In what seems another life, this correspondent asked Sir Mike if he felt he'd under presented his piano playing on recordings, and here's the answer: an hour of solo piano that is fresh, rich and improvised, yet references a myriad of the master's many previous musical lives. Recorded live over two nights in the intimacy of a Parisian art gallery by long-time collaborator Jon Hiseman, the songs seem to segue seamlessly into each other, in a gorgeous free associative swirl. But the album is actually subtly divided into four – ‘The Front Page’, ‘Bar-Room Piano’, ‘Love Stories’ and ‘The Blues’. Through each cluster of songs, Westbrook nests together his loves, heroes and inspirations, the man and his music, the music and the man as one. So we actually start with two songs from this year's big band apocalypse, A Bigger Show, but there's also material from his theatre work (‘The Triumphal Entry’, from The Ass), there's quotes from his paeans to Ellington (‘Sophisticated Lady’, ‘Solitude’) and The Beatles (‘Because’, ‘She Loves You’) and, of course, work devised with his muse, Kate, (‘Gaudy Bar’, ‘My Lover's Coat’) and splendid surprises like ‘You Make Me Feel Brand New’. But it's all really one big love song, to music, to life: the show, indeed, does go on.