Dance Without Answer

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.