Django Bates

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Django Bates; 2007

Leon "Django" Bates (born October 2, 1960 in Beckenham , England ) is a British musician ( piano , keyboards , tenor horn ), composer and band leader of modern creative jazz .

Live and act

Bates, who initially played the piano as an autodidact , studied piano, trumpet and violin (including at the Royal College of Music ). In the early 1980s he appeared regularly with Dudu Pukwana's Zila , but also with Harry Beckett . He also belonged to Bill Bruford's group Earthworks . With Julian Argüelles he founded his quartet Human Chain , but also played in George Russell's orchestra , with Courtney Pine and in Ken Stubbs ' First House . He became known in the 1980s with the British jazz big band Loose Tubes , for which he wrote as well as Iain Ballamy . In 1990 he performed his large orchestral work "Music for the Third Policeman". In 1991 he founded his own big band Delightfull Precipe . He continued to perform as a soloist, playing with George Gruntz , Peter Herborn , Hank Roberts , Tim Berne , with Sidsel Endresen and with Josefine Cronholm , with the JazzBaltica Ensemble and with Linda Sharrock . In the early 1990s he was a member of the Dedication Orchestra . With Christy Doran , Phil Minton , Fredy Studer and Jamaaladeen Tacuma he could be heard in a Hendrix project. For several years he has taught at the Rytmisk Music Conservatory in Copenhagen, where he directs his StoRMChaser Ensemble, with which he performed at the 2007 JazzFest Berlin . In 2017 he released the album Django Bates' Belovèd: The Study of Touch (ECM).

His style as a composer is eclectic and collage-like . He processes influences from pop music to punk . Bates is in the tradition of Carla Bley and Michael Gibbs by composing “a complicated mixture of dripping waltzes, punk attitudes, sour clusters of clay, tangled counterpoints and crooked chorales”.

Awards

Already in 1987 he was recognized by the magazine “Wire” as “best composer” and in 1994 with the Prix ​​Bobby Jaspar as “best European jazz musician”. In 1996 he received the Mercury Music Award and finally in 1997 the Jazzpar Prize . His 2012 album Confirmation , a Charlie Parker tribute starring Petter Eldh (bass) and Peter Bruun (drums), was rated outstanding in The Guardian .

Discography (selection)

With Django Bates' Belovèd

Django Bates, Petter Eldh , Peter Bruun

  • 2017 - The Study of Touch ( ECM )

With First House

Django Bates, Ken Stubbs, Mick Hutton , Martin France

  • 1986 - Eréndira (ECM)
  • 1989 - Cantilena (ECM)

With Sidsel Endresen

  • 1990 - So I Write (ECM)
  • 1994 - Exile (ECM)

With Anouar Brahem

Anouar Brahem , Dave Holland , Jack DeJohnette , Django Bates

  • 2017 - Blue Maqams (ECM)

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Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Ulrich Olshausen cited. according to Kunzler
  2. ↑ Top 5 Jazz Albums 2012 , John Fordham in the Guardian on December 13, 2012

Web links

personal data
SURNAME Bates, Django
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Bates, Leon
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British jazz musician
DATE OF BIRTH October 2, 1960
PLACE OF BIRTH Beckenham