Dizzy Gillespie honored with jazz club inside $10 million Lincoln Center facility

Dizzy Gillespie spread the joy of jazz to millions around the globe during the last half-century. Now a new generation of jazz artists will be able to keep Gillespie's legacy alive in a soon-to-be-built New York club named for the legendary virtuoso, Jazz at Lincoln Center recently announced.

Dizzy's Club Coca-Cola, a 2,500-square-foot, 140-seat venue overlooking Central Park and the Manhattan skyline, will be a star attraction inside Frederick P. Rose Hall, the future home of Jazz at Lincoln Center, the world's largest nonprofit arts organization dedicated to jazz.

"I know that my husband would be proud and honored that many musicians will further their careers and the awareness of jazz as an art form, in a place that bears his name," Mrs. Lorraine Gillespie said

Dizzy's Club, which will offer educational programs during the day and jazz concerts at night, will be one of three main performance venues inside the 100,000-square-foot, state-of-the-art facility designed by architect Rafael Vinoly and slated to open in fall 2004.

Funded in part with a $10 million leadership grant from the Coca-Cola Company, Rose Hall will be the world's first performing arts center designed specifically for jazz. It also will accommodate dance, opera, theater and symphony.

Wynton Marsalis, artistic director for Jazz at Lincoln Center, described Gillespie as a "genius of music" who brought "the joy of jazz to millions" throughout the world. "With the help of Coca-Cola, our club will embody his sense of community and joie de vivre," he said.

John Birks "Dizzy" Gillespie (1917-1993) is one of the most accomplished and influential artists in the history of jazz music. Renowned for his skills as a trumpet player and jazz improviser, Gillespie, a native of Cheraw, SC, was a key creator of Bebop music. An ambassador of jazz, he toured extensively throughout the world with his big bands and ensembles from the late 1950s to shortly before his health failed in 1992.