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. Tom Bellino understands that.Jimmy Heath now has a joyous big band, based at the Flushing Town Hall inQueens, New York.61 The Lifetime TeacherJon FaddisNat Hentoff: This is Nat Hentoff from the internationally renowned Blue NoteJazz Club in New York.The most exciting musical experience I ve ever had, Ithink, any kind of music, was in 2003 when Louis Armstrong s home in the bor-ough of Queens, which is in New York, was made a National Historic Landmark.All kinds of people were there from all over the world, the neighborhood kids The Lifetime Teacher 179in the neighborhood when Louis was there the kids knew him, they talked tohim.All of a sudden above the crowd, from a balcony next to where Louis s denused to be, I heard West End Blues. A cappella, no accompaniment, playedby well, played by my guest here Jon Faddis.It was stunning.So, our guesthere tonight is Jon Faddis, master trumpet player, composer, conductor, educator.Now, I know, as everyone in the jazz community knows, that Dizzy was yourchief mentor.The story has been told by you, but for the audience, tell us brieflyabout twelve-year-old Jon Faddis meeting Dizzy Gillespie.Jon Faddis: Twelve-year-old Jon Faddis was a big, big, big fan of Dizzy Gillespie s,and growing up in Oakland, California, there were a few jazz clubs in the area.My parents, seeing my love for Dizzy and his music, took me to hear him onenight at a club called Basin Street West in the North Beach area on Broadwayof San Francisco.Dizzy was playing, and he had a great group at the time withKenny Barron, James Moody, Chris White, Rudy Collins, and I went to hearDizzy, and Dizzy was strolling between the tables and my father says Diz, myboy really digs you! He s a trumpet player! Dizzy looked at me and said You atrumpet player? and I froze.And could not say one word, cause it was Dizzy,and Dizzy was my hero.So, I said to myself, the next time I meet Dizzy, I m gonnatalk to him, and that actually happened three years later, at the Monterey JazzFestival.My mother took me down to the Monterey Jazz Festival, and I decidedto bring all of my Dizzy Gillespie records that I had collected, which at that timewas about fifty LPs a big stack of Dizzy Gillespie records.NH: Lucky they weren t 78s.JF: Those would have been heavy.But my mother and I were in the fairgroundslooking at all the trinkets and things they were selling, and my mother said There s Dizzy! I said, Mom! Go get the records! So she ran to the car, whichwas in the parking lot, got the records, and came back.By the time she came backI was sittin there talking to Diz.I said Mr.Gillespie Dizzy, would you sign myrecords? And he sat down right in the grass, and I sat down in the grass, andhe started signing records.And then he said, I don t remember this one! AndI said, Yeah, that s the one where your solo goes Whee doo-doo and I d startsinging his solo to him.He looked at me like I was crazy or dizzy, and he remem-bered me.A couple of weeks later, he was playing at another club in San Franciscocalled the Jazz Workshop, and again my mother took me to hear Dizzy, and Ibrought my horn this time.So during the bass solo on A Night in Tunisia thebassist was Jimmy Merritt from Philadelphia and during the bass solo, Dizzywalked it was a long narrow club and Dizzy walked by my table, and I said, Diz, you gonna do the ending? He looked at me and said, You got your horn,you do it! So I ran down to the dressing room where my horn was and I got myhorn and I m sittin in the back of the club.And Dizzy was playing a little cadenza 180 The Master Teacherson the end of Tunisia, and he was signaling me with his eyebrows.I don t knowhow he was maybe one hundred feet away, I couldn t see his eyebrows movingfrom the back of the club.So he took the horn down and Okay! and I played(sings) Dah Daaaahh, Doo Dahhhh! He invited me up to play two tunes withhim, and from that moment on I knew that I wanted to become a trumpet player.NH: You know, when the time comes for the JON FADDIS movie, that is the bestopening.You have to find a fifteen-year-old who can do it! (Laughter)JF: I remember Dizzy announcing me that night.He said, This young man isfifteen years old and he s been playing the trumpet for sixteen years! (Laughter)NH: Now, speaking of young players, I read in the current issue of Jazz Improv NYmagazine, you spent an afternoon with second graders at the Harlem Academy.How did you and the second graders and the music interconnect?JF: Well, one of the things I did was I brought a gift [of this music] to all thesecond graders in the class of my latest CD.So when they see a gift like that theyget all excited cause it s a gift.I also think, seriously, that I have, and my wife canverify this, that I have many of the qualities that second graders have, you know,I like to tell jokes, I like to fool aroundNH: I was going to say, it sounds so funJF: I like to have fun to look at something with the curiosity of a child issomething I like to do, and these kids had drawings on the wall and all thesedifferent things, and I was talking to them about their musical interest, whoplays the drums, who plays the piano, does anyone play the trumpet I do! Here, let me get a mouthpiece, and then they go ew, nothing comes out; I say, Make your lips buzz, hhhhht, then the sound comes out, and all the kids,like, wide-eyed, oh, and I m saying it s not that difficult.But the main thing thatyou have to do is practice groans, you know.But we got along famously, we hada great time, and I look forward to going back and spending some time with thekids when they re a little older.NH: Well, you re doing that, I gather, in Chicago, with the Jazz Institute of Chi-cago s Jazz Links program with high school students
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