Christopher Norton's Bright and Bluesy

THIS IBOOK CONTAINS COMPOSER PERFORMANCES IN VIDEO AND AUDIO!


Christopher Norton is well-known throughout the world for his compositions for piano, particularly the Microjazz series, published by Boosey & Hawkes, and Connections for Piano, published by 80 Days Publishing. His music is popular with piano students as well as professional performers, because he writes well for the piano, has a subtle blend of jazz, pop and classical influences and has a distinctive style of writing that appeals to a wide range of audiences. 

Bright and Bluesy is a collection of five intermediate solo piano pieces, written by Christopher Norton in 1976 (at the age of 23!) in New Zealand. They pre-date Microjazz by about 6 years, but they demonstrate the same easy mastery of a range of popular styles. 

Takin’ it in Stride is an easygoing blues piece that morphs momentarily into a ragtime piece. On the Other Hand is a cool, jazzy piece, with limpid phrases punctuated by brass-like stabs. 

Takin’ the Night Train to Town is a boogie, with lots of grace notes and pedal notes emulating a bluesy guitar style, with a hint of funk. 

Sliding Home makes a feature of chords sliding down a step, again in a guitar style. Very jazzy chords are a feature of the middle section. 

Show-off features walking tenths in the left hand and lots of delicious blues phrases in the right hand.

Christopher Norton 
Stratford, Canada June 2020