Walter Norris

Walter Norris (born December 27, 1931 in Little Rock , Arkansas , † October 28, 2011 in Berlin ) was an American jazz pianist .

Live and act

Norris had already had classical piano lessons as a four year old. During high school he played in local groups. Before doing military service, he worked in Moses Allison's quartet . He then worked in Houston and Las Vegas before moving to Los Angeles in 1954. There he worked in the groups of Stan Getz , Dexter Gordon , Johnny Griffin , Teddy Edwards , Zoot Sims , Howard McGhee , Buddy DeFranco , Herb Geller , Charlie Ventura , Frank Rosolino / Charlie Mariano and Shorty Rogers / Bill Holman . He was also involved in an early recording of Ornette Coleman and Don Cherry .

In 1960 he moved to New York City , where he initially worked as a pianist and in 1961 recorded a trio album with Billy Bean and Hal Gaylor . From 1963 he was the pianist and then until 1970 the musical director of the New York Playboy Club . He then worked with various musicians and became a member of the Thad Jones - Mel Lewis Orchestra. In 1976 he worked in Scandinavia as a soloist and with Red Mitchell , with Dexter Gordon and with Zoot Sims. He then became a member of the Charles Mingus Band, before moving to Berlin in 1977 as a member of the SFB Big Band . Between 1984 and 1994 he worked as a visiting professor at the University of the Arts there . Above all, it was solo performances such as Live At Maybeck Recital Hall or recordings in small ensembles that were particularly convincing of the pianist's abilities: Norris recorded duos with Aladár Pege , George Mraz , Joe Henderson and Mike Richmond . The technically brilliant and stylistically independent pianist was a sought-after companion for more famous colleagues, but was never recognized by the general public.

Norris completed his autobiography In Search of Musical Aesthetics and a textbook Essentials for Pianist Improvisers in 2005 . Chuck Dodson made the documentary "The Life and Work of Walter Norris" (2004). He died on the night of October 28-29, 2011 in Berlin.

Discographic notes

• The Trio (1961)
• Drifting (Enja, 1978) with George Mraz and Aladar Pege
• Synchronicity (Enja, 1978) with Aladar Pege
• Stepping on Cracks (Progressive, 1978) with George Mraz and Ronnie Bedford
• Winter Rose (Enja, 1980) with Aladar Pege
• Lush Life ( Concord Jazz ) with Neil Swainson and Harold Jones
• Live at Maybeck Recital Hall, Vol. 4 (Concord, 1990)
• Sunburst (Concord, 1991) with Joe Henderson, Larry Grenadier , Mike Heyman
• Love Every Moment (Concord, 1992) with Putter Smith and Larance Marable
• Hues of Blues (Concord, 1995)
• From Another Star (Sunburst, 1998) with Mike Richmond
• Elements in Motion (Sunburst, 2009) with Putter Smith
• The Last Set - Live at the A-Trane (ACT, 2012) with Leszek Możdżer

literature

• Whitney Balliett: Herr Professor, in: The New Yorker , January 12, 1987, p. 88, revised in: American Musicians II: Seventy-One Portraits in Jazz , University Press of Mississippi of Michigan Press, 2006, pp. 449–454
• Franz Krieger : "I Got Rhythm"? Walter Norris and the art of irritating accentuation, in Jazzforschung / Jazz Research 31 (1999)

Web links

• Web presence of the pianist
• Walter Norris at Discogs (English)
• Walter Norris at Allmusic (English)

Individual proof

1. ↑ Obituary in Ottawa Citizen ( Memento of the original from April 25, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and not yet checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice.