On The Heart Is A Lotus, The Michael Garrick Sextet with Norma Winstone trace a quietly radical path through British jazz: modal, spiritual and poetically inclined, with Winstone’s voice drifting inside the ensemble like vapor rather than standing in front of it.
Music On Vinyl repress of the left-field UK jazz classic, 'Metropolis', by Mike Westbrook Orchestra from 1971. Featuring the amazing Norma Winstone on vocals
"The Syd Barrett of the avant-jazz scene" - the comparison is inevitable, tragic, and apt. Mike Taylor, British jazz composer, pianist, songwriter, died tragically young, leaving just two albums and co-writes with Ginger Baker for Cream's Wheels of Fire to his name. A talent that burned bright and brief, gone before most people realized what they'd lost. Under the direction of Neil Ardley - himself a significant figure in British jazz composition - several performers who had worked with Taylor g…
Voted top singer in Melody Maker’s 1971 Jazz Poll, Norma subsequently recorded this, her first album, to be released the following year on Decca’s Argo label. Although she began her career in 1965 singing jazz standards, her exploration of the use of voice took Norma to experimentalism and the evolvement of a wordless approach to improvisation that she was to make distinctively her own.Featuring the cream of modern British jazz talent including Kenny Wheeler, Paul Rutherford, Frank Ricotti, …
Norma Winstone's first ECM album as leader, a trio with John Taylor (piano) and Tony Coe (clarinet, tenor saxophone): standards and her own lyrics to tunes by Gismonti, Towner, Wheeler and Bill Evans. Recorded July 1986, Rainbow Studio, Oslo. ECM 1337, 1987.
Duo album by Norma Winstone (voice) and Kit Downes (piano): four Downes pieces, songs by John Taylor, Carla Bley, Ralph Towner and Aidan O'Rourke, two traditionals, nine with Winstone lyrics. Recorded April 2023 at Artesuono, Udine, produced by Manfred Eicher. ECM 2811, 2024.
Norma Winstone (voice) with Klaus Gesing (soprano saxophone, bass clarinet) and Glauco Venier (piano), plus Helge Andreas Norbakken (percussion) and Mario Brunello (cello), in film music. Recorded March 2017 at ArteSuono Studio, Udine; produced by Manfred Eicher.
Third ECM album by Norma Winstone (voice), Glauco Venier (piano) and Klaus Gesing (bass clarinet, soprano saxophone): originals plus songs by Nick Drake, Fred Neil, Tom Waits and others. Recorded December 2012 at the RSI Auditorio, Lugano.