Norma Winstone
Norma Winstone, widely acknowledged as one of Britain’s finest and most versatile vocal talents, was born in London in 1941. Her musical ability was recognised early when she was offered a scholarship to Trinity Music College. In the early sixties she sang mainly in pubs in the East End of London, and by the end of that decade she had joined Michael Garrick’s band and made her first recordings. Although she started out singing jazz standards, she contributed to the avant-garde movement, exploring experimental uses of the voice and evolving her own wordless approach to improvisation.
Winstone’s association with ECM dates from the 70s, when, along with John Taylor (piano) and Kenny Wheeler (trumpet), she was a member of the innovative trio Azimuth, which recorded several albums for ECM between 1977 and 1994, the first three of which – Azimuth, The Touchstone and Départ – have been re-issued as a CD box [...]
Norma Winstone, widely acknowledged as one of Britain’s finest and most versatile vocal talents, was born in London in 1941. Her musical ability was recognised early when she was offered a scholarship to Trinity Music College. In the early sixties she sang mainly in pubs in the East End of London, and by the end of that decade she had joined Michael Garrick’s band and made her first recordings. Although she started out singing jazz standards, she contributed to the avant-garde movement, exploring experimental uses of the voice and evolving her own wordless approach to improvisation.
Winstone’s association with ECM dates from the 70s, when, along with John Taylor (piano) and Kenny Wheeler (trumpet), she was a member of the innovative trio Azimuth, which recorded several albums for ECM between 1977 and 1994, the first three of which – Azimuth, The Touchstone and Départ – have been re-issued as a CD box set.
Winstone’s current group is a trio featuring Italian pianist Glauco Venier and German saxophonist/ bass clarinettist Klaus Gesing. Their repertoire is eclectic (Dance without Answer (2013), for example, presents their own compositions alongside audaciously reimagined covers that include music from cinema and pop and folk songwriters as well as from jazz tradition. The sparse instrumentation – a reed instrument, a piano, a voice – on this album and its two predecessors (Distances and Stories Yet to Tell) adapts itself to a multitude of different contexts, freeing creativity rather than imposing limits.
Winstone is known as an insightful lyricist, adding texts to tunes of Ralph Towner, Egberto Gismonti and Steve Swallow among others. Her voice was often an integral part of the sound of Kenny Wheeler’s groups, and features on Music for Large and Small Ensembles (1990).
In 2007 Norma Winstone was awarded an MBE and in 2015 was named Jazz Vocalist of the Year in the UK’s Parliamentary Jazz Awards.
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| YEAR | DATE | Artist | VENUE | LOCATION | |
| 2024 | October 19 | Norma Winstone | Jarasum Jazz Fest | Jarasum, South Korea |