Mike Westbrook Brass Band

The Mike Westbrook Brass Band started in the summer of 1973, when Phil Minton and Mike Westbrook got together a street band for a festival in Bath, in UK. The band began to work regularly and gradually other people interested in working in this framework joined permanently, most notably Kate Barnard (now Kate Westbrook) who joined the group early on. The band added a permanent drummer in 1978. The Brass Band's performances combined a wide range of musical sources with jazz improvisation and elements of theatre and cabaret, Brecht/Eisler material, William Blake poems, built around the compositions and arrangements of Mike Westbrook. The band has performed in a great variety of situations, from concert halls, cathedrals, theatres, clubs and pubs, to shopping centers, piers and park band-stands. They toured extensively in Britain, France, West Germany and Scandinavia, and played regularly in most other European countries notably Holland, Italy and Switzerland.