With the death of Mike Westbrook just recently announced I want to pay brief homage to one of the towering figures in European jazz. I deliberately reference Mike’s European lineage because while so much of his work speaks to his deep immersion in British folk and classical traditions over much of his long career Westbrook was valued more widely in Europe than in the UK. So many of his commissions and premiere performances took place at European concert halls and festivals.
This is a companion piece to my reflections on Mike following his sell our performances of one of his early large scale master works; On Duke’s Birthday at Ronnie Scott’s which I attended in 2022. You can find it here – mylifeinjazz.co.uk/episode/mike-westbrook-on-dukes-birthday/
Mike Westbrook
Mike’s music has been a constant companion in my own jazz journey going back to the early 1970’s. I treasure my vinyl copies of his three albums Release , Marching Song and Celebration which appeared between 1967 and 69 and were the product of the intensive periods of rehearsing at Ronnie Scott’s Old Place where Mike was able to assemble and energize his musicians , many of whom continued to work with him through the rest of their lives. Each of these albums was produced by Deram, a major label at that time and attracted a great deal of contemporary attention. Sadly, they are hard to find now on the streaming platforms.
Mike died at 90 and his last live performance was at Blackheath in London in December 2025. Looking back over his seventy year career it hard to process the sheer range of his musical output and interests. Sextets, duos, brass bands, solo piano, works for orchestra and massed choirs, jazz-rock and animating amateur ensembles to professional standard after his return to the West Country in 2004. In whatever context Mike Westbrook’s unique and original compositional talent shone through. I think he will always be most associated with writing for and leading large ensembles. At the core of his musical life was a deep veneration for the music of Duke Ellington
Mike trained as a visual artist and performance art became a distinguishing feature of his live performances particularly after he met Kate Westbrook, his second wife in 1974. Kate was a mainstay vocalist within the numerous iterations of Mike’s life in music. Live gigs in the hands of Mike and Kate were always performances in the broadest sense with echoes of Brecht and Weill never far below the surface. You always left one of his gigs with very clear visual images as well musical resonances.
Mike had a deep knowledge of European literature and poetry and many of his original works most notably his settings of the poetry of William Blake were major influences on his musical imagination.
My own stand out memory was attending a performance of his breathtaking and epic Big Band Rossini composition which Mike revisited and reshaped many times.
My thoughts go to Kate and Mike’s family and all those musicians too numerous to mention who spent so much of their careers contributing to Mike Westbrook’s musical universe.
Despite all his multiple influences and iterations Mike Westbrook was at his heart a jazz musician. I will leave the last words to Mike.
“Being a jazz musician is for life
There’s no retirement and no pension
And there is always the lure of the next gig, the next project which is going to be your best yet”
The Playlist
No playlist can do justice to the full extent of Mike’s creative output. Too many of his recordings are now hard to trace. I have tried to showcase Mike in his many guises from solo pianist-expressing his veneration for Duke and Monk-through to his works for large orchestras.
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