Health and Economic Crisis
Norman suffered multiple heart attacks and respiratory disease which restricted him, impoverished, to his home in Manhattan. Though he had a successful career that allowed him at one point to own several clubs, he did not plan for retirement and, like many composers of his time, receives little to no royalties for his compositions. In 2002, he told The Jamaica Observer with respect to the songs he wrote that were released by Marley, "Periodically, I get chump change, nothing big. A lotta people have been making money off of it, not me." Norman attempted to get local work without success and, lacking health insurance and investment funds, was near the point of eviction when he came to the attention of the Jazz Foundation of America, which helps redress what The Crisis characterizes as the exploitation of "less savvy or uneducated performers" by record labels and other more powerful members of the music community.
Read more about this topic: Jimmy Norman
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