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To describe music that is as imaginative, dazzlingly orchestrated, contoversial and major as is Westbook's simply as "jazz" is cruelly misleading. Dixieland buffs might might reject it. But for lovers of, say, Kenton or Gil Evans, the step beyond is easier. And treasure awaits. Apart from encompassing almost every popular music idiom (except easy pop and country), and containing ample space for improvisation, (The Cortege) features two voices - Kate Westbrook and Phil Minton - singing or decaliming in several languages. The words are by Lorca, Rimbaud, Blake and others; the themes dark, doomful, deathly.
Yet is isn't particularly pretentious; nor is the music mostly melancholy. Beautiful elegiac passages there are, certainly; think of Kenton's sax section at its soulfullly richest. But there are also spirited, surging ensembles of which Ellington or Herman would be proud. I mentioned Kenton and Gil Evans because they seem the nearest parallels (perhaps influences) of Westbrook. At times, however, he outstrips them. Evans I remembered in the military snare-drum backings of Westbrook's movements "Democratie" and "Cordoba" (so like the Evans/Miles Davis "Spanish Sketches"), and kenton even more often - the reed section in "July '79" the flashing brass of "Lenador" and "Graffitti".
To this, though, Westbrook adds more modern magic. There's a gorgeous guitar rock ballad, yearning bass guitar passages, scoring for instrument groupings like bassoon, cello and clarinet. The cello is almost Westbrook's most important instrument, always there to lead off movements and inject unique texture to ensembles.
The virtuosity of all these young multi-instrumentalists - especially Chris Biscoe on alto, soprano and baritone saxes, flute and clarinet - is staggering. You'll hear no more stirring a version of "Jerusalem" than the one featuring Minton's lusty voice. Westbrook may never get the audience he deserves. But try his work, .... the world possesses no more unusual and dramatic musical inventor.
Derek Jewell - The Sunday Times. |
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