File under: Free Improvisation UK Jazz Scene of the 60s/70s

Norma Winstone

Name: Norma Winstone – Edge of Time (Lp)
Brand: Wah Wah Records
SKU: WBSLP015
Price: 18.00 EUR
Availability: OutOfStock

Edge of Time (Lp)

LabelWah Wah RecordsGenreJazz & Improvisation

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First ever vinyl reissue of the debut solo album by one of the greatest UK jazz vocalists, featuring the cream of the crop of Britain's brilliant jazz wunderkind here: Kenny Wheeler, Paul Rutherford, Art Themen, Chris Pyne, Chris Laurence, John Taylor... Norma Winstone had began as a jazz vocalist in 1965 and soon entered the New Jazz Orchestra. Se also joined the Michael Garrick Quintet -where she added the wordless vocal improvisations that would become one of theelements she has developed to masterly throughout his career- and collaborated with artists such as Mike Westbrook or Amancio D’Silva. Winstone’s fantastic solo debut album was originally released in 1972 and voted amongst the best British records of that year by Melody Maker.

First time ever vinyl reissue. Includes an insert with photograhs and an introduction text written by Norma Winstone herself. Limited to 500 copies.

written by Norma Winstone herself. Limited to 500 copies.

For fans of Gong, Angus Maclise, La Monte Young, Tony Conrad, Amm (Cardew, Prevost)...

Recorded in 1968 and issued as a very limited run private pressing this psychedelic raga freak-out is the brainchild of multi disciplinar artist Loren Standlee plus his partner Ziska with the cooperation of Daevid Allen and Gilli Smith in what was an early incarnation of Gong. Loren and Ziska had been involved with the crowd of avantgardist free thinkers that settled in Formentera in the sixties, and back home in N.Y. they had also been connected to experimentalists such as Angus Maclise, Marian Zazeela, Tony Conrad, Henry Flynt, Pandit Pran Nath, a.o.

This bizarre selection of sounds was the brainchild of Loren Standlee and Ziska and features a very early Gong incarnation. Loren Standlee and Ziska were among the “Formentera” (small Island near Ibiza, Spain) visionary poets, musicians and psychedelic ‘researchers’ in the early sixties. In Paris, they began hand-painting silk and designing clothes for many of the rock luminaries of the time, among them The Beatles, Rolling Stones, and Jimi Hendrix, as well as haute couture designers in Paris and London. They met Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth at a poetry reading where Loren was playing Alto Flute and Ziska was creating vocal sounds to intermix with the flute. They began playing together as a group utilizing Daevid’s Italian echo chambers and soon they had a two-night-a-week gig playing at the Vielle Grille, an avant guard club in Paris where you might hear Ornette Coleman playing upstairs or see Yoko Ono performing in a sack on stage.

Gong was formed and took two identities: one, only Daevid Allen and Gilli Smyth’s material, and the other, the Gong sound of Daevid on ‘space’ guitar, crystals, feathers and other unpredictable objects, Loren on alto flute and jews harp, and Ziska and Gilli doing ‘space whispering’ chanting sounds which built up to sound climaxes. For the time, it was extremely avant guard, and culminated in a gig to perform at Diane Von Furstenberg’s wedding where the group took LSD and both shocked and beguiled the party by performing for two hours, dressed in Loren and Ziska’s hand-painted silks and making sounds that no one had ever heard before. It put them into a kind of cult status.

They were invited to perform at the Museum of Modern Art in Stockholm in 1967, where they once again stunned the audience with their not-heard-or-seen before sound and look. The great Don Cherry joined them at the end of the performance.

Because Daevid and Gilli had visa problems, they couldn’t return to Paris, and the group split up after Stockholm. Gong was re-formed elsewhere with new people. Loren and Ziska returned to Paris and then left for New York. In New York, they met Ira Cohen, poet, mylar photographer, and the creator of the cult classic film The Invasion of Thunderbolt Pagoda. Quoting from Ira Cohen: “Sheldon and Diane Rochlin had just finished their great film on Vali, the witch of Positano, and were working on (their next film) Dope. Loren Standlee and Ziska, who had been in Dope, stepped into the magic mirror and became charter members of the “Universal Mutants”. It was then that I realized we were a special group of dedicated visionaries, electronic multi - media Shamans…”

Details

File under: Free Improvisation UK Jazz Scene of the 60s/70s

Cat. number: WBSLP015

Year: 2012

Release notes

First time vinyl reissue. Includes an insert with photographs and an introduction text written by Norma Winstone herself. Limited to 500 copies. In Wah Wah Records "Black Sounds" collection.

Tracklist

A1		Edge Of Time
A2		Perkins Landing
A4		Enjoy This Day
B1		Erebus (Son Of Chaos)
B2		Songs For A Child
B3		Shadows
B4		Song Of Love

Credits

Mike Osborne: Alto Saxophone, Clarinet (A2, A3, B1)
Chris Laurence: Bass (A1 to B1, B3, B4)
Terry Eden: Cover
Tony Levin: Drums (A1 to B1, B3)
John Surman: Engineer [Mixing]
John Taylor: Engineer [Mixing], Piano, Electric Piano (A1 to B3)
John Warren: Engineer [Mixing]
Neil Ardley: Engineer [Mixing]
Norma Winstone: Engineer [Mixing], Voice
Peter Eden: Engineer [Mixing], Producer
Terry Evennett: Engineer [Mixing], Engineer [Recording]
Alan Skidmore: Flute (B4), Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone (A1 to A3, B1)
Gary Boyle: Guitar (B1)
Art Themen: Tenor Saxophone, Soprano Saxophone, Flute, Bass Clarinet (A1 to B2, B4)
Chris Pyne: Trombone (A2, A3, B1)
Malcolm Griffiths: Trombone (A1 to A3, B1)
Paul Rutherford: Trombone, Euphonium (A1 to B1)
Henry Lowther: Trumpet, Flugelhorn (A1 to B1, B3, B4)
Kenny Wheeler: Trumpet, Flugelhorn (A2, A3, B1)
Frank Ricotti: Vibraphone (A1, B4)