| Biography | Norman Burns (11 March 1920, London, England - June 1994, Australia) was an English jazz drummer and bandleader.
Burns began playing drums as a child and while still a teenager worked as a professional musician on P&O ocean-going liners. In the late 30s and early 40s he was active in dance band circles in London, playing with many leading bands including those of Lew Stone, Ambrose, Frank Weir, Ted Heath and Geraldo. He also played with George Shearing and with Tito Burns (no relation).
The drummer was one of the coterie of London-based jazzmen who dedicated themselves to the new music of the 40s, bop, and was a member of an all-star bebop band formed in 1948. In the early 50s Burns formed a quintet which he modelled upon the currently popular group being led in the USA by his former leader, Shearing. The vibraphone player in this group of Burns was Victor Feldman. Burns eventually left music and emigrated to Australia where he remained for the rest of his life. A skilled dance band drummer, Burns questing nature and his feeling for bop helped to make him one of the most important if unacclaimed figures in British drumming of the 30s and 40s. |