GLASTONBURY – Local musician James Norkawich started playing the piano at the age of 3 and has since had a long journey to improve his musicality, leading to new projects of honoring the past while looking to the future music.
Originally from Bridgeport, Norkawich says he had an ideal childhood.
“The music was playing all over the house,” he said. “My grandfather lived a few houses down. He had 13 organs in his house. He was an aficionado. Very young, I was exposed to the organ, then to the piano, then to the organ again.
Norkawich started taking piano lessons when she was 5 years old.
“She was a tough old lady,” he said of his piano teacher.
Music has become an integral part of Norkawich’s life, he said, from the standards his grandparents listened to to contemporary pop hits from his childhood by Earth, Wind and Fire, Tower of Power, Michael Jackson and others.
“We really had the best music,” he said. “I’m very lucky in the fact that music, whether through radio, putting out vinyl, cassettes, it was an essential part of my growth. It was second nature. If you don’t have music, there’s something wrong.
After a few starts and stops studying piano, he said it was in his sophomore year of high school that he found purpose in playing the piano when he joined a music program at the University of Bridgeport. .
“It was part of your day in high school,” he said. “It was one of those things you had to audition for. It was a labor-intensive business, and you got college credits on top of that. Those teachers… that I studied with, they were amazing. Without them, I wouldn’t be where I am today. »
After high school, Norkawich continued her studies at the University of Bridgeport, earning a Bachelor of Arts in Film Music and Jazz Studies, and later earning a Master of Fine Arts in Jazz Studies.
After graduating from college, he said, he moved to Manhattan where he worked as a radio DJ for various stations for about five years, including at WQHT-FM97 (Hot 97), WHTZ-FM100.3 ( Z100) and CD-FM101. .9.
While in New York, Norkawich began doing studio sessions at Carriage House Studios in Stamford and playing throughout the area.
“I was in a few alliances,” he said, “I was playing with a lot of local bands that were decent at the time. It was your usual Connecticut bands. After I graduated, I got a call from my teacher telling me that Spirogyra (a British folk rock/progressive band) had a gig open so I did a whole North East tour with them, these guys were next level.
He said he returned to Connecticut in 2000, commuting and working at radio stations, while performing concerts in Connecticut and New York. But he grew tired of commutes and 14-hour workdays, so he quit DJ gigs in 2002.
In 2018 he started to write more intensely.
“Last year I put together an album,” he said. “They were songs from the Great American Songbook. This album is called “Yesterday”. The photo on the album is my grandfather, my father’s father, in his First World War uniform. There’s a lot of history, a lot of meaning behind these songs. It mixed the whole family into this album.
When Russia invaded Ukraine on February 24, he created a video, tagging footage from Leonard Cohen’s “Hallelujah.”
“I put it on Twitter,” he said. “A Welsh soprano saw it. She sent me a DM (direct message) and was like, “This is amazing.”
The singer was classic crossover artist Ellen Williams.
“We had a quick chat on Zoom,” he said, and “12 hours later she put her personal stamp on it. Her voice layered it perfectly.
This collaboration led them to use the song to raise funds for World Central Kitchen, which provides meals and humanitarian aid to Ukrainians.
“Here is a tragedy,” he said, “but we hope to make a difference.”
When Uvalde’s mass shooting took place in Texas on May 24, he created a new project, this time with classic crossover tenor Tyrone Piper, with an arrangement of Queen’s “Who Wants to Live Forever.”
“He did the recording,” he said. “He asked this question, who wants to live forever? Do we want to live forever in this kind of environment if we can’t change things? What can we do to change things? »
The classic crossover theme has become Norkawich’s current niche, fusing classic style with pop songs.
“It adds something different,” he said.
His latest release is a tribute to Bobby Rydell.
“I met him, Fankie Avalon and Fabian in 2009,” he said. “Bobby was the most real.”
After Rydell’s death last April, he decided to make a tribute song to Rydell, recording a jazz arrangement of his song “Volare”, infusing it with clips of Rydell and Dick Clark.
His current project is a gospel/classical fusion album, featuring former “The Voice” contestant Michelle Brooks-Thompson and jazz singer Aggeliki Psoni.
He is also working on a follow-up to “Yesterday” called “Today”.
“These are all songs from the Unspoken American Songbook,” he said. “Songs from 1950 to today. Songs that have become staples of different musical genres, from Stevie Wonder to Journey, but this is a piano rendition with original material.
