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Walter Norris - a documentary

dodsonchuck@gmail.com (Chuck Dodson) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:48:29 -0700

Walter Norris - a documentary (DVD)

This is the authorized film biography of Walter Norris, a feature-length documentary movie, directed by Chuck Dodson.

You will see a rare and intimate behind-the-scenes view of the life of this great artist, as he performs, practices, teaches, and speaks in several private interviews about his life and work.

The movie includes interviews with members of the Norris family, friends, colleagues, and appearances by the late Whitney Balliett (The New Yorker), Ted Gioia (author of The History of Jazz and West Coast Jazz), and William Whitworth (Editor Emeritus, The Atlantic Monthly).

The movie was shot in Germany, Spain, Japan, Italy, and The United States.

This is a pre-order. The DVD will be released soon. Pre-orders will be shipped as soon as DVDs are available.

Walter Norris - a documentary
Total time: approx. 1 hr, 48min.
Langauge: English
format: DVD, NTSC

$4.00 automatically added at check-out for shipping & handling.

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Elements in Motion

dodsonchuck@gmail.com (Chuck Dodson) — Wed, 26 Aug 2009 14:41:37 -0700

Elements in Motion

Walter Norris, piano
Putter Smith, bass

Recorded July 11-14, 2006

This is the latest recording by Walter Norris, made in his living room in Berlin, Germany. Walter performs on his 1920 Wilhelm Menzel grand piano, the instrument he's used for his daily practice for many years. He's joined by bassist Putter Smith who has been his friend since the 1950s when they were both part of the West Coast Jazz scene. Walter told me he felt the music on this CD captured the true spirit of improvisation.

The recording was produced by Walter's friend, the guitarist Jean-francois Prins, who was joined in engineering by Volker Wendisch and Michael Scheunemann.

The cover features a recent painting of Walter by Berlin artist Sarah Haffner.

~Chuck

A limited number of CDs from the first pressing are still available.

Track list:

1.�� Touch Of Jade (Norris) 5:54
2.�� Twilight Til Dawn (Norris) 5:10
3.�� The Song Is You (Kern) 7:35
4.�� Hearts Without Malice (Norris) 7:45
5.�� Late Harvest (Norris) 7:00
6.�� The Best Thing For You (Berlin) 7:39
7.�� Tango Mio (Norris) 5:35
8.�� Reflective (Norris) 6:08
9.�� Percussive Fingers On Soundboard And Strings (Norris) 2:10
10. Elements In Motion (Norris) 5:08
11. Interludio (de la Luz) 3:23

Total time: 63:27

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Walter Norris "From Another Star"

dodsonchuck@gmail.com (Chuck Dodson) — Thu, 26 Mar 2009 08:57:05 -0700

From Another Star

"A brilliant pianist, a virtuoso..." ~Scott Yanow

Walter Norris (b. Dec 27, 1931) is one of the world's greatest improvising pianists. He has made an effort to merge jazz improvisation with the technical fluency, compositional methods and intense discipline of classical music. Walter is as often compared to classical artists (Ravel, Bartok, Rachmaninov, etc.) as he is to jazz artists (Art Tatum, Earl Hines, Bud Powell, etc.).

From Another Star is the last studio recording made by Walter Norris. When it was made, Norris was without the support of a record company and, as a result, only 1000 copies were manufactured. Those were distributed to friends and a few stores, mostly in Europe and in New York. For this reason, it has remained extremely rare.

Many believe this album to be Norris' masterwork. The late critic, Whitney Balliett (The New Yorker) said, after hearing it in October 2004, "In many ways, I think Walter may be unparalleled at this particular time. Well, for all time. I can't think of anybody in the past that does the things that he does.

The Gallery@404B is honored to offer this historic recording.

"Without any doubt, Walter Norris is one of the most important solo pianists in the second half of the twentieth century." ~Jorg Engels

This product available in MP3 format only. Full liner notes are included in PDF format. After purchase, you will be able to download from our website via secure server.

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