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2 x CD |
| 6.332 Ft
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| 1. CD tartalma: |
| 1. | Overture
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| 2. | Mama Chicago, Pt. 1
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| 3. | Mama's Boogie
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| 4. | Mama Chicago, Pt. 2
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| 5. | Senator's Song
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| 6. | Mama Chicago, Pt. 3
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| 7. | Voyage
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| 8. | Shipwrecked Sailor
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| 2. CD tartalma: |
| 1. | Prelude
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| 2. | Song of the Rain
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| 3. | Prisoner's Hymn
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| 4. | Pre-Conceived Ideas
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| 5. | Heart in Heart, Hand in Hand
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| 6. | Goin' to Chicago
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| 7. | Apple Pie
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| 8. | Mama Chicago, Pt. 4
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| 9. | Mama Chicago, Pt. 5
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| 10. | Windy City
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| 11. | Titanic Song
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| 12. | Concrete
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Jazz
Mike Westbrook: Piano/Euphonium/Tuba
Phil Minton: Trumpet/Vocals
Kate Westbrook: Tenor Horn/Piccolo/Vocals
Mick Page: Tenor Sax/Baritone Sax/Soprano Sax
Chris Hunter: Alto Sax/Soprano Sax/Flute
Malcolm Griffiths: Trombone/Bass Trombone
Dave Barry: Drums/Percussion
* Andy Duncan - Mixing, Producer
* Peter Wallis - Photography
* Tony Visconti - Mixing, Producer
* Yoshiro Kuzumaki - Mastering
music - Mike Westbrook
lyrics - Kate Westbrook,
Michael Kustow, Mike Westbrook & Adrian Mitchell
"The Mike Westbrook Brass Band's award winning 1978 masterwork, now on CD for the first time."
It takes some grit to get past the concept - jazz cabaret by a brass band, red carnations on a spare white sleeve / Evita in cloth caps?
Allay your fears. This brass band is a lithe septet and the four sides (vinyl) of 'Mama Chicago' slip down like buttermilk. Originally conceived as a score for a now-abandoned version of Roger Planchon's bizarre theatrical life of Al Capone, this is Mike Westbrook's best record since the mighty 'Citadel /Room 315'.
All the obvious temptations are sidestepped without trouble. There are no attempts at sprawling grandiose orchestration, nor is there any straining to meet a storyline. Whatever the original design, sketches emerge of a forlorn dinosaur of a city and the scenario hangs together without any narrative lynchpin. The lyrics (mainly Michael Kustow and Kate Westbrook) are a sly adjunct to the main action, embellishing rather than detracting from the music.
Westbrook ransacks the tradition with gleeful abandon. Ballroom sleaze on 'Pre-Conceived Ideas' rubs shoulders with the Sunday school solemnity of 'Prisoners Hymn' and the jump band drive of 'Goin To Chicago'. Much of it is strongly Ellingtonian in character - in fact the master's own 'A Drum Is A Woman' comes to mind - and Westbrook has developed the ducal characteristic of providing settings in which individual stylists can thrive.
The playing swings and sighs throughout, tough modernism allied to an unfashionably direct uncluttered approach. Everyone excels, but Mick Page's bull-necked tenor on 'Pre-Conceived Ideas', Malcolm Griffiths' peppery trombone and Chris Hunter's fleet alto deserve special merit badges. And Westbrook himself thoughtfully redefines his view of composers' piano.
The vocalists are superb. Phil Minton is abrasive or keening as the mood demands while Kate Westbrook uncoils an astonishing emotional range that stretches from the city slicker cynicism of 'Senator's Song' to the wispy whispered tenderness of 'Shipwrecked Sailor'.
'Mama Chicago' revives a medium previously stale and lifeless. I suppose the obvious comparison is with Carla Bley's 'Escalator Over The Hill', but the energy and sureness here here blow away that flabby, muddled work. Even Weill's inescapable ghost does no more than hover in the background. If you think that cabaret is all Man Tran (sorry guys) and scampi on ice then book a table here.
---Richard Cook - NME (December 1979)
Mike Westbrook
Active Decades: '70s, '80s, '90s and '00s
Born: Mar 21, 1936 in High Wycombe, England
Genre: Jazz
Styles: Avant-Garde, Avant-Garde Jazz, Progressive Big Band, Progressive Jazz
Progressive big band leader from the U.K. who loves Ellington, Weill, and Blake. Multi-faceted music and performance art. Politically charged.
---Michael G. Nastos, All Music Guide |
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