10 Facts About Norma Winstone

Norma Ann Winstone MBE was born on 23 September 1941 and is an English jazz singer and lyricist.

Norma Winstone knew Margaret Busby who was in a publishing company called Alison and Busby.

Norma Winstone first attracted attention when in the late 1960s she appeared at Ronnie Scott's Jazz Club sharing the bill with Roland Kirk.

Norma Winstone's first recording came the following year, with Joe Harriott and Amancio D'Silva, on Hum-Dono.

Norma Winstone contributed vocals to Ian Carr's Nucleus on that band's 1973 release Labyrinth, a jazz-rock concept album based on the Greek myth about the Minotaur.

Norma Winstone has worked with many major European musicians and visiting Americans, as well as with most of her peers in British jazz, including Garrick, John Surman, Michael Gibbs, Mike Westbrook and her former husband, the pianist John Taylor.

On Well Kept Secret Norma Winstone sang lyrics she had written to Rowles' composition "The Peacocks", which she had heard on the Bill Evans album You Must Believe in Spring.

In 2001, Norma Winstone was honoured as "Best Vocalist" in the BBC Jazz Awards, being nominated in 2007 and 2008.

In February 2018, Norma Winstone released Descansado: Songs for Films, a collection that AllMusic described as "an unusual and provocative album".

In 1972, Norma Winstone married pianist John Taylor, whom she had met in 1966; they divorced after some years, although they later continued their musical partnership.