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Mike and Kate Westbrook

London Bridge is Broken Down

BGO Records BGOCD788

Reissued, digitally remastered, this 'Composition for Voice, Jazz Orchestra and Chamber Orchestra' is discussed in detail by its creators, Mike and Kate Westbrook, elsewhere on this site; suffice it to say here that, after twenty years, it still moves, exhilarates and provokes thought as profoundly as it did on its first appearance in a then divided, turbulent Europe, a continent whose internal quarrelling is now mercifully restricted mainly to spats about the fine details of abstruse EU treaties.

From its first extraordinary, uniquely arresting, orchestral shrieks and sighs, through its haunting meditations on loss, division and compassion, to its closing irreverent celebration of the power of human love, London Bridge grips the listener like few other pieces.

This power is attributable not only to the compositional skills of Mike Westbrook and the judicious selection of appropriate texts by Kate Westbrook, but also to the individual prowess of the jazz bandmembers: saxophonist/clarinettist Chris Biscoe (pungent and viscerally affecting throughout), Peter Whyman (eloquent and agile on all his reeds), Paul Nieman (equally adept at providing trombone and electronic commentaries), multi-textured guitarist Brian Godding, subtly sensitive but propulsive drummer Tony Marsh, unobtrusive but firm anchorman bassist Steve Cook, and brilliant trumpeter Graham Russell.

The deployment of the 21-piece Sinfonietta de Picardie, too, is exemplary, and with Kate Westbrook characteristically dramatic ­ tender and touching one moment, abrasively brash and scornful the next, but always utterly appropriate ­ this is (to quote my 1988 self) 'a major work which operates on many levels, incorporating a stunning variety of textures and moods into a deeply satisfying dramatic whole'.