Norma Winstone / Kit Downes

“Outpost of Dreams”

(ECM Records ECM 2811 651 9138)

Norma Winstone – voice, Kit Downes -  piano

Released in July 2024 “Outpost of Dreams” represents the ECM debut from this British duo featuring vocalist and lyricist Norma Winstone and pianist and composer Kit Downes.

As individuals both musicians already enjoy well established relationships with the label, with Winstone’s dating back to 1977 when she made her ECM debut as part of the ‘chamber jazz’ trio Azimuth, alongside pianist and keyboard player John Taylor and trumpeter Kenny Wheeler, both sadly no longer with us. Between 1977 and 1995 the Azimuth trio recorded a total of five albums for the label,  with one of these, Départ  (1980), being a collaboration between the trio and the American guitarist Ralph Towner. Winstone also appeared on “Fluid Rustle”, a 1979 ECM release by the German bassist and composer Eberhard Weber.

Winstone made her solo ECM debut in 1987 with “Somewhere Called Home”, recorded with an all British trio featuring Taylor on piano and Tony Coe on reeds. Widely regarded as an ECM classic the album has a timeless quality and an aesthetic that still informs Winstone’s work to this day.

Continuing her relationship with ECM Winstone recorded several other albums for the label in a similar instrumental format with the Italian pianist Glauco Venier and the German reeds player Klaus Gesing. These include “Distances” (2008) “Dance Without Answer” (2012), “Descansado” (2017) and the excellent “Stories Yet To Tell” (2010), another Winstone career highlight. My review of “Stories Yet To Tell” can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/norma-winstone-stories-yet-to-tell

But there has been more to Winstone’s career than just her relationship with ECM. She  first came to prominence with pianist / composers Michael Garrick and Mike Westbrook and other leading progressive British jazz musicians in the late 60’s early 70’s, often using wordless vocals in the manner of an instrument in both large and small ensembles. She later refined this approach with Azimuth,

She began her solo career with with the ambitious “Edge Of Time”, first released in 1972 and re-issued on CD in 1999 and has since recorded numerous other albums under her own name, in addition to her ECM output. In addition to her abstract / avant garde wordless vocalising Winstone is an also an established singer of jazz standards, an aspect of her music making that she has sometimes self deprecatingly referred to as her “Radio 2 side”.

Winstone is also a brilliant exponent of “vocalese”, the art of adding words to an already existing instrumental composition. “Somewhere Called Home” added her poetic lyrics to tunes by fellow ECM artists Kenny Wheeler, Ralph Towner and Egberto Gismonti. Her version of Steve Swallow’s “Ladies In Mercedes” has practically become a jazz standard, a piece that has entered the repertoire of many a jazz vocalist.

Equally proficient on piano and organ Kit Downes’ association with ECM began in 2018 with the release of “Obsidian”, a collection of pieces largely recorded on various church organs and a recording that represented a continuation of the Vyamanikal project, a church organ / saxophone duo comprised of Downes and Tom Challenger that had already issued two previous albums on small UK based boutique labels.

Although it was the Vyamanikal project that finally prompted Manfred Eicher to bring Downes to ECM as a solo artist the British musician had already recorded for the label as part of Time Is A Blind Guide, an ensemble led by the Norwegian drummer and composer Thomas Stronen.

Since “Obsidian” Downes has continued to record productively for ECM. “Dreamlife of Debris” (2020) featured Downes playing both organ and piano and included contributions from Challenger on tenor sax, Lucy Railton on cello, Sebastian Rochford on drums and the Norwegian musician Stian Westerhus on guitar. Review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/kit-downes-dreamlife-of-debris

“Vermillion” (2022) saw Downes bringing his regular piano trio featuring bassist Petter Eldh and drummer James Maddren to ECM to collaborate with Eicher on the recording of their second album. Their first, issued under the band name ENEMY had appeared on the British label Edition Records.

Downes’ next appearance on ECM was on the album “A Short Diary” (2023), which saw him collaborating with Rochford on a series of the drummer’s compositions, these having been written as a response to the passing of Rochford’s father in 2019. Rochford and Downes had first performed as a duo as far back as 2012 and “A Short Diary” is a beautiful album that transcends the apparent limits of the piano / drum kit instrumentation. Review here;

Like Winstone Downes has also recorded prolifically away from ECM in a variety of musical contexts and with a wide range of international collaborators. His solo recordings include the Mercury nominated “Golden” (2009) recorded with a trio featuring Maddren and bassist Calum Gourlay and “Quiet Tiger” (2011) and “Light From Old Stars” (2013), both recorded with an extended quintet line up featuring reeds and cello.

He has also recorded with the collaborative ensembles Troyka and Warmer Than Blood, both featuring guitarist Chris Montague, and Neon Quartet, fronted by saxophonist Stan Sulzmann. Both Troyka and Neon Quartet have also been featured in big band incarnations (Troykestra and Neon Orchestra).

Downes has also played organ with the group Golden Age of Steam, led by saxophonist and composer James Allsopp.

Downes has also featured in duos with fellow pianist Tom Cawley, vocalist Paula Re Gibson and cellist Lucy Railton, the last of these under the collective name Tricko. He has also experimented with free improvisation as part of a trio with bassist John Edwards and drummer Andrew Lisle.

As a prolific sideman he has performed with saxophonist Julian Arguelles, drummer Jeff Williams and singer / guitarist / songwriter Sarah Gillespie, among many others.

International collaborations have included the Anglo-French alliances Barbacana and In Bed With…, both of which feature drummer Sylvain Darrifourcq have appeared at Cheltenham Jazz Festival. More recently Cheltenham was graced with the presence of Deadeye, an organ trio featuring Downes on Hammond alongside the German musicians Reinier Baas (guitar) and Jonas Burgwinkel (drums).

Meanwhile 2024 has already seen the release of “Reflex; Dr. Snap”, a live recording featuring Downes leading a ten piece international ensemble playing a series of original compositions commissioned by the famous Bimhuis venue in Amsterdam. Review here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/kit-downesreflex—dr-snap

Winstone and Downes first worked together a part of a trio that also featured guitarist Mike Walker. This line up having played a series of concerts in early 2020, just before the first Covid lockdown. Winstone had worked with Walker as part of pianist / composer Nikki Iles’ band The Printmakers. Indeed Iles and Winstone have worked together on a regular basis and apparently it was Iles’ unavailability for a gig that first brought Winstone into contact with Downes as she instantly established a rapport with the very able ‘dep’.

My first memory of seeing Winstone and Downes performing together dates back to December 2020 when they were joined by saxophonist / clarinettist Tim Garland for a short livestream performance filmed and recorded at Garland’s Oak Gable Studios as part of his ‘Winter Encounter’ livestream series. This was a beautiful performance that included one of the songs that appears on this new album. My review of this one off ‘Winter Encounter’ can be found here;
https://www.thejazzmann.com/reviews/review/tim-garland-winter-encounter-no-1-featuring-tim-garland-norma-winstone-and-kit-downes-livestream-from-oak-gable-studios-06-12-2020

When reviewing Winstone’s “Stories Yet To Tell “album I said of her lyric writing;
 “Her words get better and better, always poetic, vaguely spiritual and containing ambiguous allusions to nature, place, nostalgia, love and loss. Outside material is always immaculately chosen and is perfectly suited to the timbres of Winstone’s voice.”

These are remarks that continue to hold true on “Outpost of Dreams”. With the exception of the traditional folk tune “Black is The Colour” the lyrics to all the songs are written by Winstone, who adds her words to compositions by Downes, John Taylor, Ralph Towner, Carla Bley and the folk musician Aidan O’Rourke.

The album commences with “El”, a tune written by Downes for his young daughter with words added in response by Winstone. As one would expect from the sparse voice and piano instrumental format the performance is hushed and intimate with the production team of ECM label boss Manfred Eicher and engineer Stefano Amerio capturing every nuance of Winstone’s singing and Downes’ playing. The album was recorded at the Artesuono Recording Studio in Udine, Italy where Amerio is the resident recording engineer. The studio has become a favourite location for Eicher and ECM in recent years and many label classics have been recorded here. It should also be added that Amerio brings the same meticulous standards to bear on recordings made for other clients.

“Fly The Wind”, a tune written by Winstone’s former husband the late John Taylor, is the song hat was performed by Winstone, Downes and Garland at that ‘Winter Encounter’. It had also formed part of the repertoire of the Winstone / Downes / Walker trio. Here Winstone’s lyrics have a sailing / seafaring theme, combining a sense of nostalgia and a sense of adventure. There’s a brief wordless vocal passage and similarly a concise piano solo, but the demonstration of individual virtuosity isn’t really what this duo is about. Instead they serve the songs faithfully, in a spirit of musical intimacy and mutual interdependence.

The late Carla Bley’s “Jesus Maria” is something of a modern day jazz classic and has been instrumentally interpreted by other artists such as vibraphonist Gary Burton, a long time Bley associate. Winstone’s words capture the spirit of Bley’s piece, bringing an ambiguous sense of yearning spirituality to the song. Musically this is one of the most beautiful performances on the album. The song is introduced by a passage of unaccompanied piano from Downes, and after hearing a lot from him on various types of organ, both pipe and electric, in recent years it’s good to be reminded of what a superb acoustic pianist he is.

“Beneath An Evening Sky” is a composition by Ralph Towner that first appeared on the guitarist’s 1979 ECM album “Old Friends, New Friends”. It’s the second piece from this recording to have had words added by Winstone, following “Celeste”, a tune written for Towner’s then young daughter. “Beneath An Evening Sky” is one of the most evocative tracks on what is a beautiful album as a whole and Winstone’s always poetic words, with their themes of love, loss and nostalgia, enhance that beauty yet further.

The music for “Out Of The Dancing Sea” was written by folk musician Aidan O’Rourke, fiddle player with the acclaimed contemporary folk trio Lau. The versatile O’Rourke has also collaborated with Downes on a duo project, performing music written by O’Rourke in response to the book “365 Stories” by the Scottish author James Robertson. It may well be that this item first arose out of that project but the addition of Winstone’s voice and lyrics transform the piece into a beautiful song, the words both evocative but ambiguous, as is so often the case with Winstone’s lyrics.

The lyrics of the Downes / Winstone composition “The Steppe” contain the phrase that helps to give this album its title. The words are sparse, just ten lines, but are typically poetic and evocative, qualities enhanced by both the singing and the playing.

“Nocturne” is another original from the duo with both the music and the words evoking a suitably crepuscular feel. Downes’ playing also includes classical allusions reflective of the song’s title.

The first of two traditional folk songs to be tackled by the duo is the much covered “Black is The Colour”, a Scottish tale of unrequited love that is interpreted via an arrangement that is simultaneously sombre and strangely beautiful.

The final Downes / Winstone original is “In Search Of Sleep”, which features Winstone’s semi-spoken vocals. As far as I’m aware this represents a new approach for her, but it’s one that is highly effective. The mood is sombre and questioning, with Downes’ thoughtful and evocative piano playing representing yet again the perfect foil for Winstone’s expressive voice.

The album concludes with the duo’s second rendition of a traditional tune, in this case, ‘Ro Hamåt’, a Scandinavian folk tune arranged by the late jazz pianist Bob Cornford (1940-83).  With the addition of Winstone’s lyrics it becomes “Rowing Home”, the bitter-sweet words cross referencing the earlier “Fly The Wind”. 

“Outpost of Dreams” is a welcome addition to Winstone’s already impressive catalogue of ‘chamber jazz’ recordings made in the duo or trio format. It is a worthy successor to previous voice and piano recordings featuring Winstone with John Taylor and the American Fred Hersch.

At the age of eighty two Winstone remains a hugely creative musician, and if her voice has lost a little in terms of range and flexibility it has deepened in terms of emotion at gravitas.

Of course this is a cross-generational recording. Downes is much younger but has always displayed an impressive musical maturity and he provides a perfect foil for Winstone as well as bringing plenty of himself to the recording as a composer, arranger and musician. His playing is intelligent, technically adept and perfectly attuned to Winstone’s vocals. The beauty of the music is faithfully captured by a typically high quality ECM production.

The ten tunes are immaculately selected and embrace elements of jazz, folk and classical music, ingredients that bring out the best of this highly talented duo.

I was disappointed to miss the duo’s performance at the Parabola Arts Centre at the 2024 Cheltenham Jazz Festival (I was covering another event on the Festival bill) but heard great things about it from those that were there. The intimate environs of the Parabola would represent the perfect setting for the duo’s music and I wasn’t at all surprised that the comments were so favourable. I’m still hopeful that I may be able to catch the duo live at some point in the future, but fear that I might have missed my chance. In the meantime there’s always this delightful album to enjoy.

 

 

 

blog comments powered by Disqus