Norma Winstone

Norma Winstone ( born September 23, 1941 in London) is a British jazz singer and educator. It is considered the "Grande Dame " of European jazz singing.

Life and work

As a fellow of the London Trinity College of Music, she studied for three years piano and organ. In 1965, she began singing with jazz groups. The New Jazz Orchestra she met in 1966 on Michael Garrick, in whose group she also worked. For the first time a sensation with the critics excited her in 1968 at Ronnie Scott 's Club, where she performed with Rahsaan Roland Kirk. She has worked with Neil Ardley, Michael Gibbs, Ian Carr's Nucleus and John Dankworth.

In 1971 she was awarded the Melody Maker as the best jazz singer, which meant that she could her first album under his own name, " Edge of Time " record (including with John Surman, Alan Skidmore, Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor, whom she married in 1972 ). Then she belonged to for several years the Mike Westbrook band. In 1977 she founded with John Taylor and trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, the group Azimuth, which was named the world by the London Times as the most imaginative and interesting Chamber Jazz Band. In the 1980s she was a member of the vocal quartet Vocal Summit ( with Jay Clayton, Urszula Dudziak and Michele Hendricks ). In the early 1990s she wrote lyrics to compositions by Steve Swallow.

Your voice is important part of Wheeler's "Music for Large and Small Ensembles ", which was recorded with the assistance of John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Peter Erskine and John Taylor. She has also contributed to performances of works by Fred Hersch, John Surman and Jimmy Rowles and multiple concerts with the NDR Big Band (most recently in a project with Colin Towns, who participated in his own productions ).

Beyond the Jazz Winstone is made ​​as a performer of cabaret songs by the English composer Benjamin Britten and through their work for the Netherlands Opera a name. She is a virtuoso and versatile singer who handles large intervals and just as smooth improvised as each instrument. She is active as a jazz educator at the Royal Academy of Music.

In 2001, she won the title of "Best Vocalist" at the BBC Jazz Award. For 2009, her Jazz Ahead -Skoda - Award 2009 was awarded. Your 2007 -rehearsed together with Glauco Venier and Klaus Gesing Distances album was nominated for a Grammy in 2009.

Discography (selection)

  • Edge of Time (1972 )
  • Somewhere Called Home (1986 )
  • Songs & Lullabies (2002)
  • Distances (2008)
  • Stories Yet to Tell (2010)
  • Here's a Song for You (2011), with Mike Gibbs, Reiner Winterschladen, Christof Lauer & NDR Bigband
  • Dance Without Answer ( 2014)
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