In the romantic shadows of the Master

Mike Westbrook’s homage to Duke Ellington, his first and deepest inspiration, is the very best kind of tribute, in which one man uses his own language to evoke the spirit of another. You will find no imitations of the Ellington trademarks, no cheap exploiting of the Cotton Club fad, in the 80 minutes of On Duke’s Birthday, but there will be moments in which every listener will glimpse the shadows of the master.

Recorded at a concert in Amiens last year, On Duke’s Birthday is the latest in Westbrook’s series of extended works: as with its immediate predecessor, The Cortège, its quality suggests that this British composer has reached a level of achievement in his field inhabited, since the deaths of Ellington and Mingus, only by Gil Evans.

On Duke’s Birthday is a highly emotional experience, although never promiscuously so. The chief soloists are all romantics:: Dominiqe Pifarely, a young violinist with a ravishingly rich tone and fluid phrasing, like a young Grappelli: Danilo Terenzi, a trombonist capable of evoking his instrument’s entire history in jazz, from lurid, plunger-muted “jungle music” growls to microchipage multiphonics: and Chris Biscoe, the saxophonist who fills John Surman’s old place in Westbrook’s scheme and whose solos here, particularly on the baritone instrument, seem to enjoy a particularly intimate relationship with the composer’s inner motives.

The quiet, brooding openings to each of the five movements paint a basic wash from which harder shapes and brighter colours emerge at their own speed. In the ensembles, the broad cello tone of Georgie Born and the resourcefulness of the guitarist Brian Godding seem particularly valuable, the latter responsible for the highly atmospheric opening to “East Stratford Too-Doo” and the shivering climax which slowly mounts to conclude the penultimate movement.
Richard Williams The Times October 1985