Kevin Norton


Kevin Norton is an American percussionist and composer active in the New York City jazz and contemporary music scenes. He has performed and recorded with a diverse group of musicians, including Anthony Braxton, Paul Dunmall, Milt Hinton, Fred Frith, David Krakauer, Joëlle Léandre, Frode Gjerstad, Wilber Morris, 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. 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, Norton grew up in Staten Island and later studied composition at CUNY's Hunter College, where he began his association with bassist Milt Hinton. 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 and earned his Master's degree in classical percussion. After school he began getting involved with the "downtown New York City" scene, and began working with Fred Frith's experimental rock band Keep the Dog. Some other collaborators during this period include Phillip Johnston and Joel Forrester. Beginning in 1998, Norton is currently teaching at William Paterson University.
He began the Barking Hoop label in 1999 with a live concert recording of a piece he composed for the French situationist theorist Guy Debord, "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, Dave Ballou, John Lindberg, Scott Robinson, Connie Crothers, and J. D. Parran.

Discography

As leader

  • Framework with Laura Seaton, Erik Friedlander
  • Ankle to Nose
  • Integrated Variables
  • Knots
  • For Guy Debord with Anthony Braxton
  • In Context/Out of Context
  • Change Dance Troubled Energy
  • Iron Monkey Trio
  • Play the Music of Anthony Braxton
  • Rylickolum: for Your Pleasure with Paul Dunmall & Paul Rogers
  • Intuitive Structures
  • Not Only in That Golden Tree...
  • The Dream Catcher
  • Ocean of Earth with Joelle Leandre
  • No Definitive with Frode Gjerstad
  • Time-Space Modulator
  • Go Forth Duck with Paul Dunmall & Paul Rogers
  • Quark Bercuse Solo Percussion Vol I
  • The Bright Lights the Big Day with Paul Rogers
  • The Walk with Frode Gjerstad
  • Winter in New York 2006 with Joelle Leandre
  • Antioch with Frode Gjerstad
  • Zinc Nine Psychedelic with Dave Ballou
  • Tipples with Frode Gjerstad
  • Live Tipple with Frode Gjerstad

    As sideman

With Anthony Braxton
  • Small Ensemble Music 1994
  • Four Compositions 1995
  • Sextet 1996
  • Tentet 1996
  • Octet 1995
  • Ensemble 1995
  • Trillium R
  • Ten Compositions 2000
  • Nine Compositions 2000
  • 8 Standards 2001
  • Ninetet 1997 Vol. 1
  • Ninetet 1997 Vol. 2
  • 23 Standards 2003
  • Ninetet 1997 Vol. 3
  • 20 Standards 2003
  • Ninetet 1997 Vol. 4
  • 19 Standards 2003
  • Composition, Improvisation, Synthesis
  • Tentet 2001
With Phillip Johnston
  • Phillip Johnston's Big Trouble
  • The Unknown
  • Flood at the Ant Farm
  • Music for Films
With David Krakauer
With others