Norma Ann Winstone
MBE (born 23 September 1941) is a British jazz singer and lyricist. In a
career spanning more than 40 years she is best known for her wordless
improvisations.
Born as Norma Short in Bow, East London, she began singing in bands
around Dagenham in the early 1960s, before joining Michael Garrick's
band in 1968. Her first recording came the following year, with Joe
Harriott. In 1971 she was voted top singer in the Melody Maker Jazz
Poll. She recorded the album Edge of Time under her own name in 1972.
Winstone contributed vocals to Ian Carr's Nucleus on that band's 1973
release Labyrinth, a jazz-rock concept album based on the Greek myth
about the Minotaur.
Winstone has worked with many major European musicians and visiting
Americans, as well as with most of her peers in British jazz, including
Garrick, John Surman, Michael Gibbs, Mike Westbrook and her former
husband, the pianist John Taylor. With Taylor and trumpeter Kenny
Wheeler she performed and recorded three albums for ECM as a member of
the trio Azimuth between 1977 and 1980; their CD How It Was Then… Never
Again was given four stars by Down Beat magazine. In addition she made
an album with the American pianist Jimmy Rowles (Well Kept Secret,
1993).
Awards:
2007: MBE in the Queen's Birthday Honours, for services to music.
2009: Skoda Jazz Ahead Award in Bremen for her contribution to European Jazz.
2010: London Awards for Art and Performance.
2015: Jazz Vocalist of the Year, Parliamentary Jazz Awards.