Mike Westbrook is internationally known as a piano and tuba player, as well as a bandleader, composer and arranger. Over the years he has fused jazz with poetry, theatre and the visual arts, and has enlarged the jazz concept by utilising a rich concoction of influences: rock, folk and world music. Mike was awarded the OBE in 1988.
D. H. Lawrence wrote The Ass as one of a series of animal poems whilst living in Italy during the 1920s. The script of The Ass as performed on this C.D was created in 1985 as a music theatre piece. With words based on Lawrence's poem, the music was inspired by Sicilian folk songs. Kate and Mike Westbrook are joined by Stephen Boxer, Trevor Allen, Lesia Melnyk and Peter Whyman to create an entertaining and technically brilliant CD.
