ALL CHANGE AT SMITH’S ACADEMY

For over 30 years the Smith’s Academy Informer, founded by John and Margery Styles has chronicled the activities of the Westbrook Band. Originally a printed, quarterly newsletter circulated by post, latterly published online more

sporadically, the SAI has kept track of tours, recordings and new projects.

Now that the relaying of up-to-date information is provided by the Social Media and the Diary and Latest News pages on the website, the Informer is free to concentrate on its other function, that of providing a space for reportage and background information.

Re-invented as the WestbrookJazz Notice Board, it will in future set out to give a platform to comment, analysis and in-depth writing on relevant topics. The Notice Board will be published on the website and each new edition notified to a mailing list of subscribers. Join Our Mailing List to be kept "Informed".

Back issues of SAI will continue to be available on the website.

Keep up to date with The  WestbrookJazz Notice Board

SHINING A LIGHT

The latest recording by Kate Westbrook and THE GRANITE BAND is featured in a podcast by Jazz South on Monday 30th November. A tribute to Ellington “Says The Duke”, the 19-minute track is one of six works commissioned by Jazz South with funds that, but for Covid 19, would have been used to subsidise gigs this year. Entitled JazzSouthSpotlight, introduced, with interviews by Kevin Le Gendre,

the full series is:

November 2  Iain Ballamy IBQT

November 9  Fourth Page

November 16  Hexagonal

November 23  We Are Leif

November 30  Kate Westbrook & The Granite Band

December 7  Sara Colman Band

each podcast will start at 5pm

All information about the bands on 

www.jazzsouth.org.uk/spotlightpodcasts

From November 30 “Says the Duke“ will be available for sale on Bandcamp.

Details on the “Says The Duke” page.

LOVE YOU MADLY

A new recording by Kate Westbrook and The Granite Band will be launched by Jazz South in a podcast on Monday November 30th at 5pm. Thereafter it will be available as a download on Bandcamp. Entitled Says the Duke, with lyrics by Kate, music by Mike Westbrook, the work is dedicated to Ellington. An extended Blues, it is inspired by the memory of the Ellington Orchestra’s last UK performance, at The Rainbow, London, in December 1973. The 19-minute track was recorded ‘remotely’ by the Graniteers;

Kate (voice) Roz Harding (alto sax) Jesse Molins and Matthew North (guitars) Mike Westbrook (keyboard) Billie Bottle (bass guitar) Coach York (drums)

and produced by Matt.

Jazz South podcast 5pm, Monday 30th November begins with Kate talking to journalist Kevin Le Gendre about Says the Duke.

Podcast available from 5pm Monday November 30th here.
Scroll down that page to 30th November date.

Information about the new recording:

https://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk/katewestbrook/saystheduke.shtml

Taster

JAZZ SOUTH INTERVIEW WITH MIKE WESTBROOK

Jamie Harber from Jazz South catches up with legendary jazz pianist, composer and band leader, Mike Westbrook OBE, for an extended interview in celebration of his 85th birthday.

Mike also curated a special Duke Ellington playlist for Jazz South. The playlist is linked in the interview where you can find out about the tracks and why Mike has chosen them.

Catching up with Mike Westbrook
https://jazzsouth.org.uk/?p=3739

GLAD DAY AD LIB

On Saturday 1st April at AdLib in Fabrikken, Lillehammer, Norway the premiere took place of the Norwegian language version of Mike Westbrook’s Glad Day - settings of the poetry of William Blake. Described by director/ alto saxophonist Knut Laasbye as “Funny, exciting and a little scary”, the performance was “cheered from beginning to end”.

From the left: Dag Leonardsen (flügabone), Arne Schanche Andresen (tenorsax), Jan Andresen (altand sopransax),Knut Laasbye (song and alt sax / facilitation), Anders Fongen (bass), the singers Elisabeth Slettnes , Aksel Mohn, Håvard Skaadel , Kjell Joar Rognstad and Sissel Sellæg, and Anne Margrethe Slettnes (piano).

BLAKE MUSIC

Mike and Kate Westbrook have recently been invited to become Patrons of the Blake Society, an organisation set up to study and celebrate the work of William Blake.

The Society is based in Piccadilly at St James Church. Blake who was born in nearby Soho, was christened at the church in 1757. The Westbrook Blake, based on settings of William Blake’s poetry, was performed in the church in November.

On April 19th the Society staged a conversation by Zoom between Mike and Kate and Camila Oliveira Querino. Camila is a Blake expert who was born in Brazil and is currently an Associate Research Fellow at the University of Lisbon. The session included film of performances featuring the voices of Phil Minton and Kate Westbrook. Discussion ranged from the relationship of music to Blake’s poetry and the place of his vision in the modern world, to stories from the Westbrook Band’s fifty-year travels with William Blake.

A Music Celebration of Blake, an informal conversation by zoom, can be seen on the Westbrook Jazz Moving Picture Show here

For information about the Blake Society visit https://blakesociety.org/

The DVD/CD “GLAD DAY LIVE” filmed at Toynbee Hall, London in 2008 is available from westbrook records

And Did Those Feet
Duncan Heining’s new book And Did Those Feet is published by Jazz in Britain and will be officially released on October 19th. A leading writer on jazz, Duncan’s previous works include Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioneers, British Jazz from 1960 - 1975, Mosaics, the life and music of Graham Collier and most recently George Russell, American Composer. In And Did Those Feet, Heining examines in depth the work of six composers whose careers in jazz began in the 1960s : Michael Garrick, Mike Gibbs, Barry Guy, John Mayer, Keith Tippett and Mike Westbrook. Two audio CDs will accompany the book, containing tracks by each of the composers. Mike Westbrook is represented by a hitherto unreleased 1980 recording of the Santarcangelo section from The Cortège.

To order

WESTBROOK BLAKE IN NORWAY
Our good friend Knut Laasbye has been in contact to tell us of a Westbrook Blake concert taking place in Norway on Saturday 21st October 2023. He says "Next Saturday, on the 21st of October, Lillehammer William Blake/Mike Westbrook Ensemble is having a concert with the Glad Day material at the Lillehammer Jazzfestival/Dølajazz. We are very excited and are looking so much forward to it!"
Here is some information in English from the festival website

The English jazz pianist/composer Mike Westbrook's (1936-) music offers an engaging and challenging journey into William Blake's (1757-1827) London at the end of the 18th century.  Life is brutal.  The city belongs to the upper class, the judges and the church.  The natural sciences are waking up.  Industrialization and the flight from the countryside are increasing.  The contrasts lay the foundation for William Blake's philosophical world, texts and art, religion and social criticism and his understanding of the contradictions in human existence.  The music is complex and melodious and has parallels to the music many know from "Les Miserables", Gil Evans, Eisler/Weill, Ketil Bjørnstad and Tom Waits. 

Knut Laasbye – vocals, alto sax

Håvard Skaadel – piano

Anders Fongen – bass

Ola Dahl – percussion

Jan Andresen – saxophones

Mina Omestad Aurlund – french horn

Bjørnar Nilsen – baritone horn

Frode Finne – trumpet, flugelhorn

Sissel Sellæg, Elisabeth Slettnes, Anne Slettnes, Inger Grini Skagoset and Jane Fryer Gair – singers