CD of the Day - "Norma Winstone: Chamber Music"

CD of the Day
Norma Winstone, Glauco Venier & Klaus Gesing: "Chamber Music" (EmArcy Austria) 2003

Recorded in Italy in 2002, the first self-produced album by this European chamber-jazz acoustic trio sounds even more reflexive, introspective, somber and full of melancholy than the recent "Distances." The title track is built upon a James Joyce text published in 1908, mixed with the melody of Lowell Mason/Sarah Adams' "Nearer My God To Thee." Then comes the album highlight, Vince Mendonza's "Panis Angelicus." There's a re-construction of Tom Waits' "San Diego Serenade" (from Waits' 1978 LP "The Ghosts of Saturday Night"), and a Klaus Gesing tune, "Remember," based on a poem by Christina Rossetti (1830-1894).