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All Music Guide:
Norma Winstone has a lissome voice, agile and expressive, and she's a fine improviser, besides. That's not to say she's a vocal athlete, however; although she's known for her wordless improvisations, Winstone is a fine interpreter of lyrics and composed melody -- a plain-speaking, rhythmically direct singer who gets to the heart of the matter quickly and effectively.
Winstone played piano and organ in her youth. She began singing semi-professionally by the age of 17, influenced by conventional jazz vocalists. During the '60s she became attracted to the jazz avant-garde. She played in groups led by pianists Michael Garrick and Mike Westbrook; she also sang with such forward-thinking musicians as saxophonist John Surman, flügelhornist Kenny Wheeler, composer Michael Gibbs, and pianist John Taylor (whom she married in 1972). A late-'60s gig at Ronnie Scott's club in London (also on the bill was the legendary tenor saxophonist Roland Kirk) garnered her critical notice. In 1971 she was named best jazz singer in a poll by the British publication Melody Maker. That year, she recorded her first album as leader, Edge of Time, for the Decca label. With Wheeler and Taylor, Winstone formed Azimuth, a critically acclaimed contemporary chamber jazz group that recorded several times for the ECM label starting in the mid-'70s. Winstone is also an accomplished lyricist, having written words to music composed by guitarists Egberto Gismonti and Ralph Towner, bassist Steve Swallow, and vocalist Ivan Lins, among others.
Winstone has also performed and/or recorded in ensembles with Jimmy Rowles, Lee Konitz, Tony Coe, Fred Hersch, John Abercrombie, Dave Holland, Peter Erskine, and George Mraz. In 1992 she collaborated with composer/arranger Steve Gray in the creation of "A French Folk Song Suite," commissioned and performed by the North German Radio big band. She is also a member of Wheeler's big band. In July 2002 she was awarded the title Best Vocalist at the BBC Jazz Awards at London's Queen Elizabeth Hall.
Wikipedia:
An azimuth (pronounced /ˈæzɪməθ/ ( listen)) (from Arabic السمت as‑samt, meaning "a way, a part, or quarter") is an angular measurement in a spherical coordinate system that is calculated by perpendicularly projecting the vector from an observer (origin) to a point of interest onto a reference plane and measuring the angle between it and a reference vector on the reference plane.
An example of an azimuth is the measurement of the position of a star in the sky. The star is the point of interest, the reference plane is the horizon or the surface of the sea, and the reference vector points to the north. The azimuth is between the north point and the perpendicular projection of the star down onto the horizon.
Azimuth is usually measured in degrees (°). The concept is used in many practical applications including navigation, astronomy, engineering, mapping, mining and artillery.
In land navigation, azimuth is usually denoted as alpha, , and defined as a horizontal angle measured clockwise from a north base line or meridian. Azimuth has also been more generally defined as a horizontal angle measured clockwise from any fixed reference plane or easily established base direction line.
Today, the reference plane for an azimuth in a general navigational context is typically true north, measured as a 0° azimuth, though other angular units (grad, mil) can also be employed. In any event, the azimuth cannot exceed the highest number of units in a circle – for a 360° circle, this is 359 degrees, 59 arcminutes, 59 arcseconds (359° 59' 59").
For example, moving clockwise on a 360° degree circle, a point due east would have an azimuth of 90°, south 180°, and west 270°. However, there are exceptions: some navigation systems use geographic south as the reference plane. Any direction can potentially serve as the plane of reference, as long as it is clearly defined for everyone using that system.
True north-based azimuths
Calculating Azimuth
We are standing at latitude , longitude zero; we want to find the azimuth from our viewpoint to Point 2 at latitude , longitude L (positive eastward). We can get a fair approximation by assuming the Earth is a sphere, in which case the azimuth is given by
A better approximation assumes the Earth is a slightly-squashed sphere (a spheroid); "azimuth" then has at least two very slightly different meanings. "Normal-section azimuth" is the angle measured at our viewpoint by a theodolite whose axis is perpendicular to the surface of the spheroid; "geodetic azimuth" is the angle between north and the geodesic-- that is, the shortest path on the surface of the spheroid from our viewpoint to Point 2. The difference is usually unmeasurably small; if Point 2 is not more than 100 km away the difference will not exceed 0.03 arc second.
Various websites will calculate geodetic azimuth—e.g. the NGS site. (That site is simpler than it looks at first glance; its default is the GRS80/WGS84 spheroid, which is what most people want.) Formulas for calculating geodetic azimuth are linked in the distance article.
Normal-section azimuth is simpler to calculate; Bomford says Cunningham's formula is exact for any distance. If is the reciprocal of the flattening for the chosen spheroid (e.g. 298.257223563 for WGS84) then
If = 0 then
Mapping
There are a wide variety of azimuthal map projections. They all have the property that directions (the azimuths) from a central point are preserved. Some navigation systems use south as the reference plane. However, any direction can serve as the plane of reference, as long as it is clearly defined for everyone using that system.
Astronomy
Used in celestial navigation, an azimuth is the direction of a celestial body from the observer. In astronomy, an azimuth is sometimes referred to as a bearing. In modern astronomy azimuth is nearly always measured from the north. In former times, it was common to refer to azimuth from the south, as it was then zero at the same time that the hour angle of a star was zero. This assumes, however, that the star (upper) culminates in the south, which is only true for most stars in the Northern Hemisphere.
Other systems
Right Ascension
If instead of measuring from and along the horizon the angles are measured from and along the celestial equator, the angles are called right ascension if referenced to the Vernal Equinox, or hour angle if referenced to the celestial meridian.
Horizontal coordinate
In the horizontal coordinate system, used in celestial navigation and satellite dish installation, azimuth is one of the two coordinates. The other is altitude, sometimes called elevation above the horizon. See also satellite finder.
Polar coordinate
In mathematics the azimuth angle of a point in cylindrical coordinates or spherical coordinates is the anticlockwise angle between the positive x-axis and the projection of the vector onto the xy-plane. The angle is the same was as the angle in polar coordinates of the component of the vector in the xy-plane and is normally measured in radians rather than degrees. As well as measuring the angle differently, in mathematical applications theta, , is very often used to represent the azimuth rather than the symbol phi .
Other uses of the term
The term azimuth is also used in context with military artillery coordination. In artillery laying, an azimuth is defined as the direction of fire.
An azimuth in aerial navigation is defined as the direction of flight, as taken from the location of the aircraft.
In mining operations, an azimuth or meridian angle is any angle measured clockwise from any meridian or horizontal plane of reference.
In surveying, an azimuth is the angle of a line as measured from north.
For magnetic tape drives, azimuth refers to the angle between the tape head(s) and tape.
In sound localization experiments and literature, the azimuth refers to the angle the sound source makes compared to the imaginary straight line that is drawn from within the head through the area between the eyes.
An azimuth thruster in shipbuilding is a propeller that can be rotated horizontally.
