Django Bates Belov?d, CBSO Centre, Birmingham, 14/06/2013.

I’ve been a fan of Django Bates writing and playing since those heady days when Bates was a leading light of the now almost legendary Loose Tubes. Bates’ own Delightful Precipice big band later came close to recapturing something of the Tubes’ unique magic and Bates also delivered consistently interesting music with his constantly evolving small group Human Chain.

The first decade of the 21st century was a fairly quiet time for Bates watchers as Django established an academic career with his appointment as a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatoire in Copenhagen. Currently he holds a similar position at the University of Berne in Switzerland.

However Bates’ time in Copenhagen also re-ignited his passion for composing and performing. In Denmark he enlisted his students to perform in his StoRMChaser Big Band, a kind of Scandinavian version of the Loose Tubes/Delightful Precipice aesthetic with something of Human Chain thrown in. Star performers included Norwegian saxophonist Marius Neset and Phronesis drummer Anton Eger.

At around the same time Bates established the Belov?d trio featuring then students Petter Eldh (double bass) and Peter Bruun (drums). Here Bates chose to concentrate entirely on acoustic piano, many of his previous projects having featured his innovative and intelligent use of synthesisers plus his occasional thrilling forays on e flat peck-horn. In some respects ways the trio’s 2010 début album “Belov?d Bird” represented a return to basics with Bates choosing to tackle a set of tunes made famous by his boyhood idol Charlie Parker.

Of course with Bates being Bates it wasn’t quite as simple of that. Parker may have represented an unlikely hero for a teenage boy growing up in South East London in the 1970’s but that didn’t stop the older Bates taking some pretty outrageous liberties with his music. The idea was to ” take Parker tunes and do crazy things to them” explained Bates adding that he felt the trio were “playing Parker’s music with respect, contemporary sensibility and joy”. It was an approach that attracted considerable acclaim from the critics and “Belov?d Bird” was very favourably regarded indeed.
I saw the trio give a highly enjoyable performance at the 2011 Cheltenham Jazz Festival but still preferred the set of original material Bates performed at the same event with an octet centred around the members of Troyka which Bates dubbed the TDEs in honour of the festival’s artistic director Tony Dudley Evans.

Fast forward to 2013 and the Belov?d trio have produced a second album, “Confirmation”, (2012) which places a greater emphasis on original Bates material but played in the Parker-esque style established on the début. Tonight’s performance mixed material from both records but with a strong focus on the Parker material that first inspired the project. However as Bates’ comments above suggest Belov?d is far removed from the usual jazz “tribute”. Bates may take Parker’s music as a starting point but he indelibly stamps his own musical DNA on the proceedings by deconstructing and reconstructing Parker’s tunes, fragmenting and re-aligning both the melodies and the harmonies. It’s a process that the great improvising saxophonist Evan Parker (who provides the liner notes for “Confirmation”) refers to as “Djangoisation”.

Tonight’s show revealed that in the two years since I last saw Belov?d they have developed into a more integrated and interactive unit. In my review of the Cheltenham festival performance I wrote of Eldh and Bruun giving “competent but unspectacular support” to their mercurial leader. These days the trio is far more democratic with the dialogue between Bates and Bruun particularly absorbing, set up to face each other they were trading ideas throughout the evening as Eldh continued to provide more of an anchor role. Bruun’s drumming style has become increasingly distinctive and idiosyncratic and he coaxed a wide range of sounds from his kit using a variety of sticks, brushes, mallets and bare hands. At times his playing reminded me of two other leading contemporary Scandinavian drummers namely Jon Falt of the Bobo Stenson Trio and Knut Aalefjaer of the Helge Lien Trio. Like Falt he has grown steadily into his role and has developed his presence within the group.

Although Belov?d is essentially an acoustic piano trio Bates has now also introduced an element of his musical past into the group. An electric keyboard was perched on top of the piano which Bates sometimes used to double up the melody line albeit in a different key. “I’m often asked if this keyboard is supposed to be out of tune” said Bates, “the answer is yes, it is”. Like Bruun’s drumming this was another delightfully idiosyncratic component of an already delightfully unusual trio. 

The trio began tonight’s performance with a stunning segue of pieces beginning with the impressionistic melancholy of Bates’ “Sadness All The Way Down”, all glacial piano and filigree drum work and culminating in doomy low end piano rumblings before erupting into a playful take on Parker’s “Scrapple From The Apple”. As at Cheltenham Bates was all over the keyboard, utilising it’s full length and tossing in unexpected cadences and clusters as well as indulging in the occasional keyboard sweep. The third part of a four song segment was Bates own “Peonies As Promised” (Bates has always had a fondness for horticultural titles) which represented another period of comparative introspection before a rumbustious Latin flavoured romp through Parker’s “My Little Suede Shoes” with Bates cheekily squeezing a quote from “La Cucaracha” into his solo. This was a great start that demonstrated just what the Belov?d trio is all about, a seamless mix of Bates and Parker material sourced across both of the trio’s albums.

The trio had just as much fun with their take on “Star Eyes”, another Parker favourite. Bates audacious two hand flourishes and keyboard sweeps were again balanced by more contemplative moments including a feature for bassist Eldh above a backdrop of gently twinkling piano and Bruun’s gently eloquent drum commentary.

Bates announcing style remains as delightfully eccentric as ever but even so he didn’t introduce every tune. I’m no ornithologist so I’m not going to try and guess the identity of every Parker piece. So let’s just say that the first set played itself out with more of the same, two tunes offering the now familiar mix of bustling if skewed Parker-isms and a more European style flowing lyricism. I’d hazard a guess that the second of these, which saw a kind of call and response between Bates and Bruun that developed from a single note phrase was in fact “Billie’s Bounce”. Bates has never stayed in one musical place for long, even in the course of a single tune and in many ways the music of Belov?d represents his career in microcosm.

An equally absorbing second set included Bates’ radically re-arranged interpretation of Parker’s “Ah-Leu-Cha”, a drastically slowed down version featuring the eerie wordless vocals of all three musicians.

The energy and playfulness of both “Donna Lee” and “Confirmation” was closer to the spirit of the originals but one was left in no doubt that both had been thoroughly “Django-ised”. “Confirmation” was particularly dense and busy with Bates and his colleagues adding even greater complexity to Parker’s already notoriously challenging material. What was palpable was the sense of enjoyment the threesome were deriving from their gleeful raiding of the Parker canon. This was the sound of a group having serious fun indeed, Bates has lost none of his impishness over the years and despite a receding hairline still sports the gaudy shirts and trademark hat of his youth. His cheerful eccentricity spills over into his music, he may spend a lot of time away from the UK these days but Django Bates really should be regarded as a national treasure.

In a way Bates’ blend of respect and healthy irreverence for Parker’s music reminds me of the iconoclastic New York “bebop terrorist band” Mostly Other People Do The Killing led by bassist and composer Moppa Elliott.  Belov?d and MOPDTK may sound very different but they seem to share a common attitude to the tradition that draws on the best of the past to create thrilling contemporary music.

Belov?d’s deserved encore was Parker’s “Now’s The Time”, the trio taking the familiar snatch of melody and twisting it into fascinating new shapes. The trio’s music is a compelling blend of playfulness and intellectual rigour and it’s often difficult for the listener to keep up with the sheer flow of Bates’ ideas. Nevertheless this was a thrilling musical roller coaster ride full of sudden and abrupt twists with Bates in full creative spate. Bruun and Eldh seem better equipped to keep pace with him than they did in 2011 and as Belov?d move gradually further away from Parker as a source of inspiration it’s tempting to speculate as to just how an album of all original material might sound. It’s highly likely that this configuration may mature into one of the world’s leading contemporary jazz piano trios.

Tony Dudley Evans who introduced tonight’s performance informed the audience that the Belov?d trio plus guest vocalist Ashley Slater (who makes a cameo appearance on the “Confirmation” album) will be joined by Sweden’s Norbotten Big Band for a special performance at the Royal Albert Hall during the 2013 Proms season. The programme will include a new Bates composition “The Study Of Touch” plus a selection of Parker material. The event is Prom 62; A Celebration of Charlie Parker” and takes place on Wednesday 28th August 2013 at 10.15 pm. It will be broadcast live on Radio 3 and for those of us who can’t actually be there the transmission should be well worth hearing. More information can be found at; http://www.bbc.co.uk/proms/whats-on/2013/people/django-bates

Prior to tonight’s Beloved concert I enjoyed Jazzlines free early evening event held in the Foyer of Symphony Hall and featuring the music of the Lyric Ensemble. This was the final creative project of the late Michael Garrick MBE and featured his compositions and words plus settings of the poems of others. The album is reviewed elsewhere on this site.

Following Garrick’s death saxophonist Tony Woods has assumed leadership of the group with Nikki Iles replacing Garrick at the piano. The group is fronted by singer Nette Robinson with bassist Matt Ridley completing the ensemble. An attentive teatime audience enjoyed the quartet’s blend of poetry and chamber jazz in a performance that embraced both the serious and the playful. Lighter moments came with a setting of William Blake’s “Laughing Song” and Garrick originals “Promises” and “Spring Departures”. Settings of Robert Browning’s “Home Thoughts” and Siegried Sassoon’s “Everyone Sang” were more formal and frequently very beautiful. Garrick’s own “Aurian Wood” and Kenny Wheeler’s “Everyone’s Song But My Own” represented two contemporary British jazz classics and “Webster’s Mood” was Garrick’s homage to the great American saxophonist Ben Webster.

The Lyric Ensemble served Garrick’s memory well with a delightful performance that included much fine singing and playing. Nikki Iles was an inspired choice to take over Garrick’s role, Nette Robinson sang and scatted with clarity and precision, her voice catching the moods of the words she was singing. Tony Woods varied his sound by deploying alto and soprano saxophones plus the rarely heard alto clarinet. Ridley held down the bottom end with flexibility and intelligence and was given plenty of solo space alongside Woods and Iles. This was an impressive start to an evening of fine jazz in the Heart of England.