Winstone, Norma - Distances
SKU
28-ECM2028
"Norma Winstone’s artistic path has been long and distinguished. In the 1960s the London-born jazz singer was a pioneer in vocal improvisation in important collaborations with musicians including Joe Harriott, John Stevens and Mike Westbrook. She came to ECM in the mid 1970s with the group Azimuth (with John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler) whose five albums recorded between 1977 and 1994 set new standards in improvised chamber music, opened up a new space between jazz and the pattern-pulses of minimalism, and alerted the wider world to the qualities of Winstone’s singing. Norma, England’s finest jazz vocalist, returns with a trio featuring German reedman Klaus Gesing and Italian pianist Glauco Venier (both of whom make their ECM debuts here) and a superb programme that takes in songs from Cole Porter to Peter Gabriel, a free calypso, a tribute to Coltrane, adaptations of Satie, folk songs, Pasolini and more and flows like an extended suite. Winstone’s lyrics reveal a real poetic sensibility, and both Gesing and Venier are fine jazz composers who put their considerable instrumental skills in the service of the songs. The result: a unique and special group language and one of the season’s outstanding recordings."