Norman’s voice reflects The Black Crowes’ Chris Robinson, and his honest, rock and soul music compliments his blue collar roots and disarming sense of humor. His band is a hand-picked all-star group of some of the finest players from the best groups in Chicago. His last album “Take it in Stride” was voted in the top two in Chicagoland (Tom Lounges, The Times) and his new album “Traveling Light” is set to hit the shelves on March 1st. S. Joel Norman began playing music at age four at the piano. “Mom probably got sick of me pounding on her antique piano as a toddler, so she put me in lessons,” he says. Hailing from the south suburbs of Chicago, Norman got his musical start playing and composing gospel music in the church. “Some of the guys who played there were also working musicians, and after playing a couple Sunday mornings with them they asked me to come play on Saturday nights with them. I was in junior high.” He went on to study at Wheaton Conservatory of Music, where he was the first to perform juries with a valve trombone, the first to perform an all-jazz recital, and the first to receive a bachelors degree in a new field of study he tailored. He also composed and arranged pieces for orchestra, chorus, and jazz ensemble as well as scores to many Arena Theater productions, including The Madwoman of Chaillot and A Midsummer Night’s Dream. He was most recently commissioned by Northern Illinois University to compose original songs for their Shakespeare production of A Winter’s Tale. He also has won multiple awards at the Elmhurst Jazz Festival, was a tenor in the Northwest Indiana Symphony, played Chicago’s largest independent music festival at the late Congress Theater, directed music at the largest RCA church in the world, and holds the all-time Wheaton College high score in the original Nintendo game Duck Hunt. S. Joel Norman has also played alongside jazz greats Ira Sullivan and Mark Colby, as well as rock and roll heroes Billy Ozzello (Survivor) and Chip Znuff (Enuff Znuff), and even went on the road playing keyboards with Eddie Money. He has played all over North America, Europe, Japan, and New Zealand.