Mike Westbrook: The Cortège Live At The BBC 1980

Mike Westbrook turns ninety on 21st March. That would be reason enough to celebrate the man and his astonishing career in music, but add to that the release of the Mike Westbrook Orchestra's The Cortège Live at the BBC 1980 and balloons and bunting would seem in order.

The original album is currently missing in action, so this live iteration also restores a major jazz composition to the catalogue. The music's realisation, along with the careful selection by Kate Westbrook of the accompanying texts for its libretto, took several years. The period from its gestation in the late seventies to its recording and release by Westbrook's own imprint in 1982 saw performances across the UK, in Germany, Italy, France, Switzerland and Sweden. As shown, it underwent significant changes compared with its official release.

But first, let us digress for a moment. One can imagine, if never fully comprehend, how it might feel for an acknowledged classical music composer of significance in their field to know that their third symphony or second piano concerto was absent from the catalogue. Sadly, the experience of jazz composers like Westbrook suggests that, in the jazz world, this is all too typical. Make no mistake, The Cortège is a work of major significance and one of great imagination that offers proof of the transformative power of jazz. At its heart are the themes of life and death, with the notion of a New Orleans funeral procession with brass band accompaniment adding another dimension—one of legacy, of life well-lived but seen as if looking back at that life through a series of images. In the original sleeve notes, Westbrook refers to "a dream journey past Fairground sideshows." It is as apt a description as one could imagine.

Digressing again, the possibilities of digital downloads through the inestimable resources of such as Bandcamp may in due course compensate for such absences, though that is often dependent on major record companies' willingness to release the rights. The digital release of jazz works and albums that might otherwise be unavailable offers opportunities for new listeners to discover such works and allows for a greater sense of the music's history and rich diversity.

At the same time, one cannot help but regret the decline of the LP and CD, despite the re-emergence of a niche market for new and reissued vinyl. After all, the LP or CD involved an artifact that was real in the world. One could visualise its whole chain of production, of its beginnings in the mind or minds of its composer or musicians, through its performance in the studio or on stage, through the design of a cover and perhaps writing of sleeve notes and even through the processes of production and distribution. The LP or CD was in all senses the product of human work—and thought. Can one say the same about the digital download? Does the absence of a physical product, at some unconscious level, even imply another absence, here of human agency? It becomes an abstracted manifestation from a digital ether. That being so, its value both monetarily and as art is devalued, while the mobile phone or tablet that delivers it becomes the fetish object of value.

Thankfully, The Cortège Live at the BBC 1980 is available as a physical product and a beautiful one at that. The colors of black, red and white of the sleeve and notes are repeated on the CDs themselves, and the black and white in-concert photographs transport the purchaser to those moments along its journey. After all, The Cortège is nothing if not the journey of life itself. Then there is the sound of the music and its production values. Someone has worked— yes, 'worked'—damned hard to ensure that the music is heard as its composer would wish.

Digressing once more, the appearance of this work on the revitalised Cadillac label is surely apt. The label was formed originally by Westbrook and John Jack to release a small band album, Live (Cadillac SGC1001), in 1973. John Jack continued to release albums over the years by the likes of Stan Tracey, Harry Beckett, Joe Harriott, Johnny Dyani and, even, David Murray. Jack himself deserves more than a footnote in British jazz history. In many ways, he was an ever-present figure aiding the birth of any number of projects. There was something distinctly Dickensian about the man, somewhat curmudgeonly but totally committed and guided by a warm and generous spirit. The label's revival by John Jack's sometime assistant, Mike Gavin, restores some key British jazz releases to the catalogue, as well as providing an outlet for performances such as The Cortège Live at the BBC 1980. These reissues are in every sense artifacts, things of beauty to be cherished.

Returning at last to the music itself: That there are differences between this performance and the original studio release is inevitable, As Westbrook's peer, Graham Collier oft insisted, "Jazz happens in real time—once!" The gorgeous "Erme Estuary" is absent, as is "Kyrie," the composition that would provide a bridge from the work's mighty showpiece "Santarcangelo" and the closing pieces "A Heath Burns" and "Graffiti." While some compositions, "A Hearth Burns" for example, offer versions shorter than the earlier release, others, like "Knivshult/Ash Wednesday," are expanded. These structural differences aside, on this listening, Westbrook had finalised most of the settings for the individual sections of the suite by the time of the BBC recording. The other most apparent differences between the two lie in the solos and the performance itself, which here have an even greater immediacy than the original offering. The playing is truly magnificent throughout, sometimes as on trombonist Malcolm Griffiths' solo on "Leñador" surpassing even his exalted standards.

The Cortège is a vast work, and it is difficult to cover this hugely successful and coherent suite in detail here. However, the final sentence here, which references the New Orleans funeral procession as a metaphor for life, says it all:

"Should there be a heaven and should I get an invite, may this be the music to carry me there."