09/06/2023 JAZZ CAFE POSK 20:30 £20
Norma Winstone ‘The Peacocks and other stories’

Norma has written lyrics for many of the songs she has in her repertoire. “A Timeless Place” is probably her most famous lyric to the instrumental “The Peacocks” by Jimmy Rowles and has been recorded by many singers including Cecile McLorin-Salvant.

This performance will contain a selection of pieces from this repertoire, and Norma is joined by two close musical friends, Nikki Iles on piano and Mark Lockheart on saxophones.

Line-up: Norma Winstone (voice), Nikki Iles (piano) and Mark Lockheart (saxophones)

The group is a small ‘offshoot’ of The Printmakers… they share a love of risk taking, improvisation and above all harmony and melody.

Mark is a sensitive and lyrical player who has won many awards. He is a member of Loose Tubes, Perfect Houseplants, Seb Rochford’s Polar Bear, amongst many others. He has also worked with June Tabor and was a featured soloist in compositions by Mark Anthony Turnage. He has written for many projects such as his reworking of Duke Ellington’s music which resulted in the recording “Ellington in Anticipation”.

Nikki was recently made Composer in Residence with the NDR Big Band in Hamburg and writes extensively for her English big band, and her group The Printmakers. She does a lot of educational work for which she was recently awarded the British Empire Medal.

Norma has been at the forefront of vocal jazz for many years and recorded four albums for ECM with her European trio (one of which was nominated for a Grammy). She had a long relationship with Kenny Wheeler and John Taylor and their many recordings as Azimuth in the 1970s and 80s were ground-breaking. She was awarded an MBE in 2007.

“One of the Glories of contemporary Jazz” – Jazz Journal

“Right now, she is at the peak of her form… there is no jazz singer in the country to touch her” – Alyn Shipton, The Times, London

“Norma Winstone’s instrument: an unfettered intelligence spinning tales with language…or without” – Thomas Conrad, Down Beat Magazine

“Her spare, subtle and intelligent approach to improvisation, jazz standards, impressionistic tone poetry like a vocal Jan Garbarek and the uncovering of overlooked songs that deserve to be classics, put her in the forefront of European singers” – John Fordham, The Guardian

“It is unlikely that there is a better jazz singer than Miss Winstone. She has none of the histrionics which mar so much of the work of her contemporaries, and one is left with tasteful ideas, expressed in pure musical form” – Steve Voce, Jersey Evening Post

“.. a superb example of state-of-the-art, imaginative, virtually beyond-definition singing” – Don Heckman, Los Angeles Times

www.normawinstone.com
www.marklockheart.co.uk
www.nikkiiles.co.uk