Richard Lee racconta per LondonJazz il ritorno di Mike Westbrook con Kate e la Uncommon Orchestra al Ronnie Scott's con i due splendidi concerti del Rossini Re-Loaded di pochi giorni fa. E sulle opportunità/difficoltà di sentire più spesso i lavori di Westbrook dal vivo in Regno Unito - specie quelli orchestrali o per grande organico - osserva: "It was while listening to the penultimate number, the Hymn for Liberty ('Tutto cangia') from William Tell, a stirring agit prop recalling the days of The Cortège, that set me thinking. Rossini Re-Loaded first saw the light of day as a European commission - prophets in their own land have always a hard time, jazz prophets, doubly so - and the increased hardships of recent years that musicians have to bear make touring this kind of work, even over a year, unbelievably difficult. So, all praise to everyone concerned for ensuring we can hear it again. But also reminding myself that it was first heard at the Proms in 1992, it struck me that this extraordinary music-making deserves the exposure that festivals command. The Proms missed a trick in not celebrating the 50th anniversary of Abbey Road with Mike’s Off Abbey Road setting; it could correct that by commissioning a reworked London Bridge (which I understand is in the Westbrook-works) or even a new Cortège to rouse us. Like Rossini Re-Loaded both explore our uneasy place in the world but at least do so with headlong arrangements & vertiginous soloing, courtesy of England’s finest living jazz composer. Wouldn’t it be good not to miss this trick?"
https://www.westbrookjazz.co.uk
https://londonjazznews.com/mike-westbrooks-rossini-re-loaded