voicepiano
original songs, jazz ballads and music theatre.
Harold Arlen, Cole Porter, Bertolt Brecht, Kurt Weill, William Blake,
Mikis Theodorakis, Leiber and Stoller, Helen Simpson,
Friedrich Hollaender, Kate and Mike Westbrook and more...
Composer/bandleader Mike Westbrook and singer/librettist Kate Westbrook first
joined forces in the mid-1970's. Touring and performing worldwide, they have
generated a huge variety of vocal music, from cabaret songs to opera. They have
produced epic concert works, notably
London Bridge Is Broken Down (BGO Records), based on settings of European poetry, as well as reworkings of the
standard repertoire, including the music of Kurt Weill, Friedrich Hollaender and Cole
Porter.
All these sources, and many more, are represented on the duo’s new album allsorts on asc records
( asc cd 112) which draws on previously unissued
performances recorded by Jon Hiseman over two decades.
Kate Westbrook’s repertoire embraces Contemporary Music and Cabaret, as well as
Jazz and Popular Song. She has written libretti for Opera and Music-Theatre. In her
recent album, Cuff Clout (voiceprint), as reviewed in Downbeat magazine “
Westbrook sets her witty and eccentric texts to bold and fascinating genre-crossing
music.” Her latest CD The Nijinska Chamber, celebrates the life of the dancer
and choreographer Bronislava Nijinska.
Mike Westbrook has led and composed for a succession of big bands and small
groups since the 1960s. His settings of the poetry of Willliam Blake,
The Westbrook Blake, have been described in The Independent on Sunday as “Perhaps the greatest work in all British Jazz.”
Recent albums include Chanson Irresponsable with the New Westbrook Orchestra, which combines jazz and classical musicians, and Waxeywork Show with his current sextet The Village Band.
For Booking Information see our contacts page
Tracks from the New Westbrook Duo CD "allsorts"
More information about the CD.
