The Swiss Hat label, run for 30-odd dedicated years by the Uehlinger family to document all kinds of jazz-tinged new music, has been steadily reissuing Westbrook work. In the process they have done much to reinvigorate Mike and Kate Westbrook's status as UK parallels to Carla Bley in their mix of mischievousness and sonority. This Rossini venture was originally commissioned for a street festival in Lausanne in 1984, with the William Tell overture as its theme. The Westbrooks stitched a jazz envelope around it, for a predominantly brass band with the contrasting reeds sounds of sopranino saxist Lindsay Cooper and the fleet and flawless altoist Peter Whyman wheeling over it. Whyman's alto scythes its way out of Andy Grappy's tuba lines at the opening, the group momentarily suggesting the Liberation Music Orchestra on The Thieving Magpie, and the 18 minute L'Amoroso E Sincero Lindoro (from The Barber of Seville) moves from piano meditations to languorous brass themes and on to Whyman's tantalising squeals and interrogations. If you didn't think a funk version of the Lone Ranger theme was feasible, check this one out.
John Fordham - The Guardian, - October 2008

Keep in mind that this is not a collection of isolated episodes, but a considerable ensemble work as well, full of relaxed pastoral airs alternating with more tumultuous melees – a juxtaposition which has found favor in Westbrook’s writing … Typically, his arrangements set you up in what appear to be comfortable surroundings, then suddenly alter your sense of perspective with a swift shift of mood. As a composer and arranger of the first rank, Westbrook thrives on contrast and diversity; yet even given that, Westbrook–Rossini’s playful suggestions of Ellington, Anthony Braxton, and Charlie Chaplin could be considered surrealistic. Still, in the long run, it’s Rossini, it’s Westbrook, and the twain do meet.
Art Lange