The crossing the wide open area just in front of the High altar was occupied with a Large stage crowded with microphone stands and folding chairs. A Black grand piano at left and a set of four Conga Drums dominating the Center of the platform foreshadowed All that Lay ahead. The Crew did sound checks and Laid Down Patch cords. The thin Stream of people got faster and wider and the pews filled up front to Back and then the folding chairs extending to the rear of the Nave. The murmuring of the people Rose a few Yards Over their Heads and dissipated in the High emptiness. In front separated from the main crowd was a special Section where the vips sat including the dignitaries of the jazz world. Here the press fattened itself on celebrity taking pictures and rolling tape of the famous faces As they arrived and mingled. Piano music Rose above the conversation. The techies had finished and half unnoticed by the crowd Marian Mcpartland was at the piano playing a meandering affectionate Melody shed written titled portrait of dizzy. She had met him in the 1940s through her husband the late big band jazzman Jimmy Mcpartland. She admitted that Back then she did no to understand the new music the bebop dizzy had just invented. With Charlie Parker dizzy eventually taught bebop to the world. It was hard edged and intense not dancing music like the swing that had come before it. Bop or modern jazz As it was also called was for listening expressive As a painting or a poem much closer to those Art forms than to the pop tunes of its Day. A amps Charles Dees dizzy Gillespie top in Germany in 1974 and above in new York in 89, died Jan. 6 at age 75, bebop exploded a songs Harmony gave it new colors and textures Strung it along the Melody line like Christmas lights on a front porch and obliterated the old architecture. It was vigorous and demanding and. Dangerous sounding sometimes. Bebop buried Parker the Yar Bird it smoked him. He turned himself inside out for the music and used drugs in Between to escape the demands he died when he was 34. Dizzy was his brother in Bop the flip Side of everything Bird was Abel to Parker Scain. Dizzy lived to be 75. His intensity was Bright a sunny Day. He did no to Brood he revealed jazz consumed Bird but w Ith Diz it was the other Way around. He fed off it grew on it and gave away All it taught him. A Quot he was always a teacher a Mcpartland recalled Quot always a Messiah spreading his  Ushers cleared the aisles. The swelling audience grew quiet. From the Back of the Church a snare drum sounded a series Sharp raps chilling As deaths own Bony Knuckles on the door. A Bass drum pounded a slow heartbeat underneath. High Over the Drums a trumpet Sang out rising steadily in pitch and intensity filling the expanse of the Cathedral with its winged proclamation. Three Candle bearers led the processional up the Center aisle followed by trumpeter Wynton Marsalis and a 12-piece brass band playing a new Orleans funeral March. Next three abreast came the rows of honorary pallbearers the whole registry of new York ja2z. Milt Hinton was there and Jimmy Heath Jon Faddis slide Hampton Ujj. Johnson and Chuck Mangione. Also Ray Brown Benny Carter Milt Jackson Max Roach Paquito do Rivera Clark tarty and others More than 30 in Alt. The St. Johns children a choir solemnly followed arid he main choir and a Iong line of clergy and other dignitaries in eluding David Dinkins mayor of new York. The band marched to the stage and played its testimonial growing louder and rowdies making Quot a Beautiful noise in Gillespie a Honor. It was fitting a that the Turie become raucous. Diz was not Cool not in the sense of being detached or alienated. He was All exuberance puffing up his cartoon Cheeks twinkling his sly eyes smiling his impish smile. He had Bent the Bell of his Horn skyward like a Blooming morning glory As if to play before heaven itself. Now Marsalisi band was playing to him. Dean James Morton read from revelations. The Cathedral choir Sang abide with me. Mayor Din Kins speaking from the pulpit called Gillespie a a new York  jazz is to new York As poetry is to Paris it has a Square named for Duke Ellington a Street for Charlie Parker. Dizzy Dinkins noted Quot led the Way for All musicians who found their Way to the clubs of Greenwich Village and my own Village of  Roberta Flack was introduced dressed in a Black frock coat Black sunglasses a Black hat she Sang two verses of amazing Grace it. One by one or in groups the musicians made their Way to the pulpit and the stage to speak of the Man or to play to him. A Quot thank you for coming to celebrate dizzy s ascent Tion into immortality a Milt Hinton proclaimed before the congregation. In a taped message Bill Cosby compared his Friend to Picasso for being so artistically prolific. Dizzy is gone but he will never be completely gone Coz said. There a still so much of him left to discover in the music. Dizzy his friends All agreed was a Man of surprises. He got his name for being unpredictable he was also extremely generous giving Lucky Breaks to two generations of musicians who came to him looking for advice. The testimonials were unanimous in their Praise of his open hearted Ness. A when i was 15,�?� Jon Faddis recalled a i brought 15 records to the Newport jazz festival and he. Signed every  dizzy was one of those rare great artists no one needed to make excuses or allowances for. Everyone who Ever spent any time with him or crossed his path or saw him in a club or concert Felt How special he was. There could be no greater proof of that than the audience that jammed St. John the divine s to say goodbye. At least a thousand people collected on the sidewalk in a Bone chilling Gray drizzle unable to fit inside the huge building. From the stage an Ocean of faces extended Back toward the doors and to the Side Walls 12,000 eyes seeing dizzy in everything that happened up front. African asian european latin they were from every culture every background a school kids mothers with newborns in slings College students City workers professionals retirees americans joined together by the Force of Art trumpeter Clark Terry played a nostalgic i can t get started muting the blues with a Blue plunger. Jimmy Heath played his Soprano saxophone to a Mellow melancholy i waited for you. Vibraphone is Milt Jackson played a celestial version of round Midnight ringing the Melody on Angelus wings. After inventing bebop Diz went on to fuse the music with african and cuban rhythms and invented afro cuban jazz. Slide Hampton led saxophonist Paquito do Rivera and a 17-piece band on con Altna and 7vn tin Deo two of Gillespie a Early afro cuban numbers. They were joined by Jon Faddis and others for a latin styled swing Low Sweet Cap Zzz a so it a version of an older song and night in Tunisia maybe his Best known Cuba no piece. A and then it was Over More than 3v4 hours after it began and the Cathedral still full. Outside in the cold misting Twilight probably More than one person found it momentarily strange to be there on that Gritty Street on the Edge of Harlem or anywhere specific. It  be so abrupt the re entry into everyday life. Not when you be just spent the afternoon High above the world defying Gravity almost Riding on dizzy a shoulders Page 6 a sunday. January 17, 1993