Tra i commenti in coda all'articolo di Duncan Heining scritto qualche giorno fa per UK Jazz News in memoria di Mike Westbrook spicca quello di Tim Goodwin, amico e complice di Mike e Kate in diverse uscite della Band of Bands e dell'Uncommon Orchestra, nonché figura centrale in Paintbox Jane: "I had the joy of working with Mike and Kate on A Bigger Show with the Uncommon Orchestra, where I did some basic directing of the more dramatic pieces and a bit of comedy caretaker nonsense. This led to them casting me as Raoul Dufy in Paintbox Jane. This was a piece that grew from one commissioned song into a whole 1.5 hour show. Mike asked me to sing a Portuguese pop song about Brigitte Bardot – and when I asked why – he said “…because it’s a nice song.” This show was totally out of my comfort zone as an actor, reciting Kate’s beautiful poetry and dialogue over improvised jazz, and it’s something I will always treasure. Kate and Mike became close friends, I became a better performer and Dawlish was enriched immeasurably by their presence. Mike was always encouraging, funny and wise. The world is a much poorer place without him."
Heining - noto per i suoi contributi critici pubblicati per anni in
All About Jazz e
Jazzwise, oltre che per le corpose monografie su George Russell e Graham Collier - è anche autore dei volumi
Trad Dads, Dirty Boppers and Free Fusioneers: British Jazz 1960-1975 (Equinox, 2012) e
And Did Those Feet... Six British Jazz Composers (Jazz in Britain, 2023), dove a Westbrook e al suo ruolo fondamentale nell'evoluzione del jazz britannico sono dedicate pagine importanti, in cui non mancano tra l'altro dichiarazioni del protagonista e di Kate attinenti agli ideali di libertà e riscatto sociale promossi in forme anticonvenzionali dalle arti e dalle musiche - e tra queste il jazz in particolare - in opposizione a guerre, razzismo, autoritarismo e devastazione ambientale. Tutti temi a cui è da sempre attento nei suoi scritti
Chris Searle, anche nel recentissimo
Global Groove (Jazz in Britain, 2026), e che per il suo ultimo saluto a Mike su
Morning Star (
'Jazz probes, questions and subverts the mores of the day') sceglie di citarlo direttamente: "All over the world, often against the odds, musicians continue to challenge convention, to defy orthodoxy. They assert their right to freedom of expression - and prize originality. These are the creators of music for our times. Jazz is the music of change, of hope!"
