No one with a background in jazz, who ever experienced a performance of the American Walter Norris, would doubt that he saw a true master of jazz piano. Walter Norris played with jazz greats such as Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, Jonny Griffin, Herb Geller, Charles Mingus, Ornette Coleman, and the Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra. With Coleman and Don Cherry, he played on the now legendary album Something Else!!! and in the early 70’s, he came to Europe and eventually moved to Berlin for a permanent engagement with the SFB Radio Orchestra. He later became a professor for jazz piano at the Berlin Music University “Hochschule der Künste” and continued working as a composer and musicologist. It was in Berlin where he first met Leszek Możdżer and the luminous star of Polish jazz piano recollects, “It was in the 80’s and I was still a teenager when I listened to the music of Walter Norris for the first time at a friend’s flat in Berlin. I was fascinated by the intensity and originality of Walter’s playing from the first moment on and ten years later he came to a concert of mine at the Berlin Polish Institute. We quickly got to know each other and I was deeply impressed by his personality, openness and helpfulness.” Możdżer then suggested Norris and him collaborate for a couple of concerts in Berlin and Poland. They developed a concept and rehearsed together and on November 2nd, 2008 they played live for the first time on two pianos at the Berlin jazz club ATrane, a place where Walter was a regular musical guest. “The concert became one of these rare, great experiences for everyone involved – full of true music, deep but making everyone smile with bliss at the same time.” Możdżer recalls. The concert remained their only collaboration: On the night of October 29, 2011, Walter Norris died in his home in Berlin at the age of 79. In the words of Leszek Możdżer himself, “Walter didn’t have a big career, he just played music. He was a true artist, though he often shone in the background, and it is about time someone drew attention to him.” The Last Set - Live at the A-Trane is the impressive and worthy legacy of a unique musician full of curiosity, versatility, persuasiveness, a strong attitude and technical brilliance. Der Pianist Walter Norris zählt zu den großen stillen Helden seines Fachs. Kein Jazzkundiger, der den gebürtigen US-Amerikaner je erlebt hat, würde bezweifeln, einem der Meister des Jazz-Pianos begegnet zu sein. Walter Norris spielte mit Größen wie Stan Getz, Dexter Gordon, dem Thad Jones / Mel Lewis Orchestra, Charles Mingus und Ornette Coleman. Vor seinem Tod am 28. Oktober 2011 spielte er mit dem polnischen Piano-Superstar Leszek Możdżer noch ein magisches Duo-Konzert an zwei Flügeln im Berliner Jazzclub A-Trane. Der bemerkenswerte Dialog zweier herausragender Pianisten wurde eines dieser seltenen, großartigen Erlebnisse für alle Beteiligten - voller wahrer Musik, tiefgehend und durchdrungen, zugleich allen ein Lächeln auf die Lippen zaubernd. Der Mitschnitt „The Last Set – Live at the A-Trane“ sollte zur letzten Aufnahme von Walter Norris werden. Die einzigartige Mischung aus Neugier, Vielseitigkeit, Überzeugungskraft, Haltung und technischer Brillanz Norris, dem „Art Tatum der Neunziger“ (LA Times), ist an nahezu jeder Stelle von "The Last Set" - Live at the A-Trane zu spüren. Ein Vermächtnis eines außergewöhnlichen Künstlers und Hommage an einen zu Unrecht Unbekannten.