Mike Westbrook Orchestra - Catania

Westbrook Records present this previously unreleased double-CD of selected highlights from the Mike Westbrook festival, recorded in Catania in the early '90s. Featuring the Mike Westbrook Orchestra and soloists such as Alan Barnes, Chris Biscoe, Kate Westbrook, Pete Saberton and Alan Wakeman.

In 1992 a three-day Mike Westbrook Music Festival took place in Catania, Sicily. Presented by the Associazione Catania Jazz, the Mike Westbrook Orchestra, plus guests performed, on consecutive night's songs from Citadel/Room 315, Big Band Rossini, After Smith's Hotel and The European Song Book.

The album is drawn from various live recordings of the concerts, some of them only recently discovered, expertly assembled by the late Jon Hiseman with additional work by Jay Auborn and Callum Godfroy of dBs sound, producers of Kate Westbrook's 'Granite' album.

The 2-disc album is housed in an attractive digipack and contains a 12-page booklet, featuring exclusive photos and sleeve notes.

Press:

A record of a remarkable free festival...The sound is superb...For all topers, past, present and yet to come: warm to these songs of love, faith and freedom. **** - Jazzwise

There's also a bravura treatment of It Don't Mean a Thing, with phenomenal soprano saxophone from Peter Whyman. In fact, this was a cracking good band altogether, combining old Westbrook hands such as Whyman and fellow saxophonist Chris Biscoe with brilliant newcomers like Alan Barnes (alto saxophone and clarinet) and vibraphonist Anthony Kerr. **** - The Observer