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Jazz Articles about Django Bates

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Liner Notes

Bill Bruford: The Summerfold Collection 1987-2008

Read "Bill Bruford: The Summerfold Collection 1987-2008" reviewed by John Kelman


Intrepid percussionist/composer/bandleader Bill Bruford began his career in the late '60s art-rock arena with Yes and, later, King Crimson, but jazz has always moved underneath, like an eddying current. His early recordings, well documented on the companion Winterfold Collection, may not speak the language of jazz, but they possess its spirit. By 1986, Bruford was looking for a new path. Crimson had again dissolved, the 1981-'84 incarnation having provided him with the opportunity to explore nascent electronic drum ...

19
Album Review

Django Bates: Tenacity

Read "Tenacity" reviewed by Pat Youngspiel


Few jazz artists go to such great lengths to make their audience feel at the same time bewildered by humor-infused technical exhaustion and smitten by charm and sheer musical beauty as Django Bates does. The English pianist and composer has gained a reputation over the years, for bringing the quirkiest and widest range of ideas and styles to a, more or less, aesthetically-serious art form. Some might even claim he's the Frank Zappa of jazz. Then again, who's to say ...

2
Radio & Podcasts

A Night at the Jazz Circus! - Part 1

Read "A Night at the Jazz Circus! - Part 1" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


Circus is like Jazz. They both require a great deal of originality and a capacity to improvise and be in the moment. They come out of a sense of urgency and self-expression since artists do not embrace them to get rich. And they both demand incredible dedication and discipline. This week we explore the connections between these two performative art forms, focusing on jazz inspired by the circus world, composed for circus shows, or evoking—in a way or ...

19
Album Review

Django Bates: Tenacity

Read "Tenacity" reviewed by John Kelman


It's been a long time since that late May, 2013 week in Luleå, Sweden, where pianist Django Bates and his Belovèd Trio first collaborated with the renowned Norrbotten Big Band. Fully documented in the All About Jazz article Django Bates: From Zero to Sixty in Five Days, Bates, bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Peter Bruun, along with other non-Norrbotteners, including guitarist Markus Pesonen, tubaist Daniel Herskedal and trombonist/vocalist Ashley Slater, made the lengthy trek to this small coastal town, located ...

2
Lyrics

Django Bates: 60+40—Charlie Parker: 100

Read "Django Bates: 60+40—Charlie Parker: 100" reviewed by Vic Albani


Nel nefasto 2020 molte celebrazioni, anniversari e festival a tema hanno dovuto arrendersi all'emergenza Covid-19 anche se, in calendario, ne sono rimasti alcuni davvero irrinunciabili. Uno di questi è il centenario della nascita del signor Charlie Parker, nato a Kansas City il 29 agosto 1920 e scomparso poi a New York nella primavera del 1955. Ad uno dei nomi “must" del jazz di tutti i tempi sono dedicati nel corso dell'anno decine e decine di omaggi, ricordi, commemorazioni, festival interi ...

34
Album Review

Bill Bruford's Earthworks: Earthworks Complete

Read "Earthworks Complete" reviewed by John Kelman


Since retiring as a professional musician in 2009, progressive/art rock turned jazz drummer Bill Bruford has successfully managed to maintained a place in the public eye. Beyond his engaging, informative and successful Bill Bruford: The Autobiography (Jawbone Press, 2009), the drummer/percussionist has more recently released a second, equally captivating book, Uncharted: Creativity and the Expert Drummer (University of Michigan Press, 2018).Initially stemming from the success of his autobiography but since assuming a life of its own (and no ...

2
Interview

Django Bates: Generous Abundance

Read "Django Bates: Generous Abundance" reviewed by Ludovico Granvassu


If you love jazz because of its capacity to surprise, amaze, astound, even flabbergast, and leave you without words, then Django Bates is the musician for you. A bird's-eye view [no pun nor reference to Bates' love for the music Charlie Parker intended] of the striking body of work the British pianist has developed over four decades reveals what must be a very generous disposition. His projects and music can range from the subtle, delicate and reassuring to the bombastic, ...


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