Jazz Articles about Norman Simmons

Carmen McRae: Carmen McRae: Live at Sugar Hill - San Francisco

by Samuel Chell
February 25, 2008

This overlooked on-location session from 1963 reveals, perhaps more than any other recording, why Carmen McRae at the time deserved to complete the dominating triumvirate in which Ella Fitzgerald's and Sarah Vaughan's places were always secure. In the 1970s the marketplace would often hamstring her choice of material and settings, and in the 1980s the years of smoking began to have a noticeable effect on the breath-stream that once sustained her enviable instrument. On this occasion, however, she retains the ...

Norman Simmons 2000-2004

by Jack Bowers
December 21, 2004

Norman Simmons The Art of Norman Simmons (2000) Synthesis (2002) In Private (2004) Savant Records

Better late than never. Listening to these impressive sessions by pianist Norman Simmons and his sundry companions, spanning the years 2000-2004, the thought occurs that it would be a shame if such talented musicians as he were never recorded at all. I'd not heard of Simmons but learned from perusing the liner notes that ...

Norman Simmons: The Art Of Norman Simmons

by David A. Orthmann
August 1, 2000

As the accompanist for singers Dakota Staton, Carmen McRae, and Joe Williams, as well as a member of bands led by Johnny Griffin, Roy Eldridge and others, pianist Norman Simmons has spent little of his fifty-plus years as a musician in the spotlight. On the appropriately titled The Art of Norman Simmons, he successfully strikes a balance between putting his own talents front and center and melding them with musicians he respects and admires. The members of his quintet share ...