A confession: it was with no small pride and pleasure that I introduced Norma Winstone at the 1999 ECM: Selected Signs festival which was held at the University of Brighton in November 1999, when she appeared with Azimuth associates John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler, together with Ralph Towner.
What a career Winstone has had; what a contribution she has made (and continues to make) to the development of the vocalist’s art. A sui generis exponent of improvised wordless vocal figures – exemplified by her work in the Azimuth trio – in the past she has said that the addition of lyrics to a piece may sometimes serve to restrict the listener’s experience of the music.
And yet she has contributed her own lyrics to some splendid recordings: think only of the non-ECM double CD Amoroso .. Only More So (one of my very favourite of her many discs) which she cut in 2006 with Bobby Wellins (ts), Stan Tracey (p), Andrew Cleyndert (b) and Clark Tracey (d). On the title track, e.g., her words gave her shared composer credits with Stan Tracey while she also supplied lyrics for Duke Ellington’s Melancholia and Thelonious Monk’s Crepuscule With Nellie.
Another of my favourite Winstone releases is Descansado: Songs For Films, recorded for ECM in 2017 with Glauco Venier (p), Klaus Gesing (ss, bcl), Helge Andreas Norbakken (pc) and Mario Brunello (clo). Outpost Of Dreams has filmic elements to it but strips things down to feature Winstone in duet with English pianist (and organist) Kit Downes, who has recorded several times for ECM, including his own Obsidian, Dreamlife Of Debris and Vermillion.
The variegated albeit unified programme features two traditional items (Black Is The Colour and Rowing) as well as pieces by Downes (El, The Steppe, Nocturne and In Search Of Sleep), John Taylor (Fly The Wind), Carla Bley (Jesus Maria), Aidan O’Rourke (Out Of The Dancing Sea) and Ralph Towner (Beneath An Evening Sky).
There’s a strong imagistic quality to Winstone’s lyrics (all printed in the sleeve) in pieces which range from the medium-up drive of Fly The Wind to the near-atemporal spoken musings of In Search Of Sleep, rippling reveries of Evening Sky and soaring, reflective and building quest for connection and consummation that is The Steppe. Throughout, Winstone’s intonation, unhurried command and range of phrasing, dynamics and emotional nuance mesmerise, set off beautifully by Downes’s rich yet astute pianism.
Discography
El; Fly The Wind; Jesus Maria; Beneath An Evening Sky; Out Of The Dancing Sea; The Steppe; Nocturne; Black Is The Colour; In Search Of Sleep; Rowing Home (41.42)
Winstone (v); Downes (p). Udine, April 2023.
ECM 651 9138
