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Norma Winstone: Dance Without Answer

 A l b u m   D e t a i l s


Label: ECM Records
Released: 2014.01.17
Time:
 62:34
Category: Jazz, Contemporary Jazz
Producer(s): Manfred Eicher
Rating:
Media type: CD
Web address: www.normawinstone.com
Appears with:
Purchase date: 2012
Price in €: 1,00





 S o n g s ,   T r a c k s


[1] Dance Without Answer (Norma Winstone / Klaus Gesing) - 5:18
[2] Cucurrucucu Paloma (Norma Winstone / Tomas Mendez) - 4:07
[3] High Places (Norma Winstone / Klaus Gesing) - 7:10
[4] Gust Da Essi Viva (Novella Cantarutti / Glauco Venier) - 4:40
[5] A Tor A Tor (Traditional / Glauco Venier) - 2:49
[6] Live To Tell (Madonna / Patrick Leonard) - 4:59
[7] It Might Be You (Alan & Marilyn Bergman / Dave Grusin) - 4:47
[8] Time Of No Reply (Nick Drake) - 3:57
[9] San Diego Serenade (Tom Waits) - 4:40
[10] A Breath Away (Norma Winstone / Ralph Towner) - 5:10
[11] Bein' Green (Joe Raposo) - 4:43
[12] Slow Fox (Norma Winstone / Klaus Gesing) - 5:11
[13] Everybody's Talkin' (Fred Neil) - 4:52

 A r t i s t s ,   P e r s o n n e l


Norma Winstone - Vocals

Klaus Gesing - Bass Clarinet, Soprano Saxophone
Glauco Venier - Piano

Manfred Eicher - Producer
Stefano Amerio - Engineer
Sascha Kleis - Design
Jan Kricke - Photography

 C o m m e n t s ,   N o t e s


2014 CD ECM Records - ECM 2333
2014 CD ECM Records - 374 3047

Recorded in December 2012 at the Auditorio Radiotelevisione svizzera, Lugano.



Norma Winstone / Glauco Vernier / Klaus Gesing: Norma Winstone: Dance Without Answer
If there's a single accomplishment that can be attributed to ECM Records—though there are, of course, many in its 45-year history—it's that it welcomes unusual instrumentation with open arms, affording such collaborations the opportunity to grow, to evolve, and build a new language. From the pan-cultural CODONA Trilogy (2009), which collected the three genre-defying recordings made in the late '70s/early '80s by Collin Walcott, Don Cherry and Nana Vasconcelos, to Jon Balke's Siwan (2009), which collected, amongst others, Fourth World progenitor Jon Hassell, Moroccan singer Amina Alaoui and the 12-piece Baroque ensemble Barokksolistene for an epic recording that remains criminally overlooked to this day, ECM has consistently either been on the lookout for or made its own suggestions to combine musicians and instruments that might, on paper, seem to be anywhere from unorthodox to flat-out incompatible. That, more often than not, they are ultimately proved successful only bolsters the reputation Manfred Eicher and his label have built for allowing imagination to fly, unfettered by conventional constraints.

A case in point is singer Norma Winstone's decade-old trio with pianist Glauco Venier and reed multi-instrumentalist—but largely, in this context, bass clarinetist—Klaus Gesing. First coming together for Chamber Music (EmArcy/Universal, 2003), it was when the group began recording for ECM with the sublime Distances (2008), followed by the equally sublime Stories Yet to Tell (2010), that the trio began to garner the international acclaim it richly deserves. Dance Without Answer continues the trio's winning streak, a collection of original music and covers that might be surprising, had the trio not already proven its ability to build repertoires drawn from disparate sources, ranging from Peter Gabriel and Erik Satie to Tom Waits.

Waits becomes, in fact, the trio's first external source to be drawn upon a second time, as they revisit "San Diego Serenade." As on Chamber Music, the gritty avant-songsmith's bluesy ballad is a playful but gentle duo between WInstone and Gesing, but this time without the overdubbed bass clarinet parts. Instead, Winstone's soft delivery juxtaposes with the Gesing's singular combination of melodic counterpoint and percussive punctuation, with WInstone demonstrating subtle wit as she drops to an unexpectedly low register at the end of the line, "Never felt my heartstrings until I nearly went insane." The trio reiterates its playful side on a reading of The Muppets often-covered "Bein' Green" that opens rubato, with time imperceptibly asserting itself on a song that features Gesing's soaring mid-song soprano saxophone solo, joined intimately with Venier's supportive and suggestive accompaniment.

As compelling and understated a lyricist as she is a singer—never resorting to excess, but making every word and note she sings count—Winstone has collaborated with fellow ECM stalwart Ralph Towner before, but this is the first time this trio has adapted one of his compositions. In this case "A Breath Away"—a lesser- known track from an overlooked album, Lost and Found (1996)—is reinvented from its origins as a solo guitar piece, with Venier acting as WInstone's sole accompanist until halfway through the song, when Gesing joins in on bass clarinet for a set-defining solo that manages to reflect Towner's unmistakable vernacular, even as the trio absorbs it into their own evolving vocabulary.

There are other standouts on Dance Without Answer—in fact, there's not a weak song amongst the bunch, making every song stand out in its own way—but Patrick Leonard and Madonna's "Live to Tell," brought to the trio by Venier after hearing Bill Frisell's show-stopping version on Have a Little Faith (Nonesuch, 1993), remains a highlight simply because, no matter who performs it, its heart is so immediately compelling that it's hard to imagine anyone spoiling it. But, again, Winstone, Venier and Gesing bring it into their sound world, turning it into the album's most dramatic track as WInstone delivers the lyrics with such pure depth and unadorned beauty that it's equally difficult to think of else doing them such clear and purposeful justice.

That Dance Without Answer features absolutely no songs from the Great American Songbook—a first for the trio, though its previous albums have all been light on that repertoire, instead favoring original material and songs from sources as diverse as Nick Drake, Maria Schneider, 13th Century troubadour songs and Vince Mendoza—needn't suggest that it has deserted it entirely. Instead, it suggests that WInstone, Venier and Gesing simply look for good music wherever it lives—an aesthetic that perfectly matches Eicher and ECM's modus operandi and one that makes Dance Without Answer another milestone in a series of fine recordings from this unusual but thoroughly captivating trio.

John Kelman - February 11, 2014
© 2015 All About Jazz



In a career entering its sixth decade, in ensembles large and small, vocalist and lyricist Norma Winstone is remarkable in delivering far more than mere expectations require. Using the discipline of understatement and economy, she has continually displayed in both her interpretive singing and original material, a trademark ability to uncover shades that become worlds of meaning and emotional power in a song. Dance Without Answer is the third recording with Italian pianist Glauco Venier and German reedman Klaus Gesing. For over an hour they present sparse, seductive, and bracing originals alongside an adventurous selection of thoroughly re-imagined covers from folk, pop, Brazilian music, cinema, and even children's television. The latter include the juxtaposition of readings of Nick Drake's "Time of No Reply" with glorious reed work by Gesing, and a voice/bass clarinet duet on Tom Waits' "San Diego Serenade." Elsewhere, "Cucurrucucu Paloma" by Tomás Mendéz is given a new English lyric by Winstone. The reading of Madonna's "Live to Tell," with its skeletal, elliptical piano, places her voice in a less dramatic context, but she draws out its lyric with precise accents that, as a result, is as resonant - if not more so - than the original. Winstone also adds lyrics to Ralph Towner's "Lost and Found," and presents slow-burning yet searing versions of Dave Grusin's "It Might Be You” (from the film Tootsie) and "Bein' Green" (it has been covered so often it's now a part of the American Standards book; it originated on the Muppets television program). The originals hold up equally, particularly the opening title track. Winstone's lyric is inconclusive: it's an open-ended farewell with its protagonist left to wonder about the true reason of her beloved's departure. "High Places," with its elegiac clarinet intro and wordless vocal phrasing, seemingly comes across time and space to greet the listener with implied images of empty vistas of panoramic beauty; when she begins singing her lyric, the story unfolds and the implication of the cinematic is confirmed. The set closes with a fine reading of Fred Neil's "Everybody's Talking," that walks a line closer to the original than Nilsson's definitive version, but highlights the poignancy in the lyric, and its protagonist's feeling of the outside and need to depart. Dance Without Answer presents this trio in excellent form, taking more chances and delivering on them without exception.

Thom Jurek - All Music Guide



The great British jazz singer Norma Winstone once again casts her net wide for source material for this third ECM album with Italian pianist Glauco Venier and German clarinetist / saxophonist Klaus Gesing.

Alongside new pieces by Winstone/Gesing and by Venier, the trio covers tunes by singer-songwriters Nick Drake, Fred Neil and Tom Waits. They take a fresh approach to Madonnas Live To Tell, and to Dave Grusins It Might Be You, as well as Ralph Towners A Breath Away (now with lyrics by Norma) and Bein Green, a childrens song elevated to jazz standard status by Sinatra, Stan Kenton, Ray Charles and many more.

As Winstone moves ever farther from the Great American Songbook, All About Jazz observed, its certain that, with band mates as sympathetic as Gesing and Venier, there's precious little she cant do.

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