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