Mike Westbrook - Paris

The Guardian 80

(ASC)

Recorded live in Paris last year after his 80th birthday, this solo piano set finds Mike Westbrook reflecting on a lifetime’s work as a composer. As well as instrumental jazz, this has included everything from music-theatre to brass bands, mostly written in collaboration with his wife, Kate. Themes from some of these, such as Citadel/Room 315, The Ass and Paintbox Jane, appear among 20 short pieces, along with favourites by Duke Ellington, Bessie Smith and others. Westbrook’s style is an engaging mixture of warmth and dissonance, spiced by a touch of honky-tonk. With its constantly changing moods and familiar melodies cunningly revealed, an hour’s music seems to pass in half the time.