Norma Winstone

Descansado: Songs For Films finds the English singer and lyricist Norma Winstone turning to cinema with her long-standing trio partners Klaus Gesing and Glauco Venier. The twelve tracks rework themes by Nino Rota, Michel Legrand, Ennio Morricone, Bernard Herrmann and others, written for films by Fellini, Godard, Wenders, Scorsese and Olivier. Winstone wrote new words for six of them, and the arrangements bring each melody from the big screen into a small, transparent chamber setting.

This is the trio's fourth album for ECM Records, after Distances, Stories Yet To Tell and Dance Without Answer. Gesing plays soprano saxophone and bass clarinet, Venier piano, and the two share the arrangements. Two guests widen the palette, the Norwegian improvising percussionist Helge Andreas Norbakken and the Italian classical cellist Mario Brunello. The album was recorded at ArteSuono Studio in Udine in March 2017, engineered by Stefano Amerio and produced by Manfred Eicher, who shares an arranging credit on Vivre Sa Vie.

The title track sets Winstone's lyric about enjoying life while one can to Armando Trovajoli's theme from Ieri, Oggi, Domani, in a lilting arrangement by Venier. Morricone's theme for Tornatore's Malena passes a soprano saxophone solo to the cello, while Winstone's words follow the solitude of its title character. Touch Her Soft Lips And Part, from Olivier's Henry V, opens with her voice alone before piano and cello enter. Legrand's Vivre Sa Vie, from Godard's film, was added during the sessions and returns at the end as a short piano solo.

The album is dedicated to the memory of John Taylor and Kenny Wheeler, Winstone's partners in the trio Azimuth, and the Walton piece was one Taylor used to play. In the Wall Street Journal Jim Fusilli called it "an album of subtle power and lingering splendor". Thom Jurek of AllMusic judged that "Winstone is at a career peak here". Jane Mann of London Jazz News found the arrangements often finer than the more overblown original soundtracks, and singled out the interplay of the trio. Other reviewers noted how the new lyrics condense the mood of each film rather than retell its plot.

This is the CD edition, ECM 2567, first released on 16 February 2018.