Kevin Norton (born January 21, 1956) is an American percussionist and composer active in the

New York City New York, often called New York City (NYC), is the most populous city in the United States, located at the southern tip of New York State on one of the world's largest natural harbors. The city comprises five boroughs, each coextensive w ...

jazz and contemporary music scenes. He has performed and recorded with a diverse group of musicians, including

Anthony Braxton Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American experimental composer, educator, music theorist, improviser and multi-instrumentalist who is best known for playing saxophones, particularly the alto. Braxton grew up on the South Side of Chi ...

Paul Dunmall Paul Dunmall (born 6 May 1953) is a British jazz musician who plays tenor and soprano saxophone, as well as the baritone and the more exotic saxello and the Northumbrian smallpipes. He has played with Keith Tippett and Barry Guy. In the earl ...

Milt Hinton Milton John Hinton (June 23, 1910 – December 19, 2000) was an American double bassist and photographer. Regarded as the Dean of American jazz bass players, his nicknames included "Sporty" from his years in Chicago, "Fump" from his time on the ...

Fred Frith Jeremy Webster "Fred" Frith (born 17 February 1949) is an English multi-instrumentalist, composer, and improviser. Probably best known for his guitar work, Frith first came to attention as a founding member of the English avant-rock group Henry ...

, David Krakauer,

Joëlle Léandre Joëlle Léandre (born 12 September 1951) is a French double bassist, vocalist, and composer active in new music and free improvisation. In the field of contemporary music, she has performed with Pierre Boulez's Ensemble InterContemporain, and ...

, Frode Gjerstad,

Wilber Morris Wilber Morris (November 27, 1937 - August 8, 2002) was an American jazz double bass player and bandleader. He was the brother of the cornetist, composer, and conductor Butch Morris.

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All-Music Guide and AMG) is an American online database, online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on Musical artist, musicians and Mus ...

Wilber Morris recorded widely, and performed with su ...

, James Emery, Bern Nix, and many others. In 1999, he founded Barking Hoop Recordings, a record label dedicated to releasing new and original music. Kevin Norton has also spent summers at camp Encore/Coda in Maine teaching music theory classes and private percussion classes.barking hoop
at Kevin Norton website. The label has released 11 CDs to date, which feature Norton's own groups as well as artists such as Anthony Braxton, Kevin O'Neil, Billy Stein, and the String Trio of New York.

Education and career

Born in

Brooklyn, NY Brooklyn is a Boroughs of New York City, borough of New York City located at the westernmost end of Long Island in the New York (state), State of New York. Formerly an independent city, the borough is coextensive with Kings County, one of twelv ...

, Norton grew up in

Staten Island Staten Island ( ) is the southernmost of the boroughs of New York City, five boroughs of New York City, coextensive with Richmond County and situated at the southernmost point of New York (state), New York. The borough is separated from the ad ...

and later studied composition at

CUNY The City University of New York (CUNY, pronounced , ) is the Public university, public university system of Education in New York City, New York City. It is the largest urban university system in the United States, comprising 25 campuses: eleven ...

Hunter College Hunter College is a public university in New York City, United States. It is one of the constituent colleges of the City University of New York and offers studies in more than one hundred undergraduate and postgraduate fields across five schools ...

, where he began his association with bassist

. Norton would later record the album ''The Judge's Decision'' with Hinton in 1986. Upon graduation from Hunter College, he attended the

Manhattan School of Music The Manhattan School of Music (MSM) is a private music conservatory A music school is an educational institution specialized in the study, training, and research of music. Such an institution can also be known as a school of music, music a ...

and earned his Master's degree in classical percussion.Aaron Steinberg
"/kevin Norton"
, ''JazzTimes'', November 2002. After school he began getting involved with the "downtown New York City" scene, and began working with

's experimental rock band

Keep the Dog Keep the Dog was an American-based experimental rock touring band from New York City formed in 1989 by English multi-instrumentalist, composer and improvisation, improvisor Fred Frith. The sextet was conceived as a review band for performing sel ...

(which also featured saxophonist

John Zorn John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer, conducting, conductor, saxophonist, arrangement, arranger and record producer, producer who "deliberately resists category". His Avant-garde music, avant-garde and experimental music, ex ...

and harpist

Zeena Parkins Zeena Parkins (born 1956) is an American composer and multi-instrumentalist active in experimental, free improvised, contemporary classical, and avant-jazz music; she is known for having "reinvented the harp". Parkins performs on standard har ...

). Some other collaborators during this period include Phillip Johnston and Joel Forrester. Beginning in 1998, Norton is currently teaching at

William Paterson University William Paterson University, known as WP, officially William Paterson University of New Jersey (WPUNJ), is a public university in Wayne, New Jersey, United States. It is part of New Jersey's public system of higher education. Founded in 1855 an ...

. He began the Barking Hoop label in 1999 with a live concert recording of a piece he composed for the French

situationist The Situationist International (SI) was an international organization of social revolutionaries made up of avant-garde artists, intellectuals, and political theorists. It was prominent in Europe from its formation in 1957 to its dissolution ...

theorist

Guy Debord Guy-Ernest Debord (; ; 28 December 1931 – 30 November 1994) was a French Marxist theorist, philosopher, filmmaker, critic of work, member of the Letterist International, founder of a Letterist faction, and founding member of the Situat ...

, "with Braxton cast as sideman. 'I taped the concert, not thinking I was going to put it out,' Norton says. 'But I was so happy with the results that I thought, well, this should come out.'" More recently, Norton has been working in various configurations with musicians

Tony Malaby Tony Malaby (born January 12, 1964) is an American jazz tenor saxophonist. Malaby was born in Tucson, Arizona. He moved to New York City in 1995 and played with several notable jazz groups, including Charlie Haden’s Liberation Music Orchestra, ...

, Dave Ballou, John Lindberg, Scott Robinson,

Connie Crothers Connie Crothers (May 2, 1941 – August 13, 2016) was an American jazz improviser and pianist. Early life Crothers began studying classical piano at age 9 and went on to major in composition at the University of California, Berkeley. At Berkele ...

, and J. D. Parran.

Discography

As leader

* ''Framework'' with Laura Seaton, Erik Friedlander (Newport Classic, 1991) * ''Ankle to Nose'' (Amf music, 1994) * ''Integrated Variables'' (CIMP, 1996) * ''Knots'' (Music & Arts, 1998) * ''For Guy Debord (in Nine Events)'' with Anthony Braxton (Barking Hoop, 1999) * ''In Context/Out of Context'' (Barking Hoop, 2000) * ''Change Dance Troubled Energy'' (Barking Hoop, 2001) * ''Iron Monkey Trio'' (CIMP, 2001) * ''Play the Music of Anthony Braxton'' (Barking Hoop, 2001) * ''Rylickolum: for Your Pleasure'' with

& Paul Rogers (CIMP, 2003) * ''Intuitive Structures'' (Cadence, 2003) * ''Not Only in That Golden Tree...'' (Clean Feed, 2003) * ''The Dream Catcher (for Wilber Morris)'' (CIMP, 2003) * ''Ocean of Earth'' with Joelle Leandre (Barking Hoop, 2003) * ''No Definitive'' with Frode Gjerstad (FMR, 2004) * ''Time-Space Modulator'' (Barking Hoop, 2004) * ''Go Forth Duck'' with Paul Dunmall & Paul Rogers (CIMP, 2004) * ''Quark Bercuse Solo Percussion Vol I'' (FMR, 2005) * ''The Bright Lights the Big Day'' with Paul Rogers (FMR, 2005) * ''The Walk'' with Frode Gjerstad (FMR, 2006) * ''Winter in New York 2006'' with

Joelle Leandre Joelle is a feminine given name, and may refer to: * Joelle (actor), Joelle, English-Austrian actress and singer * Joelle Behlok, Lebanese television presenter and winner Miss Lebanon 1997 * Joelle Carter (born 1972), American actress * Joelle Fishm ...

(Leo, 2007) * ''Antioch'' with Frode Gjerstad ( Ayler, 2008) * ''Zinc Nine Psychedelic'' with Dave Ballou (Punos Music, 2009) * ''Tipples'' with Frode Gjerstad (FMR, 2011) * ''Live Tipple'' with Frode Gjerstad (FMR, 2013)

As sideman

With

* '' Small Ensemble Music (Wesleyan) 1994'' (Splasc(H), 1999) * ''

Four Compositions (Quartet) 1995 ''Four Compositions (Quartet) 1995'' is a live album by composer and saxophonist Anthony Braxton with a quartet, recorded at Wesleyan University in 1995 and released on the Braxton House label.

'' (Braxton House, 1997) * '' Sextet (Istanbul) 1996'' (Braxton House 1996) * '' Tentet (New York) 1996'' (Braxton House, 1996) * '' Octet (New York) 1995'' (Braxton House, 1997) * '' Ensemble (New York) 1995'' (Braxton House, 1997) * ''Trillium R'' (Braxton House 1999) * ''Ten Compositions (Quartet) 2000'' (CIMP, 2000) * ''Nine Compositions (Hill) 2000'' (CIMP, 2001) * ''8 Standards (Wesleyan) 2001'' (Barking Hoop, 2002) * '' Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 Vol. 1'' (Leo, 2002) * '' Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 Vol. 2'' (Leo, 2003) * '' 23 Standards (Quartet) 2003'' (Leo, 2004) * '' Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 Vol. 3'' (Leo, 2005) * '' 20 Standards (Quartet) 2003'' (Leo, 2005) * '' Ninetet (Yoshi's) 1997 Vol. 4'' (Leo, 2007) * '' 19 Standards (Quartet) 2003'' (Leo, 2010) * ''Composition, Improvisation, Synthesis'' (New Braxton House, 2011) * ''Tentet (Paris) 2001'' (New Braxton House, 2013) With Phillip Johnston * ''Phillip Johnston's Big Trouble'' (Black Saint, 1993) * ''The Unknown'' (Avant, 1994) * ''Flood at the Ant Farm'' (Black Saint, 1995) * ''Music for Films'' (Tzadik, 1998) With David Krakauer * ''Klezmer, NY'' (Tzadik, 1998) * ''A New Hot One'' (Label Bleu, 2000) * ''The Twelve Tribes'' (Label Bleu, 2002) With others * Dave Ballou, ''Dancing Foot'' (SteepleChase, 2004) *

Anthony Coleman Anthony Coleman (born August 30, 1955) is an American composer and avant-garde jazz pianist. During the 1980s and 1990s he worked with John Zorn on ''Cobra'', ''Kristallnacht'', ''The Big Gundown'', ''Archery'', and '' Spillane'' and helped push ...

, '' Pushy Blueness'' (Tzadik, 2006) * Anthony Coleman, '' Lapidation'' (New World, 2008) *

, ''Ancient and Future Airs'' (Clean Feed, 2009) * James Emery, ''Spectral Domains'' (Enja, 1998) * James Emery, ''Luminous Cycles'' (Between the Lines, 2000) *

Joe Fonda Joe Fonda (born December 16, 1954) is an American 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. Its roots are in blues, ragtime, Eu ...

, ''Full Circle Suite'' (CIMP, 1999) *

, '' Step Across the Border'' (RecRec Music, 1990) *

, ''The Judge's Decision'' (Exposure, 1984) *

, ''Live at the Ulrichsberger Kaleidophon'' (Leo, 2011) * Steve Lehman, ''Structural Fire'' (CIMP, 2001) * Steve Lehman, ' (CIMP, 2002) * John Lindberg, '' Live at Roulette, NYC'' (Jazzwerkstatt, 2011) * John Lindberg, ''Born in an Urban Ruin'' (Clean Feed, 2016) * Frank London, ''The Debt'' (Tzadik, 1997) * Denman Maroney, ''Fluxations'' (New World, 2003) * Bill Mobley, ''Hittin' Home'' (Space Time, 2016) * J. D. Parran, ''Omegathorp: Living City'' (Y'All of New York, 2005) *

Sonny Simmons Huey "Sonny" Simmons (August 4, 1933 – April 6, 2021) was an American jazz musician. Biography Simmons was born on August 4, 1933, in Sicily Island, Louisiana. He grew up in Oakland, California, where he began playing the English horn. (Along ...

, ''Universal Prayer/Survival Skills'' (Parallactic, 1999) * Soldier String Quartet, ''Sojourner Truth'' (Newport Classic, 1991) * Steve Swell, '' This Now!'' (Cadence, 2003) * Steve Swell, ''Suite for Players, Listeners and Other Dreamers'' (CIMP, 2003) *

, ''

Nosferatu ''Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror'' () is a 1922 silent film, silent German Expressionism (cinema), German Expressionist vampire film directed by F. W. Murnau from a screenplay by Henrik Galeen. It stars Max Schreck as Count Orlok, a vampire who ...

'' (Tzadik, 2012)

References

External links

*
Barking Hoop Recordings''All About Jazz'' interview
{{DEFAULTSORT:Norton, Kevin American jazz composers American male jazz composers American jazz drummers American jazz vibraphonists 1956 births Living people CIMP artists Hunter College alumni Musicians from Staten Island American percussionists 20th-century American drummers American male drummers Jazz musicians from New York (state) 20th-century American male musicians Clean Feed Records artists FMR Records artists Drummers from New York City