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One of the most individual releases from the
heyday of modern British jazz is reissued on the
Dusk Fire label this
January (2014) in the shape of Norma Winstone's 1972 solo debut 'Edge of
Time'.
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.
Voted top singer in Melody Maker's 1971 Jazz Poll, Norma recorded
this, her first album, for release the following year on Decca's Argo label.
Featuring the cream of modern British jazz talent including Kenny
Wheeler, Paul Rutherford, Frank Ricotti, Tony Levin, Alan Skidmore, Henry
Lowther, Art Themen, Gary Boyle, Chris Pyne, Chris Laurence, John Surman
and John Taylor, 'Edge of Time' is to this day a startlingly
original work not least in its deployment of her extraordinary vocal
styling.
Norma continues to work at the forefront of British jazz and has been
nominated three times in the BBC Jazz Awards for Best Vocalist. She was
awarded an MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours List in 2007 and in 2009
received the Skoda Jazz Ahead Award for her contribution to European Jazz.
Dusk Fire's enhanced reissue of the album deploys 'Edge Of Time' in a
facsimile of the original's 'progressive' artwork housed in a gatefold digi-pack
containing a 12-page booklet with newly-revised notes and rarely seen images
from the artist's archives.
The album complements the label's output focus on the genre with period
releases from the New Jazz Orchestra and Neil Ardley.
Links:
www.normawinstone.com
www.duskfire.co.uk
www.marketsquaremusic.com
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NORMA
WINSTONE
Edge Of Time
1 Edge Of Time 4:37
2 Perkins Landing 6:27
3 Enjoy This Day 10:22
4 Erebus (Son Of Chaos) 8:23
5 Songs For A Child 2:45
6 Shadows 7:48
7 Song Of Love 3:25
Contemporary reviews
applauded an audacious debut…
"One of the truly outstanding albums of all time...this is an absolute
must." John Wickes, Avant Magazine
"Norma Winstone has helped bring about a reappraisal of the term 'jazz
singer'." Alun Morgan, Jazz Journal
"Ms Winstone is a star." Richard Williams, Melody Maker
"Norma has the same technical facility as a virtuoso sax player...a
genuinely inspired improviser." Derek Jewell, Sunday Times
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