Mike Westbrook - Composer / Pianist / Bandleader

Introducing The Bebop Music-Hall  -MIKE WESTBROOK - The Village Band - "A fine Westbrook entertainment with fabulous playing from this group of West Country musicians, marvellous!" - Jazzwise
Village Band

Mike Westbrook has led and composed for a succession of big bands and small groups since the 1960s. His current sextet, based in the South West, first appeared on the scene in 2006. Described as “a little big band”, The Village Band draws on the New Orleans Brass Band tradition, on Blues,
Be-Bop and Contemporary Jazz, but also on Renaissance Music, Opera and Music Hall. The band’s repertoire includes two major original works for voice and acoustic brass, “Waxeywork Show” and “English Soup – The Battle of the Classic Trifle”, both featuring lyrics by Kate Westbrook. A mixed programme “All That Jazz” focuses on Mike Westbrook’s arrangements of classics by Morton, Ellington. Monk, Mingus and many more, plus Westbrook originals.


Waxeywork Show CD cover

The Village Band album ‘Waxeywork Show’ is on jazzprint

 


Listen to "Scattered and Cold" from the Waxeywork Show below. Further tracks can be heard on the Waxeywork Show CD page



"Finding new, expressive possibilities from within the depths of jazz tradition and risk-taking with a purpose. Them Westbrooks remain plugged into the zeitgeist, creating bold music that’s fizzy with contemporary relevance."
jazz review

booking enquiries: Derek Warby Artist Management
DerekWarbyManagement@derekwarby.co.uk
Tel/Fax +44 (0)1903 856831

Visit the Village Band photo gallery


VILLAGE BAND DIARY
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Pre- "Ronnie Scott's" sessions at
The South Devon Inn
High Street
Dawlish
Devon

Sunday August 1st
Sunday August 8th
8pm

Mike Westbrook - The Village Band will perform at Ronnie Scott's club as part of the Brit-Jazz Festival. The Festival runs from 31 July to 14 August 2010.
The band will perform there on Wednesday 11 August 2010.

The Village Band have a MySpace website where you can hear
MP3 quality sound samples and become a friend of the band.
http://www.myspace.com/mikewestbrooksvillageband

Keep up to date with information about the Village Band
by subscribing to the Village Band mailing list




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A fine Westbrook entertainment, this. A short-ish cabaret piece, plus Mike's moody 'April 29th' coupled with several beautifully arranged standards - 'Good-bye Pork Pie Hat', 'Dead Man's Blues' and 'Monk's Mood' among them. One of Westy's great skills is his ability to create wonderful shapes and colours from limited resources. He simply relishes the
challenge. The five section Waxeywork Show draws some fabulous playing from this group of west country musicians with Stan Willis particularly fine on alto. Music for then and
now.
Duncan Heining - Jazzwise Dec 07 / Jan 08 Duncan Heining 3 star reviewDuncan Heining 3 star reviewDuncan Heining 3 star review

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All That Jazz, was a glorious exploration of some old favourites from a remarkably vital and cheerful Dead man blues by Jelly Roll Morton, via a moving Goodbye porkpie hat by Charles Mingus to a stunning encore of Shipwreck blues. In between, we heard the William Blake London song, a Medieval March, Thelonious Monk, Tadd Dameron and a
rousing Rossini overture.

With such a small group and no explicit rhythm section, ensemble work was tight throughout, but there were also stunning solos from Stan Willis on alto saxophone, Gary
Bayley tenor saxophone, Mike Brewer trumpet and particularly Sam Smith who produced two of the most beautiful trombone solos I've heard for a long time.
Peter Bevan - Darlington & Stockton Times

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The Waxeywork Show is a triumphant record that demonstrates staunch commitment to fundamentals – finding new expressive possibilities from within  the depth of jazz tradition and risk-taking with a purpose.

The consistently high level of the instrumental playing is revelatory. Stan Willis’s alto is steeped in Johnny Hodges and Mike Brewer is a powerful lead trumpeter; his fulsome high notes behind Kate Westbrook on Bessie Smith’s “Shipwreck Blues” are pitched with unerring accuracy both to the note and to spirit. But this being a Westbrook record, the musicians are also challenged with a tricky new thirty minute composition, “The Waxeywork Show”. Kate’s scenario explores parallels between 19th Century freak shows and the Internet: “both have the power to corrupt through fascination,” she asserts. The piece climaxes with a nightmarish montage, like competing layers of musical activity are downloading simultaneously. The musicians have to pass through intricate bi-tonal harmonies and punchy grooves to get there; them Westbrooks remain plugged into the zeitgeist, creating bold music that’s fizzy with contemporary relevance.
Philip Clark - Jazz Review Feb/March 08 - Editor's Choice

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All this, set as it is to Mike Westbrook's pungent, powerful music vigorously performed by the Village Band, is flawlessly sung by the dramatic but musicianly Kate Westbrook, and
the album is completed by a set of arrangements spanning decades of recorded jazz, from Jelly Roll Morton's 'Dead Man Blues' and Bessie Smith's 'Shipwreck Blues' to 'Monk's Mood'
and Neal Hefti's delicious 'Lil' Darlin'.

Anyone who witnessed the Westbrooks' 2006 London Jazz Festival performances will already know how compelling their music is in a live setting; recorded in January 2007 in
Dawlish, this album provides an absorbing reminder of just how effective their unique blend of jazz and theatrical elements can be.
Chris Parker -The Vortex

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villageband@westbrookjazz.co.uk



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