Mike Westbrook marks his 80th birthday and his fifty plus years as a composer/bandleader/tireless organiser with 'A Bigger Show'. This is his first album with a big band since 'Chanson Irresponsable' in 2001 and this ambitious, and entertaining, recording has been described as a Jazz/Rock Oratorio.
Kate Westbrook's scenario uses the image of the fairground to examine, with irony, humour and high drama, the lot of Humankind in the age of the World Wide Web. Mike Westbrook's score for 21-piece ensemble involves three vocalists/actors, acoustic brass and saxophones, electronics and a double rhythm section. Kate Westbrook and fellow vocalists Martine Waltier and Billy Bottle, are joined by established jazz musicians together with lesser known artists, pop and rock musicians, classical players and talented youngsters in a new kind of big band - the Uncommon Orchestra. Featured soloists include saxophonists Roz Harding and Alan Wakeman, Dave Holdsworth on sousaphone and pocket trumpet, guitarists Jesse Molins and Matthew North, Marcus Vergette on bass, and Coach York on drums.
The superbly composed music that makes up 'A Bigger Show' exemplifies the gift that Mike Westbrook has for bringing off large scale works, a talent that began with the epic 'Marching Song' in 1969. By using the resources at his disposal he creates ever-changing textures and moods such as "Juxtapositions", with its rocky opening, muted trumpet and elegiac soprano saxophone, "Freedom's Crown", which sets voices against alto saxophone and the concluding "Lover's Galore" where the guitars cut loose over an incessant riff. The three person vocal team, with its theatrical flourishes, is crucial throughout proceedings.
'A Bigger Show' is a fitting statement of Mike Westbrook's unique career to date and confirmation of his status as one of the UK's greatest, and most imaginative, composers working in jazz and contemporary music.
