Having worked alongside everyone from Laurence Olivier to a French circus, the 89-year-old is still composing, learning church bells, and using AI to resurrect a lost epic
M
ike Westbrook is reflecting on his 89-year life from his cottage by the sea in Devon. Sitting with him in his cosy, book-lined sitting room under a signed picture of Duke Ellington, and next to his Broadwood grand piano, the experience is calm and peaceful.
His version of jazz is anything but. For more than six decades, Westbrook has been composing vast, cinematic works. He was the first jazz artist to play at the BBC Proms, created theatre alongside Laurence Olivier, and in the 1970s merged his entire ensemble with the avant-rock band Henry Cow to form the groundbreaking Orckestra. The result is music full of brass fanfares, unusual time signatures, poetry, free improvisation, and genre-bending jazz that invites the listener into a continental circus full of elephants, acrobats, and clowns.
Recent health difficulties have made playing hard, so he has spent the last two years digging through his papers, sending piles of scores to archives around the country. Meanwhile, a tape recording languishing in the British Library has become the focus of a salvage mission.
