Cosmic Jazz had to raise a tribute to Mike Westbrook, one of the greats of British jazz, who died recently. Those of us who have listened to and/or seen British jazz live over some years will know and have been affected by his music and so hold the greatest respect for it. For this show, also, it seemed fitting to include other British pianists/keyboard players who continue to take the music forward.

1. The Mike Westbrook Concert Band – Love Song No. 1 from Love Songs

Derek was lucky enough, some time ago as a student, to attend a college that had a jazz club. How many colleges/universities would have  such an institution these days? Seeing live jazz there was what turned Derek from a jazz sceptic into a jazz enthusiast. He remembers seeing the Don Rendell/Ian Carr Quintet with Michael Garrick, Dave Green, Trevor Tomkin and went out to buy the record Change Is. Mike Westbrook also played and equally generated much enthusiasm for jazz. Derek is the proud owner of some Mike Westbrook records on vinyl, including the 1970 release Love Songs from which the opening tune of this show is taken. It is now classified as a rare record and will not come cheap if you wish to purchase on vinyl – Neil has tracked this near mint copy on Discogs for €300! Love Songs is a wonderful record – warm, tender, modal and uplifting and Derek’s copy has been played… and played, so apologies for any scratches. This opening track is such a joy, such a welcoming opening to the show. We last played it in April 2021, celebrating Westbrook’s then 85th birthday. There is a full and prominent brass section of alto, baritone, tenor, trumpet, flugelhorn and trombone, guitar, piano, drums and vocals from Norma Winstone who has appeared on Cosmic Jazz recently. Hear the whole album if you can or perhaps, can afford it.

2. Mike Westbrook’s Metropolis – Metropolis IX from Metropolis/Impressed with Gilles Peterson/Mr Scruff’s Big Chill Classics

This Mike Westbrook track has appeared before on Cosmic Jazz and again there are no apologies for the repeat. It has been described as his outstanding achievement and that comment was made in a request for BBC Radio 3 Jazz Record Requests  on 3 May 2026 for an edition entitled Mike Westbrook Remembered. The fact that I can list above two compilations on which the track can be found says something  about its significance and while finding its inclusion by Gilles Peterson on a compilation of Jazz from Britain 1963-1974 may be no surprise, its selection by DJ Mr Scruff for his Big Chill Classics illustrates what a mark it has made. The album Metropolis relects the moods, the noise/conflicts/pressures/resolution/joy and peace of a day in a busy city. Besides Westbrook on piano there are twenty-two other musicians included on the album, all prominent on the British jazz scene at the time. The final track is Metropolis IX which we’ve chosen. Does it bring the calm atmosphere of peace at the end of the day – or is it the start of a new one? Westbrook leads with repeated notes on the piano but on top of that comes an exquisitely and expressively played flugelhorn solo from Harry Beckett. Soundholm perfectly describes it as perhaps one of the most bleakly beautiful pieces of music in all British jazz. It is a tune of pure wonder. Play it once and you will want to play it again.

3. Mike Westbrook Orchestra – Sleepwalker Awakening in Sunlight from Citadel /Room 315

This piece was originally commissioned by Swedish Radio with a requirement for saxophonist John Surman to be part of the band. The title refers to the room at Leeds Polytechnic where Mike’s wife Kate Westbrook was an art lecturer and where much of the music was written. The music was first performed live in Sweden but was not released on record at the time, although in 2020 it was remastered from the original tapes and issued as Love & Understanding by  Gearbox Records  Apparently, according to Richard Williams in his music blog The Blue Moment two of the Swedish musicians were unhappy with their solos although it is hard to tell why from the eventual release. The tune on this show is taken from the RCA vinyl release of 1975 which differs from the original live Swedish version and followed a British tour in September and October 1974.  The record is another masterpiece. The tune Sleepwalker Awakening in Sunlight is described on the record as a collective improvisation and features Alan Wakeman on clarinet, John Surman and Mike Page on bass clarinets, Dave Macrae on electric piano and John Surman on baritone sax.

4. The Mike Westbrook Concert Band – Waltz (for Joanna) from Marching Songs Vol. 1/Journeys in Modern Jazz Britain (1965-1972)

The music of Mike Westbrook has many varied changes of mood, style tempo and rhythm and this is illustrated by the final two tunes from the Marching Songs album. The album was commissioned for the 1968 Camden Festival, released on record in 1969 and re-released by Righteous Records in 2009, although, not surprisingly, it looks as if it is currently out of stock. It is an anti-war record. At times the music is fierce but Waltz For Joanna is in a modal and contemplative mode and features John Surman’s soprano saxophone. The co-operation between Mike Westbrook and John Surman went back some years before and was to continue after this album. Westbrook, at the time a student at Plymouth Arts College, recruited John Surman, then a 15-year-old schoolboy, to the band he was forming. Like the other Westbrook records on this show, it features a large band – but this is the largest with twenty-eight of the finest British jazz musicians on the scene at the time Westbrook always used the full effects offered by a large band – power but also warmth. And yet there was always the opportunity for individual soloists to feature – on this track it was John Surman.

5. The  Mike Westbrook Concert Band – Tension from Marching Songs Vol. 2 

These five opening tunes have been selected to remember and celebrate the music of Mike Westbrook (21 March 1936 to 11 April 2026), who was writing and performing until shortly before his death. Only recently on 10 April Cosmic Jazz featured a tune from  the release, for the first time, of  the Mike Westbrook Orchestra The Cortege Live At The BBC 1980 on Cadillac Records – a label founded in 1973 by John Jack and Mike Westbrook to release independently Westbrook’s music at a time when major labels were ignoring jazz. Cadillac Records have also released from 1968 The Last Night At The Old Place, the venue being 39 Gerard Street – Ronnie  Scott’s shortly before the lease ended. The tune Tension is a sharp contrast to the one above from Marching Songs. It opens with the drum sounding the impending doom of war. It goes into a loud, terrifying and frantic saxophone duet between John Surman and Alan Skidmore before a trombone solo from Malcolm Griffiths  with the war-like drums of Alan Jackson. The music was composed in the time of the Vietnam War but it remains an album for our times.

6. Fergus McCreadie – Ford The River from The Shieling Companion Pieces

The Shieling Companion Pieces is the new EP from acclaimed Scottish pianist and composer Fergus McCreadie, It’s not released until July but you can check out Ford The River here on Cosmic Jazz. Recorded on North Uist in a remote cottage in the Outer Hebrides, with the trio gathered in one room around an upright piano, these pieces extend the atmosphere and shared concentration of the original album release. With David Bowden (bass) and Stephen Henderson (drums), McCreadie builds on a sound forged through years of collective trust and sustained touring, blending Scottish folk spirit with modern jazz language. We’ve championed McCreadie’s music from the beginning and he is now one of British jazz’s leading voices, recognised for performances that carry directness and emotional weight – as Neil knows from seeing him in performance most recently in 2024.

7. Sultan Stevenson – A Region In My Mind from El Roi

Time to feature again another contemporary talent from the Edition Records, pianist Sultan Stevenson and his trio – Jacob Gryn on bass and Joel Walters on drums – with guests Soweto Kinch on tenor sax and Josh Short on trumpet/flugelhorn. As a teenager Stevenson developed his craft at the Julian Joseph Jazz Academy and Tomorrow’s Warriors, subsequently graduating from The Guildhall School of Music in 2023. He is the winner of The UK Parliamentary Jazz Award for Best Newcomer 2023 and was nominated for a Jazz FM Breakthrough Act of the Year in 2025. In April 2026 Sultan joined the 2026-2028 cohort of the BBC Radio 3 New Generation Artist scheme, marking a turn in Stevenson’s career that is certain to lead to some very special projects. Watch out for future developments.

8. Sarah Tandy – Timelord from Infection In The Sentence

This show has followed the tunes remembering Mike Westbrook by featuring selections from three contemporary British pianists/keyboard players to show that the tradition of innovation and achievement set by Westbrook and others such as Michael Garrick continues in Britain today. The story of Sarah Tandy – a BBC selected Young Classical Pianist who turned jazz musician while studying Literature at Cambridge University – is an interesting one. To see her live is something else as she maintains a cool presence while her fingers zoom effortlessly up and down the keyboards. The title of her 2019 album Infection In The Sentence is a reference to a work by Sandra Gilbert and Susdan Gubar who argue that patriarchal language and literature infect women writers with anxiety. It is a great album, much played and loved by Cosmic Jazz and the tune Timelord is a fine funky, driving example with great bass lines. Tandy has not released anything since but there is much to look forward to. In her Sarah Tandy Piano 24 February 2026 Instagram post she admits  to having been busy slaying MANY mighty dragons … but I am back from my adventures in the wilderness with a hard drive full of music. She asks us to stay tuned. She has a band together again who performed at the Brick Lane Jazz Festival on 21 April and on on 2 June 2026 is at Ronnie’s where she notes that she will have the whole rabble with me – Binker Golding on sax, Poppy Daniels on trumpet, Jihad Darwish on bass and Jamie Murray on drums. We hope to bring some new Sarah Tandy music to Cosmic Jazz in 2026.