Sweet & Slow - Chris Norris

Sweet and Slow - Chris Norris and Dick Shooshan 1986
(Courtesy of Richard Roy Miller, Bill Knowles and Wally Holmes from Present Past Productions)

It was always a special occasion to see and hear California’s Golden Eagle Jazz Band at the many jazz festivals I have been able to perform as well. We always tried to sit front row to catch them and especially their singer Chris Norris. When I had the opportunity to post some of her performances on youtube, I asked leader/pianist Dick Shooshan to write a about Chris

“Chris Norris was a very special lady.   She was a fine singer, a wife and mother, and a full professor of English Literature at the University of California at San Diego. She was trained as a coloratura soprano, but when she heard the recordings of Ma Rainey and Bessie Smith she fell in love with the blues idiom.
 
She joined the Golden Eagle Jazz Band in 1982.   From the start she was a wonderful addition to The Eagles, one whom everyone loved, musicians and fans alike. She had wonderful vocal control, exceptional pitch and really studied her music. In addition to tunes by Ma Rainey and  Bessie Smith,  she also admired the works of Billie Holiday and the lesser known Jane Green.
 
Working and traveling with Chris was always a pleasure.  She always fit right in – whatever the venue or mix of musicians with whom she worked.  At the Santa Rosa Jazz festival in 1995 she presented a special program on Ma Rainey, which brought down the house.  Her untimely passing in 1998 was personally devastating to us and to everyone who knew her."