About Mike Westbrook
Michael John David Westbrook (21 March 1936 – 11 April 2026) was an English jazz pianist, composer, and writer of orchestrated jazz pieces. The Times described him as "one of Britain's most creative, experimental and daring jazz composers". == Early years == Mike Westbrook was born in High Wycombe, Buckinghamshire, England, the son of Philip Westbrook, a banker, and Vera Butler, a piano teacher. He grew up in Torquay and Plymouth, Devon and was educated privately at Kelly College in Tavistock, Devon. In his teens he fell under the influence of the trad jazz of Louis Armstrong, Jelly Roll Morton, Fats Waller and Duke Ellington. He took up the trumpet but switched to piano and taught himself to read music. After school he had a brief spell in accountancy followed by two years' National Service, some of it in Germany, after which he went to art school in Plymouth to study painting. While stationed in Bournemouth in 1956 "he saw American jazz for the first time when Lionel Hampton's band played at the Winter gardens". He formed his first jazz band, an octet, at Plymouth in 1958 and was joined by such musicians as John Surman, Lou Gare and Keith Rowe. He moved to London in 1963 and continued his studies at Hornsey School of Art, where he formed the 10-strong Mike Westbrook Concert Band.
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