Dizzy Gillespie Gillespie favored mouthpieces made by Al Cass. In December 1986 Gillespie gave the National Museum of American History his 1972 King "Silver Flair" trumpet with a Cass mouthpiece. In April 1995, Gillespie's Martin trumpet was auctioned at Christie's in New York City with instruments used by Coleman Hawkins, Jimi Hendrix, and Elvis Presley. An image of Gillespie's trumpet was selected for the cover of the auction program. The battered instrument was sold to Manhattan builder Jeffery Brown for $63,000, the proceeds benefiting jazz musicians with cancer. He was given the Grammy Lifetime Achievement Award. The next year, at the Kennedy
Dizzy Gillespie of Racial Equality, Southern Christian Leadership Conference and Martin Luther King, Jr.; in later years they became a collector's item. In 1971, he announced he would run again but withdrew before the election. Gillespie joined the Bahá'í religion in 1968. The universalist emphasis of his religion prodded him to see himself more as a global citizen and humanitarian, expanding on his interest in his African heritage. His spirituality brought out generosityand what author Nat Hentoff called an inner strength, discipline, and "soul force". Gillespie's conversion was most affected by Bill Sears' book "Thief in the Night". Gillespie spoke about the