Mike Westbrook - Love & Understanding: Citadel / Room 315 Sweden '74

2020 release

The debut performance of esteemed pianist/composer Mike Westbrook's cult 70s jazz masterpiece 'Citadel/Room 315', recorded live in 1974. Featured soloists throughout the album are the iconic ECM recording artist John Surman plus a crack team of top Scandi jazzers. Remastered by Caspar @ Gearbox Records from the original master tapes, 'Love and Understanding' is available on limited edition 2LP gatefold vinyl (500 units worldwide) and 'mini-LP' gatefold CD, with sleeve notes by Daniel Spicer (Jazzwise, The Wire).

The original RCA recording of 'Citadel/Room 315' is an hour-long suite of eleven tracks, beautifully composed and arranged by Mike Westbrook that is rightly considered to be one of the high-points of Brit-jazz from that era. Mike was commissioned by Sveriges (Swedish) Radio to write the work with Surman as lead soloist. He then travelled to Sweden to perform and conduct it for the first time, live in concert. This recording has never been released until now and presents a wildly different recording to the later LP, the rawness and freedom of the playing contrasting strongly with the more polished studio album