Paul Westwood

In the 1970s, Westwood trained with The National Youth Jazz Orchestra (Bill Ashton, OBE), The Guildhall School of Music (James Merritt; principal bass London Philharmonic Orchestra), and The Royal Academy of Music (Sir John Dankworth and Graham Collier, OBE: jazz musicians and composers). He then spent five years touring in over twenty-five countries with Sir John Dankworth, Dame Cleo Laine, Lulu and Charles Aznavour. He has studied at Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, London College of Music and Morley College.

Albums As a session musician, Westwood worked with such artists as: Lucio Battisti, David Bowie, José Carreras, Larry Coryell, Steve Gadd, Justin Hayward, Elton John, Nik Kershaw, Leiber & Stoller, Andrew Lloyd Webber, Madonna, George Martin, George Michael, Gilbert O'Sullivan, Phil Ramone, Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, The Shadows, Chris Spedding, Barbara Thompson and Andy Williams.

Movies Westwood played on many movie and film soundtracks for composers such as: John Barry, Carl Davis, Trevor Jones, Michel Legrand, Henry Mancini, Paul McCartney, The Sex Pistols and Hans Zimmer. In 2018, Westwood was also bass guitar coach to actor Joseph Mazzello, who played the part of Queen’s rock bassist John Deacon in the film Bohemian Rhapsody.

TV shows Artists that Westwood worked with on TV shows include: George Benson, Joe Cocker, Gloria Estefan, Janet Jackson, Al Jarreau, Tom Jones, Barry Manilow, Luciano Pavarotti, LeAnn Rimes, The Temptations, Barry White and Tammy Wynette.

International tours and stage shows He has performed on numerous stages internationally for artists such as: Elkie Brooks, Michael Crawford, Cliff Richard, The Royal Philharmonic Orchestra, and Barbara Thompson’s Paraphernalia. Westwood also worked in many West End stage productions, including: Cats, Les Miserables and West Side Story.

Commercial composition work While working with commercial media companies, Westwood composed music for various groups and orchestras. He also produced 16 albums whose music has been used by BBC, ITV, De Wolfe and KPM Music for signature tunes, incidental music, and advertising jingles.

Community concerts From 2008 until 2017, Westwood was the musical director for Jazz In The Community, which developed into a series of annual charity concerts performed for children with special needs, primary school children, and the elderly in care homes

Since the 1990s, Westwood has been teaching electric bass, music composition and group workshops in various colleges, including the London College of Music (at The University of West London), Trinity Laban Conservatoire of Music and Dance, Morley College, and the Royal Academy of Music.

Awards Westwood was made an Honorary Associate of the Royal Academy of Music in 2006.

Research projects His passion for researching different aspects of world music has proved to be a powerful tool for teaching and compositional purposes. Research projects include:

• Elizabethan music: experiments with early 17th century English melodies, melding with Turkish rhythm and harmony of the times.
• Henry Purcell: late 17th century songs and their influence on 20th-century jazz and Motown.
• Turkish music: the Maqam harmonic system and ethnic percussion influences on European music.
• Moroccan and Andalusian music a journey through regional variations of the music.
• Sir Thomas Browne (polymath) the relevance of 17th-century numerology, cosmology, and alchemy in contemporary music.
• John Coltrane: spirituality, symbolism, and structure used in 20th century 'free-form' jazz.
• World Music: contemporary developments in digital and analog bass guitars and their use in performance.

In March 2019, his band, Paul Westwood's Jazz FX, released their first album entitled The Earth Born and began a series of promotional concerts.

BOOKS

BASS BIBLE Published by AMA Verlag, Germany. Bass guitar tuition book: a world history of contemporary bass lines, 285 pages. 1st edition, (1997) revised 2nd edition (2004) revised 3rd edition (2008)

• English, ISBN 3-927190-67-5
• French, ISBN 3-932587-30-8
• German, ISBN 3-927190-84-5
• Italian, ISBN 88-6388-170-7
• Japanese, ISBN 4-7549-3481-4
• Chinese, ISRC CN-Q06-04-0031-0/A.G4

BASS BIBLE 2 Due for publication in 2019 by AMA Verlag, this tuition book (second in the series) contains further examples of western bass guitar styles, plus bass lines from Turkey, the Middle East, and the Far East. Also featured are examples of 16th century English Renaissance music used in the plays of William Shakespeare. 3 audio CDs are to be included.

VIDEOS and DVDs

• The Complete Bass Guitar Player (1991), Music Sales Ltd, tuition video, Omnibus OV10267

• A-Z of Bass Guitar (2010), Music Sales Ltd, tuition DVD, DV11495, ISBN 978-1-84938-865-8

Discography

• Paul Westwood at AllMusic

• Paul Westwood discography at Discogs

• Paul Westwood – credits at Rate Your Music. Retrieved 8 April 2019

Interviews

• DMME, Let It Rock (Nov 2004), Interview with John Hiseman. Retrieved 8 April 2019

• Harold Fisher on Paul Westwood. 'Turned Out Nice Again: The Story of British Light Entertainment' (2013). Barfe Louis, Atlantic Books Ltd. ISBN 1848877579, 9781848877573

• Interview with Per Elios Drablos. ‘The Quest for the Melodic Electric Bass: From Jamerson to Spenner’ (2015). Ashgate Publishing. ISBN 9781472434821

• Official Website
• Paul Westwood’s Jazz FX management
• AMA Music book publishers
• DVD publishers