The call has gone out: “Richard M. Sudhalter, the distinguished trumpeter, biographer, and jazz scholar, needs your help.” Our paths have only crossed online in a jazz researchers’ newsgroup, so I cannot count Richard among my personal friends, but we share many friends in common and he is an esteemed colleague. For the last three years Richard has been recovering from a stroke, and now he’s been diagnosed with a rare, debilitating illness of the nervous system called multiple system atrophy.
Terry Teachout and Doug Ramsey have both posted more about Richard’s accomplishments and his needs. His friends are rallying and a benefit concert is planned for September, but the bills are mounting now. Having faced serious medical challenges myself, I am all too familiar with the costs of medical care and the additional damage to one’s health, or lack of, that is inflicted by the added stress of struggling to pay for care that one urgently needs. To find out what you can do, go here.