Premiered in July 1992 at a 3-day Mike Westbrook Festival in Catania, Sicily, "The Orchestra of Smith's Academy" denotes a program of Westbrook compositions and arrangements that all derived from a certain harmonic device. The composer discovered it in 1983 while staying at Smith's Hotel in Glasgow, and subsequently called it "Smith's Hotel Chord". Westbrook used the chord as a matrix for large works such as "After Smith's Hotel" and "London Bridge Is Broken Down" where three of the tunes in this program are taken from. Two more compositions - I.D.M.A.T. (after Ellington's It Don't Mean A Thing) and Measure For Measure (commissioned by the Vienna Art Orchestra) - received their first public performances at the Catania Festival.In addition to the six orchestra works, the CD contains a composition written for the Steve Martland Band and dedicated to the memory of trombone player Danilo Terenzi.

''Catching the 22-piece Mike Westbrook Orchestra at something of an artistic peak, in autumn 1992, this album showcases not only the manifold gifts of Britain’s foremost jazz composer, but also the joyous exuberance – and tight discipline – of one of the most artistically satisfying units he has ever led. Drawing material from many of Westbrook’s most celebrated projects – On Duke’s Birthday, London Bridge is Broken Down, After Smith’s Hotel – the Crawley Festival recording positively seethes with energy and ideas. The grounding of a number of Westbrook’s pieces in the blues (also the basis, via Jimmy Yancey, of the album’s concluding 23-minute composition performed by Steve Martland’s band) provides relatively easy access to their many harmonic and rhythmic complexities, but the power of Kate Westbrook’s characteristically intelligent texts and dramatic vocals lifts this superb live set into the realms of music memorably described by Westbrook’s chief inspiration, Duke Ellington, as ‘beyond category’'' BBC Music Magazine