Norma Winstone Trio, Pizza Express Jazz Club

Vocalist Norma Winstone, a long-time collaborator of the late trumpeter and composer Kenny Wheeler and a member of the British jazz aristocracy in her own right, has been working with German reeds player Klaus Gesing and Italian pianist Glauco Venier since the early 2000s and it’s proved to be one of the most fruitful projects of her career.
Collectively known as Distances (also the name of their 2008 debut), the trio draw from a wide array of sources in assembling their material, everything from jazz standards to adaptations of Friulian folk songs and so called ‘chamber pieces’, influenced by contemporary classical music. Here they’ll be performing tracks from their latest album, 2014’s Dance Without Answer, which adds reinventions of music by Tom Waits, Nick Drake and Madonna to that list, along with compositions by Gesing and Venier with lyrics by Winstone.
The vibe is one of profound tranquility with Venier’s lilting accompaniments and Winstone’s characteristic, airy vocals lending an ethereal, at times entrancing, quality to the music. It’s the perfect complement to Gesing’s sonorous bass clarinet and flighty soprano sax.