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Today for Tomorrow

Jimmy Norman

"Few years back ... don't know how long ago ... I was finding watches everywhere I went, on the sidewalk, in parks, in the back of taxis, in the subway ... if I looked around, I'd find a watch. And it started to get to me. I thought someone was trying to send a message ... time was catching up with me." - Jimmy Norman

Singer and songwriter Jimmy Norman has been an musical institution for over 50 years. He played with Jimi Hendrix in New York's Greenwich Village, wrote the lyrics for "Time is on My Side" -- later a hit for the Rolling Stones -- and sang with the Coasters for three decades.

Born in Nashville, Jimmy's earliest musical influence was gospel. Later, he appreciated country, blues and jazz. You hear each of these influences in Little Pieces.

In 1968, Norman also helped out a young Jamaican musician under contract to singer Johnny Nash. He desperately wanted to be American-style rhythm and blues singer and Nash suggested that he work with Norman. That led to Norman's intense and prolific collaboration with the 23-year-old Bob Marley. The king of reggae went on to record more than 40 of Norman's tunes. In 1972, Jimmy was featured vocalist on Eddie Palmieri's revered Harlem River Drive, a breakthrough Latin-flavored funk album. The album on Roulette Records was a free-form brew of salsa, funk, soul, jazz, and fusion. A major success, it produced Latin and underground club hits like the title track and "Seeds of Life." The record remains a prized collectable.

Though Jimmy had done it all in the music business, times were hard for him at the turn of the millennium. He was recovering from the physical and financial hardship of two heart attacks. His life on the road had ended and with it the freewheeling lifestyle he coveted. Like so many black musicians of his era, Jimmy was far richer in musical talent than business skills. Despite the fact he had written dozens of recorded songs and one the classics of rock & roll, he had little money to show for it. What he did have was quickly consumed by medical bills.

The Jazz Foundation of America came to his aid. The organization has an emergency fund to help struggling musicians facing difficult times. Jimmy needed help and the Jazz Foundation was there for him, providing not only financial and medical assistance, but volunteers who could help him navigate the obstacles of daily life. It was while helping Jimmy with the seemingly mundane task of cleaning and re-organizing his apartment that two Jazz Foundation volunteers, Lily Morton and Jeni Lausch, struck musical gold. Through a simple twist of fate, they helped launch the second act of Jimmy's remarkable career. They found Little Pieces.

Jimmy Norman's release of his first album in more than 20 years, Little Pieces, is a group of luminous and contemporary-sounding original folk/soul R&B songs. The CD, distributed on Judy Collins's Wildflower Records label, is what Norman calls "swamp funk;" it is being described by critics as a roots classic.

Jimmy Norman has stories to tell, whether in the lyrics of the hundreds of songs he has written over the past 50 years or in a remarkable musical life that's taken him from the dark side of the Chitlin' Circuit to the inner circles of American pop music, his stories tell us why music is so important in our lives.

Every musical recording is ultimately defined by the quality of its content. Sometimes a recording transcends its music and becomes something larger—a metaphor for the...

Every musical recording is ultimately defined by the quality of its content. Sometimes a recording transcends its music and becomes something larger—a metaphor for the people, events and the times that surround it. Little Pieces is such a recording. Behind its creation is an extraordinary story that makes it a rarity in an era of mass-produced music.

It was born in the exuberance of the Monday night jams with Jonny Rosch and his band in the basement of Penang, an Upper West Side restaurant that served as a cover for a virtually unknown musical scene that included some of New York City’s finest studio musicians. Joining them occasionally was Jimmy Norman, a man from another era with talent they respected and a history that was endlessly fascinating.

Though Jimmy had done it all in the music business, times were hard for him at the turn of the millennium. He was recovering from the physical and financial hardship of two heart attacks. His life on the road had ended—and with it the freewheeling lifestyle he coveted.

Like so many black musicians of his era, Jimmy was far richer in musical talent than business skills. Despite the fact he had written dozens of recorded songs and one the classics of rock & roll, he had little money to show for it. What he did have was quickly consumed by medical bills.

The Jazz Foundation of America came to his aid. The organization has an emergency fund to help struggling musicians facing difficult times. Jimmy needed help and the Jazz Foundation was there for him, providing not only financial and medical assistance, but volunteers who could help him navigate the obstacles of daily life.

It was while helping Jimmy with the seemingly mundane task of cleaning and re-organizing his apartment that two Jazz Foundation volunteers—Lily Morton and Jeni Lausch—struck musical gold. Through a simple twist of fate, they helped launch the second act of Jimmy’s remarkable career.

Among his long-forgotten possessions were stacks of old notebooks full of song lyrics, most never recorded or even performed in public. For years, the hand-scribbled pages had been buried under boxes and other stored items. For Jimmy, they were out of sight and out of mind.

Word of Jimmy’s “lost” songs quickly reached Penang. Kerryn Tolhurst, a record producer who often jams at Penang with his dobro and lap steel guitar, visited Jimmy at his apartment to hear some of the new material. Using a Minidisc portable, Kerryn recorded Jimmy as he noodled the songs on his piano. From those crude recordings, Kerryn selected and made guide tracks for about 15 of the new songs.

Later, other musicians—impressed by the music—joined the project. They included Jeff Golub, guitar; Chris Copping, Hammond organ; Neal Pawley, trombone; Richie Cannata, sax; and Kati Mac, Amanda Homi and Gina Rothchild on backing vocals.

As the project progressed, the timeliness and authenticity of Jimmy’s “new-old” work became inescapable. Mostly written in the 1960s and 70s, the songs not only established a fresh connection to an important musical era, but—like all good art—provided an uncanny relevance to modern life.

The Little Pieces project represents a renewal in Jimmy’s life. Now, with his health improved, he has returned for Act Two of his musical career. Fortunately, with the passage of time and new reflection, his latest recording is among his best.