[Dixielandjazz] Jazz musicians lives

[drjz]

Black humor notwithstanding, the study of jazz artists' longevity merits
attention. Examples of the usual viewpoint are--
"Jazz musicians tend to be more liable than other professions to die
early deaths from drink, women, or overwork" (Lindsay--"Teach Yourself
Jazz").
"The career of the ODJB was both as fantastic and as typical as any that
jazz has had to offer. Its story features...the petty jealousies,
alcoholism, premature deaths, and all the rest" (Schuller, "Early
Jazz").
"Catlett's career was a singularly queer one, even for jazz, whose
history is filled with the wreckage of poverty, sudden obscurity, and
premature death" (Balliett, "The Sound of Surprise").
To use Bill Challis, Danny Barker and others to support the theory that
jazzmen live into old age, is comparable to saying that US Presidents,
and British Prime Ministers, must be long-lived, based on the age at
death (90) of John Adams and Winston Churchill. More realistically, jazz
musicians should be compared to the whole US population. In a study of
this type, using 85 prominent jazz musicians listed in a university
syllabus, I reported that, "Comparison with national values [by year of
birth, race, and sex] showed that 70 (82%) of the musicians exceeded
their life expectancy" (American Journal of Public Health, June, 1991)
Although the sample was too small and selective for general use, "...my
intention was to question--within the limitations of the data
available--the statements made by the jazz writers I quoted, statements
for which there are absolutely no data at all and that are repeated ad
infinitum in professional and popular publications".
I hope some computer whiz, which I am not, may some day arrive at a
statistically valid answer to this controversial topic. Cheers.
Fred