Little Missenden Festival 2008

Event 14 2008

Distances

Jazz from the Norma Winstone Trio

Saturday October 18th  8.00pm

Little Missenden Church

Tickets £16, £12.50, £8

NORMA WINSTONE TRIO:  Norma Winstone vocals, Klaus Gesing reeds, Glauco Venier piano

Norma Winstone, one of England's finest jazz vocalists, brings her very special trio, featuring German reedman Klaus Gesing and Italian pianist Glauco Venier. It’s a gorgeous sound – Gesing weaves languidly beautiful lines over Venier’s piquant harmonies and probing accents, with Winstone’s voice floating weightlessly above and through the texture.They will feature material from their new album, Distances, which sent the critics into raptures:

“Winstone's remarkable voice, which manages to be both sumptuous and airily ethereal at once, is complemented by Italian pianist Glauco Venier and German reeds-player Klaus Gesing. Gesing winds his soprano sax's delicate traceries around Winstone on a delicately distracted account of Every Time We Say Goodbye, and Winstone drifts like smoke on Pier Paolo Pasolini's lyrics for Satie's Ciant” (John Fordham, Guardian)

“Whether trilling wordlessly, singing her own poetic lyrics or enacting personal interpretations of jazz standards, the voice of Norma Winstone has created a uniquely sensitive sound-world for five decades.

This trio with pianist Glauco Venier and reedsman Klaus Gesing places Winstone in a rather serious context of chamber-jazz art-songs, including Pier Paolo Pasolini (to a tune by Erik Satie), Peter Gabriel ("Here Comes the Flood") and Caribbean poet Andrew Salkey. On a version of "Every Time We Say Goodbye" inspired by John Coltrane, with Gesing's clarinet burbling like birdsong, it's amazing”  (Phil Johnson, Independent )

Ever since she shared the bill at Ronnie Scott's with Roland Kirk in the 60s Norma Winstone has been one of the most-admired voices in British jazz.

She began by singing standards, but soon started using her voice more creatively. Jazz Journal called that voice “one of the glories of contemporary jazz".  And she wrote the lyrics to many of her trio partner’s compositions, revealing a true poetic sensibility..

“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)

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

  Norma Winstone website

Distances CD pdf on Bashomusic site

Klaus Gesing website

Glauco Venier webpage

Concert sponsored by B P Collins, Solicitors

Little Missenden Festival 2008