the Uncommon Orchestra

R O S S I N I   R E - L O A D E D
Jazz and Rock variations on themes from the operas of Gioacchino Rossini featuring William Tell, the Barber of Seville, Othello, Cinderella the Thieving Magpie
Mike Westbrook leads his 20-piece Uncommon Orchestra in a revival of this internationally acclaimed classic. Originally commissioned by the NDR Band in Hamburg in 1990 it has been performed in France, Germany, Scandinavia, Switzerland, Italy and far afield as Australia and Canada. In 1992 it was the first jazz work ever to be featured in the BBC Proms. In 2018 Rossini Re-Loaded was performed in the Rossini Festival in Pesaro, Italy, the composer’s birthplace. In 2022 the Orchestra opened the Rossini festival Lugo, in the opera house where the teenage prodigy Rossini first performed.
reviewed in the Magazine Musica Jazz by Giancarlo Spezia
MIKE WESTBROOK & UNCOMMON ORCHESTRA
ROSSINI RE-LOADED
Rossini Open International Music Festival
Teatro Rossini  Lugo  Italy    6 October 2022
Chris Biscoe, Peter Whyman, Sarah Dean, Alan Wakeman, Ian Wellens saxophones
Robin Pengilly, Andy Hague, Graham Russell, Sam Massey trumpets
Joe Carnell, Stewart Stunell, Sam Chamberlain-Keen, Ashley Nayler trombones
Karen Street * accordion Frank Schaefer cello Marcus Vergette bass
Coach York drums Kate Westbrook voice Mike Westbrook piano
Benjamin Cottrell conductor      * Peter Rosser in Lugo performance
‘In the city where Gioacchino Rossini lived, and in the Theatre where he actually played, Mike Westbrook breathes new life into the immortal magic of the Italian Maestro’s compositions. For Mike Westbrook, this was a concert of a highly evocative nature: to play his distinguished arrangements of the music of Gioacchino Rossini in the city where the ‘Maestro from Pesaro’ himself lived for two years (from 1802 to 1804), in the Theatre named after him, and on the same stage where he performed in 1806.
The ‘English Maestro’ planned the event with meticulousness, first presenting it to the public in Cambridge the previous week, with Ben Cottrell conducting the 19-piece Uncommon Orchestra, then bringing it to Lugo (Italy) to launch the “Rossini Open” season - and courageously so. Offering his version to an audience mainly accustomed to classical music might be of some concern: yet, the prolonged final applause from the audience asserted a tremendous appraisal and understanding of his work.
Westbrook guided the listener through the pieces with detailed programme notes, explaining how the diverse arrangements aimed to evoke the corresponding stage action of the original operas. Rarely has a ‘classical author’ proved so effectively open to the reinterpretation by a ‘jazz visionary’ - the variety and freshness of the original works disclosing unexpected glimpses, evoking exotic colours, describing suspended atmospheres, inviting irresistible crescendos and vigorous full orchestra. One finds hints of the expressive freedom of the Sixties in the deliberately ‘dirty’ sound that Westbrook creates in his brilliant arrangements, as well as the vigorous and unrestrained groove of the street bands. He even succeeds in reinforcing the already superb original work, highlighting the changes that intervened in the 200 years that separate the two composers - tenderness, melancholy and ardour as painted anew and afresh again. Changes in rhythm and atmosphere segue overwhelmingly from piece to piece, recreating the astonishment that Rossini’s works - soon to become part of humanity’s common heritage - must have caused at the time of their first public performances.
With Rossini Re-Loaded Westbrook did not limit himself to merely reproducing the program as known from the Hat Art releases - a double LP and a CD recorded in 1986 both in concert and in the studio. While the first set followed the sequence of the original albums, the second started with a surprising Funkin’ Cinderella (from Cinderella's Overture) and an equally exceptional version of Once Upon A Time (Una volta c'era un re) from the same opera, introduced by a captivating accordion solo leading to an enchanting vocal interpretation by Kate Westbrook, Mike’s wife, coauthor and irreplaceable companion in innumerable musical ventures.
Westbrook’s concerts are now rare and all the more precious, due in part to the advanced age and also to the exacting care required for musical setups of such complexity: they’re quite a challenge too for his loyal musicians in the Orchestra. But surely none of them would want to miss the opportunity - and the pleasure - of playing some of the most exciting music of the century.’
Giancarlo Spezia - Musica Jazz     translation: Sergio Amadori
photos: Francesco Spezia

supported by Airshaft Trust
management Peter Conway
Mike Westbrook