A stratospheric paso doble by trumpeter MikeBrewer heralded the opening of the Beryl Cook exhibition whereupon five hundred civic dignitaries, University big wigs, assorted students and the general hoi polloi of Plymouth marched into the gallery to the strains of Y Viva Espana. Just another job for The Village Band, who had earlier serenaded the multitude with Ellington,
Monk, and Mingus as well as Volare and other popular melodies, and the ‘Slap, Bang’ of Kate’s
“Jolly Dogs”, as a suitable hors d’oeuvre to the Slap and Tickle of the city’s sauciest artist.
Simon Ible’s Peninsular Arts had done the late
Beryl proud with this huge retrospective, and it’s sure that this raunchy coupling of Low and High
Art would have brought a mischievous twinkle to the eye of the University’s greatly missed former Vice Chancellor, Roland Levinsky, to whose memory the building is dedicated.
At the end of the Summer Mike Hooton’s weekend mini festival at Weir Quay Boatyard had included a magical set by the band on an open-air stage against the stunning backdrop of the Tamar River. The event concluded with was what I am reliably informed is called a ‘jam’, with the Westbrooks, drummer Dan Hooton and a stage full of young rockers in which Kate duetted with the irrepressible Dickin Gough on an extremely disorderly version of Bob Dylan’sWatching The River Flow.
Despite some experiment over the recent months, the search for an ideal regular venue for the Village Band in the S.W. is set to continue into the New Year. Watch this space. Meanwhile Xmas approaches and it’s time for the Village Brassers to don seasonal garb and get ready to pull the musical cracker and unleash their annual cornucopia of Carols, Jazz Classics, Panto
Music, Rossini and World Music hits. Anyone within reach of The Bridge Inn, Topsham
( Dec 18 ) or St, Greg’s, Dawlish ( Dec 19 ) is urged to come and join the fun. It’s only at this time of year that you’ll hear Round Midnight juxtaposed with It Came upon A Midnight Clear and In the Bleak Mid-Winter with In The Cool Mid-Winter.
And have the chance to raise the roof with the chorus of that splendid hymn to Trifle, from English Soup courtesy of Don Redman, ‘Raspberry Jelly, Hey, Hey, Twee, Twee, Twee. Twa, Twa’
Can’t say fairer than that, my beauties!
Flipster
The Village Band:
Left to right: Stan Willis, Sam Smith,
Mike Westbrook, Mike Brewer,
Gary Bayley, Kate Westbrook,
The Westbrook Duo,
The British Piano The Vortex Jazz Club, London 25th September 2008
The Vortex Jazz Club’s move in 2005 to the Dalston Culture House has made it a key player in the regeneration of this part of London, creating a new cultural and creative arts hub, and becoming a catalyst to improving the wider area. It boasts a fine, grand piano and is famed for its attentive, adventurous and appreciative audiences, so where better to hold a two-day festival celebrating The British Piano?
Kate and Mike Westbrook played one of four sets that made up the second evening. They opened with London Song, which vividly conveys the greed and squalor of the capital before the days of regeneration projects. Another Blake song A Poison Tree followed – Mike has re-cast the piano part here providing a lively counterpoint to Kate’s scorching vocals. The mood of revenge was maintained for Pirate Jenny, Polly Peachum’s dream of revenge from the Threepenny Opera. Weill is notoriously hard to perform but Kate hit the right note and had the Vortex crowd eating out of the palm of her hand.
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My Pale Parasol which followed draws its inspiration from a Capsar Wolf painting in which tiny human figures serve to emphasise the grandeur and vastness of the landscape. Mike’s piano here painted a picture of a snow-covered wilderness. An abrupt change of scene took us next to war-ravaged Sarajevo for the Westbrook’s setting of Abdulah Sidran’s Un Aveugle Chant Pour Sa Ville.
Paradise Shuffle, a song from the new Village Band piece English Soup, evokes a country garden in high summer, then Wasteground & Weeds – which, Mike reminded us, was the first song he and Kate wrote together – took us to the East End of London on a damp Sunday afternoon.
Leiber and Stoller’s Is That All There Is starts as speech (‘When I was a little girl…’) before sliding into song. Again, this was very warmly received by the audience, including a chuckling Julian Jospeh as he anticipated the concluding chorus.
A marvellous performance. Within the space of half an hour Kate and Mike distilled the essence of the Duo. In fact they presented a microcosm of Westbrook music as a whole. They demonstrated their musical range, diverse influences, expressive power, originality, warmth and humanity, and succeeded in winning some new admirers as well as pleasing long-established fans.
The rest of the evening was similarly impressive. Julian Hellaby gave us some modern classical piano. His playing was crisp, clear and engaging. The set included a Nocturne - ‘not like Chopin’ he warned us - though I’m sure I heard some Debussy in there at times.
John Law’s set included his Ghost in the Oak and a tribute to the late Bheki Mseleku. Some of his material used minimalist style repeated riffs, but then he’d develop them and overlay them with sumptuous, romantic melodies. Keith Jarrett came to mind, though this was sharper-focused.
Julian Joseph is a giant, with a technique and physical presence resembling Oscar Peterson, he improvised a sparkling, original set including Universal Renaissance,which evoked Bheki Mseleku again, and Monk’s Think Of One - a highlight in a set full of highlights.
So the British Piano is alive and well, and living in Dalston! A CD (The British Piano, Campion Cameo 2082) includes pieces by Steve Plews, John Law, Jonathan Gee, Keith Tippett and others. Mike Westbrook contributed a version of Blues for Terenzi from The Piano in the Room on the Street.
The disc, like the live sessions, shows the remarkable range of composed and improvised music that comes under the British Piano banner. In the light of such diversity it’s difficult to pinpoint common threads. It’s all interesting, original and virtuoso stuff, and much of it is outstanding. Even in our electronic age, the acoustic piano is at the heart of much creative music making. Available from http://www.dimusic.co.uk/cameo.html
Martin King
Jazz Library:
Mike Westbrook BBC Radio 3
19 October 2008
The Jazz Library series is in the best Radio 3 tradition: knowledgeable presenter talking with distinguished musician and playing some of their best work. Alyn Shipton and Mike Westbrook presented an overview of the composer/bandleader’s career as reflected in currently available recordings.
Mike recounted how he arrived in London in the early ‘sixties. This formative period was captured in a Sextet recording but this was not released, and the first album to come out was the Concert Band’s Celebration. This high-energy barrier-bursting music grew and reached a peak with Metropolis, which also happens to be the last recording altoist Mike Osborne made with Westbrook.
The next album Citadel/Room 315 marks both the closure of the early period but also represents a new beginning. Commissioned by Swedish radio to write something around John Surman, Mike had a year to write an expansive work.
Practical difficulties of keeping a big band together encouraged Mike to radically re-think his approach, and an era of playing music outdoors with whatever resources were available proved refreshing and liberating. The Brass Band – whose ranks included Kate Westbrook and Phil Minton - toured extensively, and their settings of William Blake (originally created for Adrian Mitchell’s National Theatre production of Tyger ) became a cornerstone of their repertoire.
Touring in Europe and collaborating with avant-rockers Henry Cow led to The Cortege and The Mike Westbrook Orchestra, a large-scale, far reaching project developing composition and improvisation, incorporating poetry, and with the Brass Band at its core.
A slimmed down Orchestra was created for On Duke’s Birthday, which was recorded live at the first performance in Amiens. As Mike says, you can’t get much better than that!
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The success of this piece led to another commission from Amiens London Bridge is Broken Down, this time with large forces – jazz orchestra, chamber orchestra and voice.
But it’s the Trio which has proved to be the most enduring of all the Westbrook groups. The original idea was for Kate and Mike to focus on song with a guest instrumentalist joining them. Chris Biscoe came to the first rehearsal and has stayed some 25 years. The L’Ascenseur album chronicles some of their journeys.
The Westbrooks’ contribution to music theatre was illustrated with Platterback, while Bar Utopia launched a new genre: the big band cabaret. Art Wolf, inspired by 18th century landscape painter Caspar Wolf, tellingly explores the quest of the contemporary artist.
The final track was from Chanson Irresponsable,the album that - when asked by Shipton to select just one key CD - Mike chose. The ensemble includes orchestral as well as jazz instruments, and voices, and the piece combines improvisation, written material and poetry, drawing on the Westbrooks’ full range of experience to create something unique. He referred to a German word Gesamtkunstwerk for which there is no direct translation, but which encapsulates this attempt to achieve a total entity, a complete statement. The full playlist was:-
Track
Album
Artist
Cat No.
Parade
Celebration
Mike Westbrook Concert Band
Deram 844852-2
Part 7
Metropolis
Mike Westbrook
BGO
CD 454
View from the Drawbridge
Citadel/
Room 315
Mike Westbrook Orchestra featuring John Surman
BGO
CD 713
Wheel of Fortune
Goose Sauce
Mike Westbrook Brass Band
Birdsong
BIRD2005
I see thy form
Glad Day
Mike Westbrook
ENJA
ENJ
9376- 2
Knivshult
The Cortège
Mike Westbrook Orchestra
ENJA
ENJ-708722
Checking in at the Hotel Prieuré
On Duke’s Birthday
Mike Westbrook Orchestra
hatOLOGY 635
Thessaloniki Silver Screen
L’Ascenseur
The Westbrook Trio
Jazzprint/
Voiceprint
JPVP130
Blighters
London Bridge is Broken Down
Mike Westbrook Orchestra
BGO
CD
788
Streams of Lovely Lucienne
Platterback
Westbrook & Company
JPVP
117
Nowhere
Bar Utopia
Mike Westbrook
ASC
CD13
Whose wolf art thou
Art Wolf
Westbrook Quartet
Altrisuoni 186
Gone -
Travel Light
Chanson Irresponsable
The New Westbrook Orchestra
ENJA
ENJA
9456-2
Martin King
Glad Day
the choral version
Toynbee Studios,
Commercial St, London EC1
Initially composed for Adrian Mitchell’s National Theatre production, Tyger, many of the songs in this programme of William Blake poems set to Mike Westbrook’s music date back to 1971, but material has been added over the subsequent years for performances by the composer’s Brass Band, for a 1980 Impetus recording, Bright as Fire and an Enja album, Glad Day in 1997. The songs have also been sung (usually by Kate Westbrook and Phil Minton, the performers on this occasion) with various local children’s choirs, initially in Blackheath in 1996, but most recently – using the instrumentation of this concert, accordion, violin, piano, bass – to mark the 250th anniversary of Blake’s birth in 2007 at the Foundling Museum as part of the St Pancras Festival of Contemporary Music. This history is worth tracing because it shows how important the Blake settings have been in Mike and Kate Westbrook’s careers to date; indeed, they neatly encapsulate many of the Westbrooks’ most dearly held artistic beliefs: above all in the power of literary texts to move and inspire, but also in the importance of allowing notions of social justice, consequent upon engagement with historical, political (and spiritual) complexity, to inform their music. It also helps explain why Glad Day, particularly its opening two songs, ‘London Song’ (‘I wander thro’ each charter’d street …’) and ‘Let the Slave’ (‘Let the slave, grinding at the mill, run out into the field’), is quite so affecting: by the time the latter culminates in Mike Westbrook’s powerfully spirited but beautifully modulated recitation of ‘The Price of Experience’
(‘What is the price of experience? Do men buy it for a song? Or wisdom for a dance in the street? No, it is bought with the price of all that a man hath, his house, his wife, his children …’), the audience has been irresistibly elevated to a profoundly civilised plane by the perfect marriage of melody and lyric, infused with passion and delivered with utter conviction.
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Such passion and conviction imbue the whole of the rest of the performance: from the righteous indignation of ‘Holy Thursday’ (‘Is this a holy thing to see/In a rich and fruitful land,/Babes reduc’d to misery,/Fed with cold and usurous hand?’) to the visionary eloquence of ‘I See Thy Form’, Mike Westbrook’s settings (Kate Westbrook responsible for arranging the texts for ‘Holy Thursday’ and ‘The Human Abstract’, Adrian Mitchell for the rest), impeccably played by Karen Street (accordion), Billy Thompson (violin), Steve Berry (bass) and Mike Westbrook himself (piano), and with the London College of Music Chamber Choir providing stirring vocal support, are as moving as they are musically satisfying, and their ostensibly simple yet uniquely powerful message as relevant today as ever it was. Chris Parker – The Vortex Blake Revisited 1
Another day another Blake. We have heard the Westbrooks settings of William Blake’s prophetic words many times in many places over the years. However the performance at Toynbee Studios in London’s City area at a time of economic strife after ”rejoicing in the tents of prosperity” seemed rather apt. As ever Mike has adapted and reworked these great pieces to another wonderful level.
A packed audience was treated to the choral version of Glad Day sponsored once again by the stalwarts at the Airshaft Trust. This adaptation was premiered last year in celebration of 250th anniversary of Blake’s birth. The performance on Sunday 7th of December featured the 40 plus voices of the London College of Music Chamber Choir together with those of Kate and the ever magnificent Phil Minton. The instrumental line up was composed of Steve Berry on bass, Karen Street on accordion, Billy Thompson on violin and of course Mike on piano.
The music was of course wonderful but the glorious voices somehow gave even more emphasis to the words in this version. All the instrumentalists were featured playing introductions to various pieces and there were other solos elsewhere. We all know how good Steve, Karen and Mike are and they didn’t disappoint but the inspired and exuberant playing of Billy Thompson on Violin was a revelation.
The Choir directed and conducted by Paul Ayres sang beautifully and the two small chorus sections juxtaposed on” The Tyger and the Lamb” and the solo quartet in “The Human Abstract” were simply stunning .The still soaring voice of Phil and the choir ended a great evening in proper form.
Graham and Nohline Ruff
Blake Revisited 2
For those of us who have followed the works of Kate and Mike Westbrook over the years it is always fascinating to hear how a piece can change and develop. Glad Day is certainly such a piece. From its early “Tyger” incarnation at the National Theatre in 1971 to the highly acclaimed version for Mike’s own brass band in 1980 known as “The Westbrook Blake”. In 1997 Mike took it a step further with his extended “Glad Day”. This has now taken a leap to “Glad Day – the choral version”. That is not to say that the other versions were not choral. The Westbrook Blake utilised a children’s choir to great effect, portraying something of the innocence in Blake’s “Songs of Innocence and Experience”. I know many people including myself have a great affection for this version. The extended 1997 Glad Day had the Senior Girls Choir of Blackheath Conservatoire of Music and the Arts performing new songs added to the piece as well as the familiar “I See Thy Form” and “The Fields”.
Mike’s new choral version was performed last year at the Foundling Museum in London to mark the 250th anniversary of Blake’s birth. The choir played a much greater role in the piece. The instrumentation was sparser with accordion, violin and piano and of course vocalists Kate and Phil. Mike is a master at getting exactly the right sound with whatever instrumentation he uses and this was quite a sound. His choral writing was wonderfully effective and of course there was even more of it. When it looked as though another performance might be possible my friend Phil and I were overjoyed at the thought of hearing it again.
It was over a year before plans to stage it at Toynbee Studios bore fruit. From the opening bars of the performance it was obvious that we were in for a real treat. The choir had grown to 40+ in number and as “London Song” swelled up before us I found myself in tears. Having been through a difficult week with family health problems I thought it was just me feeling a bit vulnerable but I noticed my friend Phil was wiping away a tear too, so it WAS the music, beautifully written and performed of course.
Apart from the larger choir there was also the addition of Steve Berry on bass. That also added something extra to the whole feel of the work and it goes without saying that he played superbly. It is always a joy to hear the wonderfully sensitive and imaginative playing of Karen Street on accordion too.
Phil Minton was excellent and seemed more relaxed than when we saw him last at the Foundling museum. Kate was equally inspiring and we had the bonus of an extra apple in “The Poison Tree”. (A bit of an ‘in joke’ there I’m afraid –ask me to explain it one day).
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That leaves Billy Thompson who is rather flamboyant and with good reason. A brilliant violinist with lots to say, whether it be something moving or something downright silly. He is astoundingly fast and accurate and in complete control.
When it was all over we both felt uplifted and would have gladly listened to it all again. We saw it on the Saturday night and are sad that we couldn’t come back for more the next night.
Whenever I hear this work performed I always think that we are listening to something close to perfection and that it would be difficult to imagine it any better. Then Mike works his magic and another version is born that takes you to a higher plane. He’s done it again! If you ever see this is being staged in the future you’d be mad to miss it.
Chris Topley
Glad Day
the choral version was performed at Toynbee Studios, London,
6th & 7th December 2008
Presented by Artsadmin
Sponsored by Airshaft Trust Phil Minton - voice Kate Westbrook - voice Mike Westbrook - piano Karen Street - accordion
Billy Thompson - violin Steve Berry - double bass
London College of Music Chamber Choir
directed by Paul Ayres Website Guide
Westbrookjazz has grown over the years. It now incorporates 3 “mini-sites”, one for Mike Westbrook, one for Kate Westbrook and a gallery site of Kate’s paintings. All links used here are “Tiny” links
( http://www.tiny.cc/ ) in order to keep links short on the page. If the link is not clickable please paste it into your browser. The main page leads on to the three sites of course but you can access each of the three sites from their own “start” pages.
Most pages are particular to either Kate or Mike’s site. On the right hand side of Mike and Kate’s individual main pages are links to each of their current projects.
You can see Mike’s current discography here: http://tiny.cc/iqfjO and Kate’s here: http://tiny.cc/rugyh - a number of the individual CD pages leading from these links have streaming audio samples. Both Kate and Mike’s biographies have been recently updated.
Mike’s is: http://tiny.cc/IdRmp
and Kate’s: http://tiny.cc/V1Fg6
Musica Jazz the Italian jazz magazine featured Mike Westbrook in a recent edition with an article and a free CD. We are streaming one track from the CD which we will change every so often. It’s also possible to download the article but be warned, it is in Italian.
Musica Jazz page: http://tiny.cc/1AooH
We are about to change the main sound sample pages on Kate and Mike’s site. Meanwhile Kate’s current samples are here: http://tiny.cc/UvqC0 and Mike’s here: http://tiny.cc/XVJKn
There are one or two sections that are kept in the main website directory as they are common to both Kate and Mike’s sites. One is the photo gallery pages: http://tiny.cc/hrusr and the other is the Smith’s Academy Informer pages: http://tiny.cc/ZvRnH - here you can see past issues of the Informer as well as being able to download issues, (at the moment there are only two issues that can be downloaded).
PS. Over the Christmas period we will feature a special Xmas track linked from the main page: www.westbrookjazz.co.uk
Chris Topley
Page 5 of 6
Extra-Curricular Activities
Gone In the Air The Chris Biscoe Quartet plays the Music of Eric Dolphy Trio Records CD TR578
Relatively neglected compared to the ubiquitous Coltrane, Eric Dolphy’s presence is nevertheless still felt some 44 years after his untimely death. Dolphy has long been a key influence on Biscoe’s playing, but Chris’s current project specifically acknowledges this. His latest CD presents a set of tunes composed by or associated with Dolphy, played with passion, insight and conviction by Biscoe’s current Quartet: Chris (alto sax, alto clarinet and alto flute) with Tony Kofi (alto), Larry Bartley (bass) and Stu Butterfield (drums).
The two saxes are both true to the Dolphy spirit but are distinct voices, bringing their own ideas and personalities to their solos. While Kofi has a full, urgent vibrato-less tone that gets straight to the heart of the matter, Biscoe deploys an array of effects that make the music laugh, sing and cry. And the unison theme statements have a precision and sheen that sound like a full sax section.
Bartley is inventive and solid as a rock, and Butterfield provides a propulsive swing that constantly interacts with the front line. The absence of a piano gives a sparseness and clarity to the texture yet – and this speaks volumes for these guys - things never become dull or empty. There’s only one place where I miss the presence of a chordal instrument, and that’s in the introductory vamp to Oliver Nelson’sStolen Moments. However, the arrangement here gives this old favourite a new spin, a refreshing minimalist directness.
The disc is nicely packaged with detailed and informative notes by Brian Morton and Biscoe himself. ‘I still find Dolphy far from easy listening but impossible to ignore’ writes Chris, and maybe
that’s how many people will react to this Quartet too. I can’t wait to see them live and catch up with their further adventures. Meanwhile they’ve got me rediscovering those Eric Dolphy original recordings. Enjoy!
Mike Westbrook
THE VILLAGE BAND Xmas Show Thursday December 18th, 2008 - 8pm MIKE BREWER trumpet,
KATE WESTBROOK tenor horn/voice, STAN WILLIS alto saxophone,
GARY BAYLEY tenor saxophone, SAM SMITH trombone,
MIKE WESTBROOK euphonium The Bridge Inn, Bridge Hill, Topsham Devon EX3 0QQ
Mike Westbrook
THE VILLAGE BAND Xmas Show Friday December 19th, 2008- 7pm MIKE BREWER trumpet,
KATE WESTBROOK tenor horn/voice, STAN WILLIS alto saxophone,
GARY BAYLEY tenor saxophone, SAM SMITH trombone,
MIKE WESTBROOK euphonium St Gregory's Dawlish EX7 9QT
Smith’s Academy Informer is now published quarterly as a free
online only version and is also emailed directly to "SAI Friends" (see below)
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 to the Editor: Martin King, email: platterback@yahoo.co.uk
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