Azimuth was a British

jazz Jazz is a music genre that originated in the African-American communities of New Orleans, Louisiana in the late 19th and early 20th centuries, with its roots in blues and ragtime. Since the 1920s Jazz Age, it has been recognized as a major ...

trio, active from 1977 through the early 2000s. Azimuth began as a duo composed of vocalist

Norma Winstone Norma Ann Winstone MBE (born 23 September 1941) is an English jazz singer and lyricist. With a career spanning more than 50 years, she is best known for her wordless improvisations. Musicians with whom she has worked include Michael Garrick, ...

and her husband, pianist John Taylor. In the mid 1970s, Taylor contacted several record companies with the goal of recording a duo album, but during his appointment with

ECM Records ECM (Edition of Contemporary Music) is an independent record label founded by Karl Egger, Manfred Eicher and Manfred Scheffner in Munich in 1969. While ECM is best known for jazz music, the label has released a variety of recordings, and ECM's a ...

founder

Manfred Eicher Manfred Eicher (born 9 July 1943) is a German record producer and the founder of ECM Records. Life and career Eicher was born in Lindau, Germany. He studied music at the Academy of Music in Berlin. He started as a double-bass player of classic ...

, the latter suggested that they form a trio with trumpeter

Kenny Wheeler Kenneth Vincent John Wheeler, OC (14 January 1930 – 18 September 2014) was a Canadian composer and trumpet and flugelhorn player, based in the U.K. from the 1950s onwards. Most of his performances were rooted in jazz, but he was also active ...

, and Azimuth was born. The group's first release was a 1977 ECM album; two further albums quickly followed, with later albums coming in 1985 and 1995. Wheeler died in 2014, and Taylor died the following year. Critic

John Fordham John Fordham (died 1425) was Bishop of Durham and Bishop of Ely. Fordham was keeper of the privy seal of Prince Richard from 1376 to 1377 and Dean of Wells before being named Lord Privy Seal in June 1377. He held that office until December 1381. ...

wrote that the group conjured "a unique chemistry of low-key free improvisation, sometimes wordless vocals, jazz and classical music, and Taylor compositions that often sounded becalmed yet simmering with urgent implications." Richard Williams of ''

The Times ''The Times'' is a British daily national newspaper based in London. It began in 1785 under the title ''The Daily Universal Register'', adopting its current name on 1 January 1788. ''The Times'' and its sister paper ''The Sunday Times'' (fou ...

'' described them as "one of the most imaginatively conceived and delicately balanced of all contemporary chamber jazz groups."

Discography

*''

Azimuth An azimuth (; from ar, اَلسُّمُوت, as-sumūt, the directions) is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system. More specifically, it is the horizontal angle from a cardinal direction, most commonly north. Mathematicall ...

'' ( ECM, 1977) *''

The Touchstone The Touchstone is a novella by American writer Edith Wharton. Written in 1900, it was the first of her many stories describing life in old New York. Stephen Glennard, the novella's protagonist, is suddenly impoverished and unable to marry the ...

'' (ECM, 1979) *'' Départ'' (with

Ralph Towner Ralph Towner (born March 1, 1940) is an American multi-instrumentalist, composer, arranger and bandleader. He plays the twelve-string guitar, classical guitar, piano, synthesizer, percussion, trumpet and French horn. Biography Towner was born i ...

) (ECM, 1980) (above three titles reissued as a 3 CD-set in 1994) *'' Azimuth '85'' (ECM, 1985) *'' How It Was Then... Never Again'' (ECM, 1995)

References

;Citations ;General references *

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

{{DEFAULTSORT:Azimuth ECM Records artists British jazz ensembles Musical groups established in 1977 Musical groups disestablished in 2000