CD review: Mike Westbrook Orchestra – Catania: Live In Sicily 1992 – 2019: Video, CD cover, Photo

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.

Tracklist:

CD1

1. Introductions (Live)
2. View from the Drawbridge (feat. Alan Barnes) (Live)
3. Love and Understanding (feat. Paul Nieman, Alan Wakeman, Peter Whyman & James McMillan) (Live)
4. Tender Love (feat. Chris Biscoe & Anthony Kerr) (Live)
5. Leñador (Live)
6. Song of the Rain (Live)
7. Factotum al Bebop (feat. Anthony Kerr & Alan Barnes) (Live)

CD2

1. I See Thy Form (Live)
2. I.D.M.A.T. (feat. Anthony Kerr, Peter Whyman & Peter Fairclough) (Live)
3. Lush Life (Live)
4. South from Toulouse (Live)
5. Long John Brown (feat. Alan Wakeman, Phil Minton & Steve Berry) (Live)
6. Surabaya Johnny (Live)
7. Band Introductions (Live)
8. Alabamasong (Live)
9. The Topers’ Rant (feat. Chris Biscoe, Paul Nieman, Peter Whyman, Danilo Terenzi, Phil Minton, Dominique Pifarely, Alan Barnes & Kate Westbrook) (Live)