Django Bates

Biography

Django Bates (born Leon Bates, 2 October 1960) is a British jazz musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and educator. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. Bates has been described as "one of the most talented musicians Britain has produced... his work covers the entire spectrum of jazz, from early jazz through to bebop and free jazz to jazz-rock fusion."
In addition to his jazz work, he is also a classical composer (writing both large- and small-scale compositions on commission), theatre composer, and has taught as a professor at various European music schools. As a leader, his bands have included Human Chain, Delightful Precipice, Quiet Nights, Powder Room Collapse Orchestra and Belovèd, and he was also a leading figure in Loose Tubes and Bill Bruford's Earthworks.

Early life

Bates was born in Beckenham, then in Kent, now Greater London, England, and attended Sedgehill School. While at this school, he also attended the Centre for Young Musicians in London (1971–77), where he learned trumpet, piano, and violin. In 1977–78, he studied at Morley College. In 1978, he enrolled at the Royal College of Music to study composition but left after two weeks.

As jazz musician

Bates founded Human Chain in 1979 and, in the 1980s, he rose to prominence in a jazz orchestra called Loose Tubes. In 1991, he started the 19-piece jazz orchestra Delightful Precipice. He also assembled the Powder Room Collapse Orchestra (which recorded Music for The Third Policeman) and created Circus Umbilicus, a musical circus show. Bates has appeared as a sideman or member of Dudu Pukwana's Zila, Tim Whitehead's Borderline, Ken Stubbs's First House, Bill Bruford's Earthworks, Sidsel Endresen, and in the bands of George Russell and George Gruntz. He has performed with Michael Brecker, Tim Berne, Christian Jarvi, Vince Mendoza, David Sanborn, Kate Rusby, and Don Alias.

As composer

Bates has concentrated on writing large-scale compositions on commission. These include:

"Dream Kitchen" for percussionist Evelyn Glennie
"Fine Frenzy" for the Shobhana Jeyasingh Dance Company
"What It's Like to be Alive", a piano concerto for Joanna MacGregor and the Royal Liverpool Philharmonic Orchestra
"2000 Years Beyond UNDO", a concerto for electric keyboard that was performed at the millennium Barbican Festival
Bates worked closely with director Lucy Bailey on several theatre projects, including Gobbledegook for the Gogmagogs, Baby Doll, (Birmingham Rep, National Theatre, Albery Theatre), Stairs to the Roof (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Postman Always Rings Twice (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Albery Theatre) and Titus Andronicus (Shakespeare's Globe). They also worked on a short film You Can Run. Other theatre work includes Gregory Doran's production of As You Like It (RSC), and Campbell Graham's Out There!.
Bates was the inaugural artistic director of the music festival FuseLeeds in 2004. He used this opportunity to initiate the first orchestral commission for Jonny Greenwood of Radiohead. Bates also commissioned sixty composers including Laurie Anderson, Gavin Bryars, Patrick Moore, and John Zorn, to write one bar each. He then quilted these bars into the piece "Premature Celebration", which was performed by Evan Parker and the London Sinfonietta to celebrate Parker's 60th birthday.

Teaching

In 2002, Bates was a tutor at the Banff Centre jazz programme alongside Jim Black and Dave Douglas. In July 2005, Bates was appointed Professor of Rhythmic Music at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory (RMC) in Copenhagen, Denmark. He was appointed visiting professor of jazz at the Royal Academy of Music in London in September 2010. In September 2011, he was appointed Professor of Jazz at HKB Bern, Switzerland.

Awards and honours

The Wire voted Bates Best UK Jazz Composer in 1987 and 1990.

The Jazzpar Prize, 1997
The Ivors Jazz Award, 2019
In 2008, he was nominated for the PRS New Music Award.
He was awarded a fellowship by the Leeds College of Music in 1995.

As sideman

With Loose Tubes

Loose Tubes (1985)
Delightful Precipice (1986)
Open Letter (1988)
Dancing on Frith Street (recorded live 1990) (2010)
Säd Afrika (recorded live 1990) (2012)
With Billy Jenkins

Greenwich (1985)
Uncommerciality Vol 1 (1986)
Scratches of Spain (1987)
With First House

Eréndira (1985)
Cantilena (1989)
With Bill Bruford's Earthworks

Earthworks (1987)
Dig? (1989)
All Heaven Broke Loose (1991)
Stamping Ground (1994)
Heavenly Bodies (1997)
With Iain Ballamy

Balloon Man (1989)
All Men Amen (1995)
With Tim Berne's Caos Totale

Nice View (JMT, 1994)
With Anouar Brahem

Blue Maqams (ECM, 2017)
After the Last Sky (ECM, 2025)
With Sidsel Endresen

So I Write (1990)
Exile (1993)
With Julian Argüelles

Skull View (1997)
Escapade (1999)
With others

Dudu Pukwana – Life in Bracknell and Willisau (1983)
Tim Whitehead's Borderline – English People (1983)
Dudu Pukwana – Zila '86 (1986)
Social Systems – Research (1987)
The Dedication Orchestra – Spirits Rejoice (1992)
Hank Roberts – Little Motor People (JMT, 1993)
Christy Doran – Play the music of Jimi Hendrix (1994)
Harry Beckett – Bates plays piano on song: 'Les Jardins du Casino' – Les Jardins du Casino (1995), Maxine (2010)
Michael Gibbs — Big Music (ACT, 1996)
Bendik Hofseth – Colours (1997)
Søren Nørbo Trio – Debates (2005)
Marius Neset – Golden XPlosion (2011)