On October 30, 2005, the day before what would have been the eighty-third birthday of Illinois Jacquet, a majestic memorial marking the final resting place of this great innovator on the tenor saxophone was unveiled at historic Woodlawn Cemetery in The Bronx, New York City. Phil Schaap, Curator of Jazz at Lincoln Center reminisced about Jacquet’s illustrious career and their long-time friendship. Dr. Eugene Callender, of St. James Presbyterian Church, recalled experiences he shared with fellow-meditator Jacquet during their visits to Ganeshpuri, India.

Dr. Callender and Jacquet’s daughter, Pamela, untied the ribbons to reveal the 15,000 pound masterpiece of black granite which features a life-size etching of Jacquet. With an extra-ordinary gift of genius, artist Leon Rader, who brought the special granite from India, skillfully implanted into the stone all the magic that Arthur Elgort had captured in his photograph of Illinois Jacquet playing his tenor saxophone. Rader has played guitar and loved Jacquet’s music since before he left Russia twenty-five years ago. Elgort, an innovator in fashion photography, has been playing Jacquet’s solos on his saxophone since early youth. This deep love for Jacquet and his music is reflected in the art of these two masters and lends an intangible radiance to the magnificence of this memorial.

To fill the atmosphere with the sound of Illinois Jacquet, Victor Goines, Artistic Director of Jazz Studies at The Juilliard School, led ten musicians, composed of former members of Jacquet’s big band and Juilliard students and faculty, as they performed Illinois Jacquet’s “Black Velvet Band” arrangements. So many dear friends and fans described the afternoon as “magical” and unanimously they declared that they had felt Illinois’ presence, especially the musicians.

Illinois Jacquet’s memorial sparkles like a jewel, as it is the only example of this art form in the entire 400 acres of beautiful Woodlawn Cemetery. Its immediate neighbors are Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, and Lionel Hampton with Coleman Hawkins, Cootie Williams, Sonny Greer, King Oliver and W.C.Handy, among others, not too far away. The Juilliards are also rather close, as are Irving Berlin, Victor Herbert, George M. Cohan.and so many more names that spell the history of New York City.