Your Future Informer
Many of our readers will already have heard the sad news of Margery Styles’ death or will have inferred from the Informer’s long silence that all was not well. Having borne severe health problems of recent years with great courage, Margery succumbed to cancer back in March. A tribute to Margery appears on page three of this issue.
The loss of Margery is a grave blow to her many friends and colleagues. It also has serious implications for the SAI. For it was Margery who, with her husband John, started the magazine in 1985. After John’s untimely death in 1989, Margery decided to continue. She dealt with the printing and mail out of the magazine, handled the finances and managed the mailing list of Informees, many of whom she knew personally, met and corresponded with. In all this, as in so many other ways, she’s irreplaceable.
Quite recently, Margery took part in lively discussions about the future of SAI in the computer age, when some of its functions, notably the diary, are also covered on the website. At the time, the topic was unresolved. Now we have to take the plunge. Henceforth the Informer will be published online and circulated to Informees by email. It will be free of charge, and will be in Adobe Acrobat format which can be downloaded and printed off, for those who wish to continue to file a paper copy. Details at the foot of the page. Grateful thanks to webmaster Chris Topley for effecting the transition.
Those already on our mailing list will be receiving a letter explaining the changes. They, and new readers who would like to receive the SAI regularly in the future, are asked to simply let us have their email addresses
( to admin@westbrookjazz.co.uk please ).
That the Styles’ idea of a quarterly newsletter about the activities of the Westbrook Band should have borne such fruit, and that the SAI should have notched up 25 years is the cause of much pride, and no little astonishment in the Smith’s Academy Staff Room. Long may it continue, as John and Margery intended, to comment, entertain and above all, inform.
The Dean
On the Mersey beat
Over the last weekend of March we decided to visit Liverpool. Neither of us had been there for at least thirty years so with the prospect of also hearing the Village band and the Duo it seemed the place to be.
As well as being the City of Culture this year Liverpool has seen a remarkable amount of regeneration, some of it still ongoing. The old dock areas are really impressive and many have been sympathetically restored. There are also many imposing Civic buildings as well as the old Shipping company properties. Driving rain and high winds prevented too much exploration on Saturday. In the evening we quickly thawed out to the music of the Village Band performing The Waxywork Show and a new piece called English Soup, a delightful confection getting to the top and bottom of the Great British Trifle. This was yet another witty and attractively layered piece full of individual flavour and space, allowing each of the very good instrumentalists to shine. Each was dressed appropriate to their role in the bowl, the raspberry jelly coloured shirt got the noisiest approval.
The concert was held in the newly reopened Bluecoat Arts Centre, a beautiful early 18th century building in the heart of the modern shopping area. The bluecoat has been transformed inside to provide up to the minute galleries, studio workspaces, a performance space, an excellent restaurant and a tranquil garden area in the centre of town.
Sunday arrived with bright sunshine and clear blue skies so we could explore the city further. We even went on the open top bus tour which took in many of the main sites and buildings accompanied by a very informative commentary. The City has a variety of architecture ranging from Georgian terraces through Victorian splendour to the modern Catholic Cathedral and the brand new Dockside Arena.
We got back to the Bluecoat for the afternoon set by the duo of Mike and Kate. This included many favourites from Brecht, Blake and Bessie. There were also some Hollander and of course Westbrook originals, these included probably the
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first duo outing of a delightful piece from English Soup called Paradise Shuffle.
The Bluecoat had only been open for two weeks so perhaps publicity was not all it should have been, but those who found out about the sets thoroughly enjoyed them. The co-promoter Lost Voices should be congratulated for putting on new and innovative projects in Liverpool. Anyone visiting Liverpool this year would be well advised to check out the web sites for the Bluecoat (www.thebluecoat.org.uk) and
Lost Voices (www.viewtwogallery.co.uk) to ensure they don’t miss anything special.
We enjoyed our weekend in the company of the Westbrooks and the friendly folks of Liverpool. The only sad note was to learn of the recent death of Margery Styles the long time friend and supporter of Mike and Kate. We will remember her cheerful smile, gentle personality and friendly chat at so many past concerts. Graham and Nohline Ruff
Whatever Next
A whole lotta water has flowed under Dawlish Viaduct since your Village Band correspondent last took up his quill to set down a few snippets. Our last instalment ended with something of a cliff hanger as our intrepid six-some were about to set off to test their wares on the unknown and unsuspecting punters of the North and East. In the event, the ancient city of Durham did not disappoint. The two performances were greeted warmly, and drew from Peter Bevan an ecstatic review in the Stockton and Darlington Times, which particularly gladdened the heart of the trombone player. A new venue, seven, in Leeds proved equally hospitable, with a goodly crowd. (The Etap Hotel was more controversial.) Kettles Yard, Cambridge, the next night, was a sell out and in the company of such Great Art the Village guys and gal really rose to the occasion.
They next got together for two pre-Xmas gigs, one at the Bridge Inn in Topsham, a 16th century coaching inn with an unparalleled selection of real ales, where the audience included the delightful Bill Pertwee, of Dad’s Army fame. St Greg’s Dawlish was no less convivial. An audience, fortified by mulled wine and mince pies, which included visitors from Bristol and far away Zurich, (and two excuses for a new arrangement of Happy Birthday), sang carols and lustily joined in the chorus of Jolly Dogs.
The New Year dawned, and the County was abuzz ( well a few of us were!)
with
anticipation of the new opus English Soup, or The Battle of The Classic Trifle. We were in for a treat; colourful, slick, elegant, impeccable, hip - these are some of the words that come to mind. And that was just the costumes! The band played the musical and visual layers of the trifle with aplomb, and Kate, as cuisiniere Dolly, and her alter ego Dot, mixed the ingredients brilliantly to serve up a new confection The Be-Bop Music Hall. The superb new auditorium of the Levinsky Building, Plymouth University gave the show a classy send off. The more intimate, and to some tastes rather seedy setting of the “Voodoo Lounge”, Exeter Phoenix, gave the piece an “edge”. Then it was off to Liverpool., for a lunchtime All That Jazz as well as the evening Waxeywork Show followed by English Soup. Kate and Mike played a Duo set the next day (as at Durham). The Band enjoyed being in this exciting city with its famous street names and droll cab drivers with the wonderful Scouse accents. The Hotel was bursting with Scandinavians, in town for the local derby between Liverpool and Everton. The views over the Liver Building and the Mersey were breathtaking. The gigs were pretty good too. The band retraced their steps southwards with the knowledge that, if they had not exactly conquered the city, they’d made a good start.
August has seen the Village musos getting back together after a break, during which
the tenor horn player got used to her second new hip, A wedding gig on the edge of Dartmoor started things off, to be followed by return visits with “Jazz on a Summer’s Night” to Denbury and Topsham. Bi-monthly dates at The Bridge are scheduled, a festival by the Tamar River and the opening of a major Beryl Cook exhibition are in the offing and plans are afoot to expand the Band’s South West base. All will be revealed, my luvvers!
The best way of staying up to date is to join the Village Band mailing list.
Simply email: villageband@westbrookjazz.co.uk
or write to Westbrook, PO Box 92, Dawlish
EX7 9WN.
Dig yer Later, potata ( as they say around here )
Flipster
The Village Band: Mike Brewertrumpet, Kate Westbrook tenor horn/voice, Stan Willisalto saxophone, Gary Bayleytenor saxophone, Sam Smith trombone, Mike Westbrook euphonium
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Margery Styles
1941 - 2008
In the chill of morning in early spring, to the music of a skylark and other tentative birdsong, was added the sound of a clarinet. The occasion was the funeral of Margery Styles. The ceremony was a Humanist one, the place the Sun Rising Natural Burial Ground, Tysoe, a field deep in the Warwickshire countryside. The clarinet was a recording of Pete Whyman’s introduction to the Beatles’ Here Comes The Sun from our OFF ABBEY ROAD album. This was Margery’s choice. She had also asked that people should wear something yellow, her favourite colour.
As the strains of the melody began to break free from the improvised texture, and that most optimistic of solar anthems emerged, it seemed possible that the sun itself might make an appearance. In fact, this being England, the sun remained hidden. The sense of Margery’s sunny presence, however, warmed us then as it has warmed the lives of all of us who knew her.
With the untimely loss of her husband John, in 1989, Margery suffered dreadfully and she never recovered from this. Yet she wouldn’t allow one to feel sorry for her. Nor did she go in for self pity. In the years after John died she threw herself into her work as a tutor of adults with learning difficulties at Stratford-upon-Avon College. She came away on tours with the band, ran the band newsletter, the SAI, which she had started with John, and she got seriously into travel. Postcards started arriving from ever more exotic places, addressed in Margery’s distinctive and elegant script. In her travels, often with her friend Chris Ashton, or with Penny Valendar, she visited Russia, Vietnam, Cambodia, Malaysia, Morocco, Peru, Cuba, as well as many European and American cities.
In Burma she was able to visit the grave of the father she had never known, who had died as a prisoner of war on the infamous Burma railway.
Margery was enormously supportive of our circle of musicians. She was an invaluable member of ‘the team’. She often helped out at gigs. She toured with the Trio in Singapore and Australia and we had many adventures. Memorably too, she came with the Orchestra for its three day festival in Catania, Sicily in 1992. Always positive, outgoing and genuinely interested in people, Margery always got on friendly terms with the locals, whatever the situation. She had an infectious humour and sense of the ridiculous, and always seemed to be surrounded by laughter.
When illness overtook her, she continued to be very good at hiding what she was suffering. She refused to have what she called “the illness conversation”. With enormous courage she stayed bright and cheerful on the phone, and when, late on, speech became difficult, she took to texting.
From the time when Kate first got into conversation with Margery and John at the UK premiere of On Duke’s Birthday back in 1985, our contact with her had centred on the SAI, on meeting at gigs and on other band occasions. One of the most recent of these get-togethers, my 70th birthday party in Dawlish Warren, she was in characteristically lively form. By then she was far from well with cancer, but she was not going to allow her health to spoil the fun. By her astonishing courage, and her determination to spare all but her very closest friends the truth about her situation, she has allowed us to remember her as she was in her prime.
One thing became apparent on that chill morning back in April, - her jazz musician friends were just one segment of an enormously wide circle of people whose lives have been brightened and enriched by knowing Margery. For all of us, she is irreplaceable. May she rest in peace.
Mike Westbrook
Margery left instructions for the commissioning of a composition in memory of her and John.
This new piece will be premiered, and recorded in 2009.
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Art Wolf big in the Urals kate westbrook mike westbrook
chris biscoe pete whyman
A rapturous reception greeted the Quartet’s performance, courtesy of the Ekaterinburg Festival. This was the first visit by a Westbrook band to Russia. Thanks go to Alexander Kan, who set this up, and to the group’s hosts who showed them round and introduced them to Russia’s third city, its architecture and its turbulent history. It was a great concert, and Caspar Wolf’s paintings, projected on a cinema screen, never looked better. Art Wolf clearly ‘has legs’.
Record News London Bridge Is Broken Down
The album London Bridge Is Broken Down, originally released on Virgin Venture in 1988, and deleted a few years later when EMI took over Virgin Records, is at last available again. The double CD has been licensed from EMI by Andy Gray, and reissued on his label BGO (“Beat Goes On”) Records.
Andy’s previous reissues include Metropolis and Citadel/Room 315.
Digitally re-mastered, re-packaged and with new liner notes by Alyn Shipton, the reappearance of the London Bridge recording has been greeted with acclaim in the jazz press. And Canadian jazz journalist Ron Sweetman long-time good friend from Ottawa, devoted the whole of his radio programme “In a MellowTone” to London Bridge, on September 10th.
Westbrook Rossini
Meanwhile Werner Uehlinger of HatART has continued his programme of reissues
on the hatOLOGY label, with its elegant, ultra slimline design concept. Last year Werner gave us On Duke’s Birthday. This year its Westbrook Rossini ( the
Studio version )
Both London Bridge ( BGO CD 788) and Westbrook Rossini (hat OLOGY 661 )
can be bought online from jazzcds. Check www.jazzcds.co.uk for a catalogue that contains most of the currently available albums of Mike and Kate Westbrook.
Musica Jazz
The July issue of the Italian Jazz magazine Musica Jazz contained an extensive feature on the career of Mike Westbrook and included a 74 minute compilation CD of Westbrook recordings. The editor Filippo Bianchi, leading light of the Italian Jazz Scene who has followed the Westbrook story from Brass Band days, put together his highly personal selection, drawn from across the spectrum. It includes two tracks not previously released.
Outside Italy, Musica Jazz is not readily available. However the feature will be published on westbrookjazz, where you will also be able to listen to all 13 tracks, in sequence, one at a time, over the coming months. Musica Jazz Page
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Major Re-surfacing Ahead! What one critic described as ‘that crazed jazz ensemble’ is taking to the road again in October. Mike Westbrook’s Beatles tribute, Off Abbey Road, is back after a ten year break. Lining up at the Festival Jazz en Nord, nr Lille, will be John Winfield, Kate Westbrook (vocals) Peter Whyman, Alan Wakeman (saxes) Brian Godding (guitar) Andy Grappy (tuba) Mike Westbrook (piano) and Richard Newby (drums) – depping for a temporarily indisposed Peter Fairclough. As of yore, Bill Strode will do the sound.
Off Abbey Road shook, rattled and rolled its way around the jazz scene in the 80s and 90s. Great to have that grand music, those evergreen arrangements, and that ever popular band back again.
December, at Toynbee Studios, London, sees the re-appearance of another Westbrook classic GLAD DAY, in the new choral version first heard at the ‘Foundling Museum’ last year. Joining Phil Minton and Kate Westbrook (voices) will be the 50-piece London College of Music Community Choir, directed by Paul Ayres, Karen Street (accordion), Billy Thompson (violin), Mike Westbrook (piano) and Steve Berry (double bass). Presented by Artsadmin, the two performances are supported by Airshaft Trust.
Sept 25 The Vortex, London Kate Westbrook Mike Westbrook Duo
part of two day mini festival to launch The British Piano album on ASC
Oct 13 Theatre Charcot, Marcq en Baroeul,
nr Lille, France
The Re-Surfacing of OFF ABBEY ROAD
Festival Jazz en Nord
Oct 18 - 4pm BBC Radio 3 Mike Westbrook in “Jazz Library” series
Oct 23 The Bridge, Topsham, Devon THE VILLAGE BAND
Dec 6 and 7 Toynbee Studios, London. GLAD DAY The Choral Version
Dec 18 The Bridge, Topsham, Devon THE VILLAGE BAND Xmas Special
Dec 19 St, Gregory’s, Dawlish, Devon THE VILLAGE BAND Xmas Special
Smith’s Academy Informer is now published quarterly as a free
online only version and is also emailed directly to subscribers
in Adobe Acrobat PDF format for free.
It can also be downloaded in the same format from westbrookjazz.
Contributions are welcome and should be emailed or snail-mailed to the Editor: Martin King, 40 Freshland Rd, Maidstone, Kent, ME16 0WJ email: platterback@yahoo.co.uk
Copy for SAI 82 to be received by 15th November 2008 please.
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