Billy Preston Indicted On Insurance Fraud Charge
Singer/keyboardist Billy Preston was recently indicted along with six others in Los Angeles for his alleged involvement in a $1 million insurance fraud conspiracy.
The indictment, released by Deputy District Atty. Michael Cabral, alleges that Preston and the others set fires to their own homes and staged burglaries and car accidents between 1991 and 1998 to collect money from insurance companies, officials said.
Preston, 52, is already in prison for violating probation on a cocaine possession conviction. He gained international acclaim with such instrumental hits as Will It Go `Round in, Circles and Outa Space. The latter song garnered him a Grammy Award in 1972. He had worked as a studio musician, backing up the Beatles on their hit album Let It Be.
If convicted, each defendant faces up to 20 years in jail, the L.A. Times reported.
SKYLIST and Austin Music Community Help Young Boy Battle Legg Perthes
Headquartered in Austin, SKYLIST, an industry-recognized deliverability leader in the email service provider (ESP) space, today announced its support of the Willie Graham Legg Perthes Fund. The fund was established to provide beloved Austin musician Jon Dee Graham and his wife Gretchen with the capital needed for their five-year-old son Willie’s battle against Legg Perthes, a rare childhood form of avascular necrosis of the hip. The Graham family lost insurance coverage for Willie when their provider filed Chapter 11. Willie is now “uninsurable” as other insurance providers refuse to cover Legg Perthes, citing it as a “pre-existing condition.”
SKYLIST will join the Continental Club, Waterloo Records, KGSR, the Austin Chronicle and more than a dozen nationally recognized musicians including Shawn Colvin, Jon Dee Graham, Alejandro Escovedo, Charlie Sexton, Ian McLagan, James McMurtry, Steve Poltz and Bob Schneider to launch the fund via a benefit concert. Several follow-up benefits are also being scheduled.
SKYLIST’s contribution to the Willie Graham fund is three-fold and grounded in the company’s culture of caring and commitment to the local community. SKYLIST will support the fund’s outreach efforts by donating email marketing campaign services for the lifetime of the fund. Members of SKYLIST’s executive team are also making personal contributions and serving as hands-on volunteers.
Health plans prepare for `potential revolution’ on Web
Guy Yarden, a Manhattan musician, recently received a letter from a doctor asking him to press his health plan to pay an outstanding bill. By going to the insurer’s World Wide Web site, Yarden could review the payments to his doctors, saving time on the phone for both himself and the health plan.
Propelled by the soaring popularity of the Internet, plus the shifting economics of health care, the medical industry is rapidly going online.
The Internet is already a popular place to search for general information about medicines and treatments, but now a growing number of insurers and doctors are also using it to provide members and patients with personal medical information, from lab results to payment records.
“A potential revolution” is brewing in “how the consumer interacts with the health plan and, down the road in a different way, with the providers of care,” said Jim Hudak, a managing partner with Andersen Consulting.
And Yarden, who describes himself as a “big online user,” said he hoped that what was available now would be only the beginning. “They should be offering a lot more information,” he said, “like the doctor’s diagnosis and prognosis.”
All this has the potential to be a huge benefit for consumers, doctors and insurance companies, who can become bogged down in mountains of paperwork and, when seeking information, often face clogged phone lines.
But it also raises serious questions about the privacy of such highly personal information wafting about the digital world. A person with AIDS, for instance, might not want his employer to know, and a politician or an executive up for a promotion might want to keep a serious illness secret.
The issue thus fits squarely into the broader debate about privacy and security on the Internet, whether it involves protecting credit card numbers or keeping children from offensive information.
For while the variety of Internet offerings has exploded, privacy has limped far behind. Medical privacy was a factor recently when the White House backed away from the idea of assigning every American a medical identification number. The notion was shelved, the administration said, until Congress passes legislation to protect patient privacy. The current version of that bill has faced criticism for not going far enough.
Yarden said the privacy issue “doesn’t worry me,” adding, “I change my passwords regularly.”
Carol Haberman, who works at the National Library of Medicine, noted, “If you pay a doctor on your credit card, your privacy is gone right there.”
But Dr. Donald Palmisano, a trustee of the American Medical Association, is skeptical. “If vandals can break into a CIA Web site,” he said, “it doesn’t make the AMA feel real secure that some vandals won’t break into a health plan.”
Managed care companies say that they are eager to safeguard members’ privacy and that their security systems can protect the electronic information, sometimes more effectively than with paper records. One Blue Cross plan even invites subscribers to dial in tips when they suspect fraud.
In California, the Kaiser Permanente health plan says it will provide laboratory results next year to patients over the Internet using a personal identification number. Oxford Health Plans has similar safeguards.
“We are continually walking a very fine line” between preserving the confidentiality of patient records and using the information to improve care, said Aetna Chief Executive Richard Huber.
Its subsidiary, Aetna U.S. Healthcare, says it hopes to have “a significant percentage” of information for consumers on the Internet soon, including benefits data, the status of claims and a way to get approval for referrals to specialists.
United Healthcare said it also planned to test an Internet project in October, though it gave no details.
Doctors, for their part, are starting to exchange messages, typically about nonurgent matters, with patients in remote areas and computer-savvy patients everywhere who are willing to risk having some hacker eavesdrop on their cholesterol reports.
Dr. Paul Tang, an internist and researcher at Northwestern Memorial Hospital in Chicago, said he often received e-mail from patients telling how their blood pressure or allergy medicine was working or describing symptoms and asking whether they should come to the office.
“One hundred percent of my patients would rather have communications with me any time of day or night,” he said, “rather than worry about the small risk that someone would intercept any message.”
Physicians at Columbia University are testing an electronic program that will allow patients with chronic diseases like asthma and diabetes to see and add to their medical records. They type in an identification number displayed on a card that resembles a smarter version of an ATM card. A machine receives and automatically verifies the number, which changes every 60 seconds.
“We’re trying to prove that there are big benefits” to the patients by involving them more deeply in their treatment, said Paul Clayton, chairman of the department dealing with computerized medical information at Columbia.
Half the respondents to a survey in Boston said they would be interested in communicating with their doctors by e-mail. This could pose hazards for the doctor. Michael Ackerman, who directs computer research contracts for the National Library of Medicine, said he had heard warnings from “malpractice insurance persons that a written document by a doctor might show up in a court and bite you.”
But he noted that the same could be said of a tape of a doctor’s advice by telephone. “How far are you going to push this stupidity?” he said, expressing exasperation at the intrusion of litigation.
Need another string to your bow?
The needs of musicians are not always served by adding instruments to typical home contents policies. John Feaver, marketing controller at Allianz Cornhill Musical Insurance talks about a niche cover that could be music to the ears of insurance brokers
What do most brokers do when a customer wants to insure a musical instrument? Chances are it will simply be added to their home contents policy, or the assumption may be made that it is already covered. But there is another way.
Specialist musical instrument cover has been around for more than 40 years after it was pioneered by British Reserve (now Allianz Cornhill Musical Insurance) back in the 1960s. Originally cover was mainly provided for stringed orchestral instruments, but now almost anything that is used to make music can be insured. Claims for computer equipment used for music are becoming increasingly common.
The business has grown over the years mainly through word of mouth recommendation by musicians, as well as musical instrument dealers and repairers. But insurance brokers too, ever on the look-out for a profitable niche, are starting to realise that the needs of musicians are not always served by typical home contents policies.
When comparing the two covers, it’s easy to spot the gaps. Both cover all risks, including fire, theft and accidental damage, but when it comes to theft from an unlocked room such as a school classroom, the typical home contents policy is silent. Theft from a locked unattended vehicle is optional under the niche policy, and usually available subject to restrictions on the standard offering. The niche policy also includes world-wide cover for unlimited period; unrestricted professional use; and cover for depreciation in value following repair. Such repairs can be carried out by the dealer of customer choice, and there’s no need to shop around for the cheapest or nearest quote for repairs. Payment is made direct to the repairer, and details of any higher value stolen instruments are circulated to dealers, because in most cases, owners want their own instrument back.
Every week claims arrive for musical instruments that have been crushed, trodden on, stolen, damaged by fire or lost. Sometimes the claims are more unusual, such as a tuba that was crushed when it acted as a shield for a youngster involved in a road traffic accident.
According to musical dealers, tubas that have been buckled or dropped can cost anywhere from £50 to over £1,500 to repair, and between £4,700 MRRP (manufacturers’ recommended retail price) for an E flat model, and over £6,000 MRRP for a B flat 4-valve instrument to replace. Violins can cost anything from £50 to £5,000 to repair and from £100 MRRP to £10 million or more to replace.
More than 1.2 million musical instruments worth over £98 million are sold every year in the UK and sadly, a high percentage will be stolen or damaged beyond repair. Many of these instruments are not insured which leaves a large untapped market for brokers who are alive to new income opportunities.
When did you last ask a customer if they, or their children, own or play a musical instrument? It’s a good bet the number of clients that do so will come as pleasant surprise. And there is even better news. The Government’s manifesto pledge that “every primary school child, who wants to, should have the opportunity of learning a musical instrument” will undoubtedly boost this market.
Fuelled by programmes like Pop Idol, teenagers are rebelling against manufactured boy and girl bands and are desperate to learn to play an instrument. Bands such as the Darkness are credited with a surge of interest from teenagers wanting to learn the guitar.
Musical instruments are not cheap, so before your customer’s wannabe rock star son leaves home to gig at a friend’s, make sure his musical instrument is fully covered.
How prepared are you?
It’s time to prepare for a new school year and plan those fall and winter activities. Although you are a busy music professional, when preparing for the coming school year, remember to take time to review your insurance coverage before you start organizing those class schedules, private piano lessons and programs.
Many music professionals are surprised to learn their homeowner’s insurance will not cover their instruments if they are used in “for-profit” activity. Musicians need to be especially careful to make sure their insurance coverage is adequate for their activities.
Additionally, many music teachers also have no coverage to protect themselves professionally. Unfortunately, this is true too often; only after an event occurs for which insurance would be a solution, do they believe they need it. Remaining uninsured leaves you open to several liability exposures.
The Robert H. Clarkson Insurance Agency has worked diligently with national insurance companies to make many types of insurance products available to MTNA members. By request, telephone and online application services for the general and professional liability, abuse defense and musical instrument plans are now available.
Where do I go with economic$?
Do you have the ability to make well-considered choices about whether to spend your allowance on a movie today or to save it to buy that X-Box you really want? In the field of economics, you can have a career making similar choices, but on a larger scale.
Bruce Johnson, a professor of economics at Centre College in Danville, Ky., describes the field of economics as “thinking about how people make choices because we have limited resources. What are we going to buy and do with those resources?”
Should a family spend money on a new car or on college tuition? Should the government use tax money to build more hospitals or to lay down more highways? Everyone, from the average person at home to nations engaging in international trade, must make economic decisions. As an economist, you would help in the process.
Because economics has applications in so many areas of life, it can lead to a wide variety of careers. The area you would specialize in depends on your interests.
People with backgrounds in economics can use their degrees to become accountants, stockbrokers, entrepreneurs, investment bankers, lawyers, teachers, loan officers, financial advisers, and more. In business and government, they can do everything from keeping the books to setting a course for a company’s future.
The outlook for jobs is excellent; a bachelor’s degree in economics or finance is one of the five degrees most in demand by employers. Depending on the kind of job you want, you may need an associate’s degree, a bachelor’s, a master’s, or a doctorate.
The median entry-level salary of economics majors with bachelor’s degrees was $38,000 in 2002, according to the National Association of Business Economists. For economists of all levels of experience and education, the median annual salary was $94,000.
ADVISING BUSINESSES
“When I was a kid, all I wanted to do was play basketball,” says Ben Russell. “But when I got to college, my professors inspired me with their knowledge and insight into different careers.” Russell took the ball and ran with it.
He earned a B.A. in economics, with highest honors, from Hobart College in Geneva, N.Y., in 1999. His resume included an internship as a stockbroker’s assistant. Russell accepted a job in an area called transfer pricing at Ernst & Young, a large accounting and tax firm. He is now a manager in its Kansas City, Mo., office.
When U.S. companies sell goods and services to a company in another country, they need to pay taxes to that country. Transfer pricing ensures that each country receives the correct amount of tax while putting a fair price on the products. It’s a complicated field that requires a lot of research about such things as the prices competing companies charge for similar products.
Russell’s first job was to do that research. As he was promoted to higher levels, he prepared written advice based on the research. Now he sells his company’s services directly to clients. In the course of a few years, he’s developed top-notch skills in data analysis, clear and persuasive writing, sales, and customer service.
ANALYZING BASEBALL PLAYERS’ SALARIES
Bruce Johnson, the Centre College economics professor, had planned to be a lawyer. However, an introductory course in economics and an internship at the Congressional Budget Office in Washington, which examines many of the nation’s financial issues, changed his mind. “Most of the people working there were economists,” he says. “I would go to lunch with them, and the conversations were a lot more interesting than reading the fine print in some contract or putting some murderer away.”
Johnson, who has a Ph.D. in economics from the University of Virginia, first began to research economic issues in the sports world to engage his students’ interest. Today, in addition to teaching at Centre College, he is also a prominent and sought-after expert on sports-related economics issues, such as whether new baseball stadiums are a good investment for cities.
In the 1980s, Johnson analyzed data to prove that the number of black players and white players on a baseball team affected players’ salaries. “A black ballplayer with three other blacks on the roster is paid more than a black player with 10 other black players on the team,” he says. He’s also done extensive studies of stadiums built in different cities. His surprising conclusion was that “stadiums are a terrible investment for taxpayers” and don’t help local economies at all.
Johnson counts himself lucky. “I’m paid to think about things I think are very interesting,” he says.
OVERSEEING A RESTAURANT CHAIN
Jill Skogheim first felt the lure of economics as a student at DePauw University, in Greencastle, Ind. Her experience was similar to Johnson’s: An introductory course hooked her. “It was really interesting the way they applied economics to life, from health care to environmental solutions,” she says.
Today, Skogheim is the director of operations and marketing for the 5-8 Neighborhood Grill and Bar, a restaurant chain in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minn. She makes economic decisions about her restaurants every day, such as how to get consumers to choose her restaurant over a competitor’s or where to build new restaurants. To do that, Skogheim has to look at factors such as whether there’s a big shopping draw–such as a mall or a department store–near the site, so shoppers would see the new restaurant and stop to eat.
Skogheim landed the job directly out of college–one more testament to the power of internships. In college, she had interned with a company that also owned the restaurant chain Skogheim now oversees. “I didn’t know the ins and outs of the restaurant business,” she says, so she took courses on such topics as advertising and food safety once she got the job. For now, her restaurant chain is growing locally–and someday she may help it spread across the country.
Each of these people used economics in their jobs to make choices and decisions that would have an impact on other people’s lives. If you’re interested in making important choices, you may find plenty that interests you in the field of economics.
Famous Economics Majors
Scott Adams–cartoonist, “Dilbert” (Hartwick College)
Kofi Annan–secretary-general, United Nations (Macalester College)
Cate Blanchett–actor (Melbourne University, Australia)
Sen. Barbara Boxer–U.S. senator, California (Brooklyn Cortege)
Cot. Eileen Collins–NASA shuttle commander (Syracuse University)
Sandra Day O’Connor–U.S. Supreme Court justice (Stanford University)
Mick Jagger–musician, Rolling Stones (London School of Economics)
Arnold Schwarzenegger–actor, governor of California (University of Wisconsin)
Ted Turner–owner. CNN, Atlanta Braves, Attanta Hawks (Brown University)
Mario Van Peebles–actor/director (Columbia University)
Meg Whitman–CEO. eBay (Princeton University)
SOURCE: MARIETTA COLLEGE, DEPARTMENT OF ECONOMICS
Going Places With Economics
What kinds of skills wilt you develop if you major in economics? Where can you go from there?
SKILLS GREAT CAREERS
ANALYTICAL: test ideas, market research analyst,
apply statistical actuary, trade analyst,
research methods, analyze financial/credit analyst,
study results, design insurance underwriter
projects, develop new ideas
FINANCIAL: maintain financial analyst, actuary,
financial records, compute accountant. commodities
figures, develop budgets, broker, loan counselor,
perform cost-benefit investment banker
analyses, write and read
financial reports
COMMUNICATIONS: write journalist, benefits
reports, articles, and administrator, corpoproposals,
summaries: explain: persuade rate communications
professional, teacher,
professor, higher-education
administrator
PROBLEM SOLVING: Assess urban/regional planner,
needs, define set goals, management conproblems,
relate theory to practice, consultant, strategic
create solutions, evaluate planner, lawyer
Peacemaker Maas dies at 69: Elmer worked tirelessly to end all war making and bring about total disarmament
Elmer Maas, 69, a musician, teacher, philosopher, civil rights worker and prophetic peacemaker, died of heart failure May 7 in Voluntown, Conn., during the Atlantic Life Community Retreat. On May 14 more than 200 friends and some of his relatives gathered at the Maryhouse Catholic Worker in New York City, his longtime home, for a memorial procession and unforgettable funeral Mass and celebration of his life. I will deeply miss Elmer, a close friend and guiding light to me and so many.
A native of Kansas City, Mo., Maas was a philosophy professor at Juniata College in Huntingdon, Pa., from 1962 to 1968. Deeply influenced by Martin Luther King Jr., he organized students to participate in the 1965 Selma-Montgomery voter registration drive, which involved some of the worst beatings and the most persons jailed in the civil rights movement. A photo taken during this drive, prominently featured in The New York Times and Life magazine, showed Elmer cradling a close friend who had been badly beaten.
Maas helped formed SCORE, the Student Committee on Racial Equality, which worked on antipoverty issues in central Pennsylvania. In addition, he was a leading campus organizer in protesting the Vietnam War. In 1968 his teaching contract was not renewed, despite student protests.
Compelled by a biblical faith and commitment to nonviolence, Elmer worked tirelessly to end all war making and bring about total disarmament. Well known throughout the peace community, he was a member of the War Resisters League, the Isaiah Peace Ministry, the Atlantic Life Community and Kairos/plowshares New York.
to “beat swords into plowshares.”
For this action he spent 18 months in prison. He was part of Plowshares disarmament actions in southeast Connecticut involving the Trident submarine in 1982 and 1989. In 1988, he and other activists were jailed for three days in Honduras for a protest at a U.S. military base calling for an end to U.S. intervention in Central America.
Throughout his life, Maas supported Plowshares actions, helped prisoners of conscience and organized and participated in acts of nonviolent resistance.
An extraordinary musician, he co-wrote a musical comedy, “The Insurance Company,” and composed “Dusk Leaves,” which he began in jail. He was an early member of the Peoples’ Voice Care and part of the People’s Music Network. Maas was the choir director for the Valley Lodge retirement community for the poor in New York City. His intellectual prowess and love of learning enabled him to master numerous disciplines. He spent his adult life developing an interdisciplinary curriculum focusing on three areas: understanding the dynamics of the U.S. empire and its roots in previous historical periods; unmasking the web of unrestrained power, violence and secrecy of the national/nuclear security state; and tracing the movements of liberation and acts of conscience and nonviolent resistance that represent the hope of freeing ourselves from the bondage of empire.
Maas’ heart was as big as the ocean and his infectious smile and acts of kindness lifted the spirits of all he met. His hospitality was all-embracing. I last saw Maas May 7 at my mom’s funeral in West Hartford, Conn. Little did I know that later that day, Elmer would go home to God in the presence of his beloved community.
American way
North of midtown Manhattan, in the shadow of the Empire State Building and other majestic skyscrapers in the self-named capital of the world, beyond the flash and glass of Wall Street and Broadway and a thousand romantic movies, it’s hot as hell on the streets of the hardscrabble Hispanic neighborhood known as el barrio–Spanish Harlem.
Literally hot, as in on fire. In Ernesto Quinonez’s fascinating new novel, riders on the New York Subway leave the city’s dark underbelly and climb elevated rails to 125th Street, only to see rows of buildings charred black by flames. There’s nothing left but shells where an entire neighborhood once sat.
At first, it’s not hard to believe that such a cataclysm could befall this part of the city. Then, as the story progresses, the truth creeps up from the ashes: The tires were set decades ago by white-collar criminals to collect insurance policies on the buildings. Much like what happened to New York on Sept. 11, these acts were quite intentional.
Quinonez, author of the acclaimed Bodega Dreams, tells the tale of a young resident of el barrio who tries to get ahead amid the dizzying changes in this Latino corner of New York. Julio Santana is a laborer on a demolition crew by day, university student by night, and pyromaniac in the wee hours of the morning. To escape from poverty and to help buy his parents an apartment, Julio works clandestinely as an arsonist-for-hire, under the orders of Eddie Naglioni, a guy with no scruples who has, in turn, been hired by real-estate investors intent on gentrifying the neighborhood. Although Santana is benefiting from the transformation of the neighborhood, his own doubts–raised by ethical concerns and by uncertainty about the future of the neighborhood where he and many other humble workers grew up and now fight to survive–begin to get in the way of his get-rich-quick scheme.
The first-person narrative is one of the book’s best attributes. Through Santana, one sees the picturesque, feverish and often tragic world of Hispanic New York, illustrated deftly by quick, slang-filled voices right off the streets. Quinonez demonstrates the dynamic relationship his characters have with the city itself. Although fictional, and possibly stereotypes, the characters often are valid depictions of Spanish Harlem archetypes.
Santana does everything he can to help his devoted mother and his father, a retired salsa musician, who have lost the will to keep fighting the many trials life deals them. He also has a chaotic relationship with Maritza, a childhood friend, a rebel and a socialist. Maritza leads a neighborhood church, which actually functions as a kind of front for undocumented migrants in need of papers.
Life force. Santana’s life becomes more complicated when a non-Hispanic woman, Helen, arrives in el barrio, replete with artistic leanings and liberal ideas, and he falls in love with her. To solve his problems, Santana seeks out Papelito, a Santaria spiritual leader who talks of the life force of the Africa-rooted religion: Chango’s fire.
As he meets the various characters that inhabit the streets of his neighborhood, Santana begins to face his own deep suspicions about the radical change the neighborhood is undergoing. Despite being one of the agents of this change by burning buildings condemned by speculators, Santana wants the area to stay as it always has been, with its charming inhabitants and out-of-the way stores. The dilemma becomes even more urgent as Eddie blackmails him to perform one last destructive act.
With its sharp and distinctive prose, Chango’s Fire goes beyond one New York neighborhood to become a reflection of a trend that repeats across the United States as the abandoned hearts of its cities are renovated to accommodate a new, well-to-do class of people, and the longtime inhabitants must pack their bags and leave.
AFTER THE MUSIC
Following decades in the limelight, many aged jazz artists find making ends meet is a challenging gig
BY ANY MEASURE, Jimmy Norman has been a successful singer and songwriter. He worked with Jimi Hendrix, and Bob Marley recorded more than 40 of his songs. Norman, a Tennessee native, started young, singing in clubs throughout the Midwest and South - St. Louis; Chicago; Memphis, Tenn. - and eventually in New York. In the early ’60s, he co-wrote “Time Is On My Side,” which became a major hit for the Rolling Stones. Norman knew everybody - Little Richard, Solomon Burke, Ike Turner.
For more than 50 years this was his life. But today his days are no longer star-studded.
After nearly three decades as a member of the classic R&B group The Coasters, health problems, including respiratory dis ease and multiple heart attacks, forced him to leave the road. Then came hard times. Unable to perform regularly, Norman, who considers himself to be primarily a jazz and blues artist, became a reluctant prisoner in his first-floor walkup on the Upper West Side of Manhattan.
“I don’t have any regrets,” says Norman.
It is a sweltering hot afternoon in June, the day after he was released from Mount Sinai Hospital. Norman is wearing a gray Niagara Falls T-shirt and green pants. Prince, his gray cat, stretches out behind him on a futon bed. An admitted “pack-rat,” his apartment is stuffed with the souvenirs and memories of nearly seven decades of anything-but-dull life. A divorced greatgrandfather, Norman lives alone, surrounded by medicine bottles, photographs, vinyl albums and medical equipment to help his breathing.
“I do wish I’d had more education,” he laments. “Man, I had the best of everything at one time. I used to drink Courvoisier, owned some clubs. Later, I would go sit at a bar and have a beer. People around me would say, ‘That’s Jimmy Norman, he wrote “Time Is On My Side.’” I felt small. I was ashamed. Here I was having a beer in a bar, wanting something more. I couldn’t ask for help.”
THE HISTORY OF American music in general, and jazz in particular, is of record labels, clubs, promoters and musicians taking advantage of less savvy or uneducated performers. The music business is bolstered by thousands of musicians backing more popular performers. Their names are recorded in small print on the backs of dusty album sleeves or frayed concert programs, as sidemen and women. Some of them were singer-songwriters who experienced fleeting moments in the limelight. Many never got credit for their creative contributions. And some, even when they did, never received appropriate payment or subsequent royalties. Jimmy Norman is one such individual.
Retirement has been a challenge for Norman. His whirlwind career was relatively lucrative, but he didn’t do a lot of planning for how he would make ends meet when he was no longer working. He receives very little Social security and he doesn’t have a 401(k) or other substantial savings. He has no health insurance and rents his apartment.
Norman’s story is not unique. Early 20th century belter Bessie Smith was buried in a pauper’s grave until ’60s rock stalwart Janis Joplin bought her a marker. Trumpeter Freddie Hubbard, who played with Herbie Hancock, Miles Davis and many others, almost lost his home for failure to make mortgage payments after a cardiac ailment.
Last year, Delia Griffin, who still plays at the Lenox Lounge in Harlem, had a house fire. A singer and one of the first female jazz drummers, in her prime she played with the Platters and Etta Jones. Griffin, who lives in Mount Vernon, N.Y., is known as “Aunt Delia” for having parented dozens of foster children into adulthood throughout her later years. Last year, a week before Christmas, a fire set accidentally by one of her foster kids caused more than $15,000 in damages. The octogenarian had allowed her homeowner’s insurance to lapse three months prior, and the family nearly found itself on the streets.
The unfortunate tales are endless.
“When we look at the plight of the jazz artist, even the artist who makes a lot of money at one time or all of the time, we’re still looking at basic things that have not happened for them,” says trumpeter Jimmy Owens, a New York native who has been on the executive board of the American Federation of Musicians union for five years.
“The sanitation worker, the token taker, they’re all going to receive a pension after 30 years. The jazz artist can work for 40 years and have the possibility of never receiving a pension. The reason for this is that the places we work have never been organized by the musician’s unions across the United States, to pay into the pension fund or make employers pay into the pension fund. At the same time, we see the history of the American Federation of Musicians coming together and negotiating with various types of employers to create a bargaining situation. It had to be done with the various record companies, way back in the sixties. There was proof the American Federation of Musicians was helping musicians, but not jazz artists.”
Reshaping dreams: “a life with music” or “a life in music”?
When music students show an extraordinary gift for performance and the willingness and dedication to invest the hours of hard work to develop their talent, their teachers naturally encourage them to follow their passion wherever it may lead. For many students, the joy of music making leads to the dream of a career as a professional musician. For too many musicians, the dream of a career ends in frustration when they encounter the realities of limited opportunities for making a living in music. A New York Times article published in late 2004, chronicles the experiences of a highly select group of musicians striving to establish and maintain careers as performers. The article surveys the experiences of 36 graduates of The Juilliard School during the first 10 years after graduation from one of America’s most prestigious conservatories.
In “The Juilliard Effect: Ten Years Later,” Daniel Wakin portrays a surprisingly broad array of successes, frustrations and disappointments experienced by some of the members of Juilliard’s Class of 1994. (1) Of the 44 instrumentalists, excluding pianists, who graduated in 1994, 36 alumni were interviewed for the article; eight members of the class could not be found. While many of these musicians did find work in their field at first, at least 12 of them had given up their aspirations of a career in performance. Several of the graduates were thriving as orchestral musicians and one has a flourishing career as a solo violinist.
One of the graduates had bounced from job to job and was studying to become a tax preparer. Another had tried public school teaching for a while and then took a job as a diamond grader at Tiffany’s. Perhaps the most disheartening story was that of a bassoonist who landed a three-year position in the New World Symphony immediately after graduation. Following his stint with the Miami-based training orchestra, he was not able to secure another job. As his debts accrued, he was finally forced to sell his bassoon and take a job as an insurance underwriter. One of the graduates had earned a public school teaching credential and a British harpist had become a music therapist. These two graduates were satisfied with the way they were able to integrate music in their careers, but these were not the careers of professional orchestral players of which they had dreamed.
There was a consensus among the alumni who were interviewed that they had not been aware of the real demands and requirements for building a career in performance. None of these musicians thought that, after receiving a music degree from Juilliard, they would be hustling to find a day job and perhaps giving up music altogether. The article highlights the sense of determination and single-minded-ness that is a common, and often necessary, trait of successful young performers. Despite feelings of disillusionment, many acknowledged their years of intense practice and musical growth were among the happiest and most worthwhile of their lives.
Reaction and Response
The article portrays a grim picture of the difficulties that even the most talented and well-trained musicians face while attempting to earn a living as a performer. The grim outlook may not be surprising to college music faculty; however, it is disturbing for anyone involved in music education to see how hard it is for young musicians to establish and sustain careers in the field. Unless one is completely jaded by television reality shows, one can’t help but feel compassion for the talented individuals whose stories of disappointment and disillusionment are depicted through personal stories in this article. Clearly the situation should not be viewed as an indictment of this prestigious conservatory and the quality of instruction it provides. Rather, we are prompted to examine the tremendous imbalance between limited professional opportunities and the abundance of musicians who aspire to experience the joys of a life in music.
As college music faculty members, our natural response is to ask, “What can we do to improve the situation?” Surely the students interviewed knew that they were taking risks when choosing to invest so much in a career with so few opportunities. Surely their parents and teachers warned them. Let’s hope so. We all know the rewards of a life in music, even if not monetary, are tremendous; and there will always be single-minded individuals who are lured to a career in performance and are willing to risk everything for the love of the art. If only a small percentage of even the most talented and well-prepared are able to sustain careers in the field, what will be the fate of the thousands of other music majors who will receive performance degrees this year? Should music schools raise the bar even higher so that admission is even more selective and performance degrees are conferred on fewer students? It would be unrealistic to expect that academia could restrict the number of qualified musicians based on the job market. Other disciplines in the arts and humanities produce more graduates than the job market can accommodate.