Dizzy Gillespie, Ferdi Serim, and Gerald Veasley
in concert, South Brunswick HS, NJ 1984

This minor blues by Dizzy Gillespie is a favorite. Among musicians, it provides a way of getting to know one another in a jam situation. For many of us, blues is at the heart of jazz, a powerful mirror, reflecting a spectrum of feelings that go far beyond one color.

My association with Dizzy goes back two decades, when I met him as an artist in residence for the National Endowment for the Arts. Over the years, I took Dizzy's charts of Manteca, Round Midnight, Lover Come Back to Me (and one I did of Unicorn) to high school jazz bands, where we'd take up the challenge of his music, and three months later do a public concert. At these concerts, Diz would play with the kids, and then finish the show with my quintet. As a fund raiser, the proceeds would fund a series of community jazz concerts, so that kids and parents could experience other Jazz Masters in person.

Dizzy was a true humanitarian, dedicated to peace and equity, and I feel blessed to have had him as a friend and mentor.