THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1994, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, December 24, 1994 TAG: 9412230103
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: STAFF AND WIRE REPORTS
LENGTH: Short : 29 lines
NOEL POINTER, a contemporary jazz violinist and composer who most recently appeared in Hampton Roads in August, died Tuesday in New York of a stroke. He was 40.
In addition to last summer's Town Point Jazz Festival in Norfolk, Pointer also played 1978's Hampton Jazz Festival. He canceled a 1985 Norfolk performance after suffering a cut hand and leg walking through a plate glass window at the Norfolk YMCA.
Pointer made his solo debut at age 13 with the Symphony of the New World Orchestra in New York.
He played with the Chicago Chamber Orchestra, Detroit Symphony, Apollo Theatre Orchestra, and with Radio City Music Hall and Broadway theater orchestras.
His albums included ``Phantazia,'' which went platinum, and ``All My Reasons'' and ``Direct Hit,'' which earned Grammy nominations. Downbeat magazine once described his technique as ``flawless . . . so pure and exact that it sounds closer to Paganini than rock or jazz.'' by CNB