Mike Westbrook

Featuring: Norma Winstone

Metropolis, Recorded at Landsdowne Studios, London in 1971 was a high-point in Mike Westbrook's output at the time; a nine-part extended composition for a 23-piece big-band featuring the cream of British modern jazz talent of the day. The carefully structured piece consists of a series of free collective improvisations, simple melodic motifs, solos and chugging jazz-rock motor rhythms underpinning various sections; the ensemble work and orchestration is first-rate, and the whole work has a terrifically effective dynamic, with so many stand-out contributions from the musicians involved, culminating in Harry Beckett's lonely flügelhorn solo – typical Beckett, leaking tuned fog into the microphone to the accompaniment of a quietly atmospheric, repeated piano-led figure – and perhaps one of the most bleakly beautiful pieces of music in all British jazz.


This was recorded at a time when British jazz ceased to merely emulate American models and stepped out with it's own ideas and concepts; “Metropolis” was one of the landmarks of that process and deserves a place in your music collection - it remains a powerful listening experience, well worth discovering if you are unacquainted with Westbrook's big-band work