Biography
Born on 26 June 1939 in San Francisco, California, Barbara Norris grew up in Marin County amid a Croatian household steeped in music. She completed her secondary education at Drake High School, where she performed regularly at student events throughout those years. Beginning at age twelve, she took the stage at shopping-centre openings across the San Francisco Bay Area alongside dixieland ensembles directed by Lee Crosby and Dick Stewart, and she frequently joined sets at Bop City, a prominent San Francisco jazz venue. Her first paid work came in Sausalito restaurants and clubs, followed by further engagements throughout San Francisco during the late 1950s and early 1960s, when she also served as secretary for the Kingston Trio.
Relocating to New York in the mid-1960s, she secured a Columbia Records contract through John Hammond Jnr. and subsequently headlined at the Plaza Hotel’s Persian Room as well as at Las Vegas’s Sands Hotel alongside the Buddy Rich band. Prestigious television appearances followed on programs presented by Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson and Mike Douglas, together with Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. Dissatisfied with the trajectory her career had taken, Norris experienced a resurgence of purpose after encountering pianist Larry Dunlap. Now based once more in the San Francisco area, she has performed widely there with Dunlap—her husband—appearing at local jazz festivals and at the Monterey Jazz Festival, while also completing acclaimed engagements in Japan. Additional collaborators have included Harry Allen, Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid and Ben Riley. Her rich, appealing voice is especially suited to ballads yet also supplies texture to the Latin-inflected repertoire she and Dunlap have made their specialty.
Relocating to New York in the mid-1960s, she secured a Columbia Records contract through John Hammond Jnr. and subsequently headlined at the Plaza Hotel’s Persian Room as well as at Las Vegas’s Sands Hotel alongside the Buddy Rich band. Prestigious television appearances followed on programs presented by Ed Sullivan, Johnny Carson and Mike Douglas, together with Dick Clark’s American Bandstand. Dissatisfied with the trajectory her career had taken, Norris experienced a resurgence of purpose after encountering pianist Larry Dunlap. Now based once more in the San Francisco area, she has performed widely there with Dunlap—her husband—appearing at local jazz festivals and at the Monterey Jazz Festival, while also completing acclaimed engagements in Japan. Additional collaborators have included Harry Allen, Kenny Barron, Rufus Reid and Ben Riley. Her rich, appealing voice is especially suited to ballads yet also supplies texture to the Latin-inflected repertoire she and Dunlap have made their specialty.
Albums
Live
