The Bad Plus Meets Django Bates live at London Jazz Festival 2010

Ethan Iverson (piano)
Reid Anderson (bass)
Dave King (drums)
Django Bates (Eb horn, electric piano, vocals and effects)
Recorded at Kings Place during the London Jazz Festival 2010,  November 20, 2010

Part I
Part II
Part III
Part IV a and b

Here we present a special collaboration between US alt-jazz trio The Bad Plus and UK maverick composer and bandleader Django Bates. Known for their deconstructions of pop hits, The Bad Plus have developed a fresh approach to the piano trio line up over the last decade. One of their musical inspirations is the UK musician Django Bates, particularly his work with the English big band Loose Tubes and his own group Delightful Precipice. This concert brings them together for the first time. Recorded at Kings Place during the London Jazz Festival 2010.
NEVER STOP is the first album by The Bad Plus to consist entirely of originals. Recorded in Minnesota with a live, stripped-down sound, NEVER STOP showcases the band's range as well as its three distinct personalities. From gentle and melodic to fierce and abstract, from swing to 80's techno, NEVER STOP is tied together by a group sound that embraces diversity as strength. Ten years in, The Bad Plus is here to stay.

Django Bates Beloved Bird live at Jazzfest Berlin 2010

Django Bates, piano
Petter Eldh, bass
Peter Bruun, drums

recorded live at Haus der Berliner Festspiele, Main Stage, November 7, 2010

1. Billies Bounce
2. Scrapple From The Apple/ Wedges
3. My Little Suede Shoes
4. Sadness (All The Way Down)/ Star Eyes
5. Hot House/ Ex Pat
6. Ah Leu Cha
7. Confirmation

Three months ago we were able to present another great concert by Django Bates´ Beloved Bird Trio recorded at the Vortex London.

"Having heard Charlie Parker’s music from my birth onwards, I knew it was good in the way that I knew that food was good. It was nutrition: a life force. At a time when my school friends started worshipping football players, my father seized his moment and lent me “Bird Lives”; a highly romanticized view of the life of Charlie Parker. I found my hero.
Living in a boring suburb of London, I was virtually alone in my special interest. I took to whistling Bebop tunes on train station platforms in the hope of meeting other Bird obsessive, and surprisingly this actually paid off. I met saxophonist Steve Buckley through a whistled song, (which is also the way that feathered birds meet), and we rehearsed every Sunday for a year. We ruined his father’s collection of Parker 78s by slowing them down to 16 rpm and lifting the needle up every 2 beats in order to unravel the fascinating horn lines.
In 2005 I was asked to contribute to a celebration of the life of Charlie Parker at Copenhagen Jazz House. I used the opportunity to arrange compositions that I most associated with Parker; tracks like Scrapple From the Apple, Hot House, Billie’s Bounce, Laura, My Little Suede Shoes, Now’s the Time...
The acoustic piano trio is a constellation beloved of jazz listeners and players throughout the world. Seeing the Bill Evans trio at Ronnie Scott’s club weeks before he died, and The Bad Plus in Cambridge, were two of my most memorable musical experiences. I decided to use the classic trio line-up for my exploration of Bird’s music.
I believe there is no point in recording unless one has something special to say. Now’s the time to say something special: Bird Lives!" - Django Bates

Django Bates Trio "Beloved Bird" live at The Vortex, London 2010

Django Bates - Piano

Petter Eldh - Bass

Peter Bruun - Drums

recorded live at "The Vortex", London, April 13, 2010

1. Moose The Mooche (Parker)

2. Little Suede Shoes (Parker)

3. Hot House (Dameron)

4. Ex Pat (Django Bates)

5. Ah-Leu-Cha (Parker)

6. Now's The Time (Parker)

We proudly present a concert by pianist Django Bates and his new trio Beloved Bird, in which they perform new interpretations of music by Bates' hero, the pioneering saxophonist Charlie Parker. Bates has said, 'having heard Charlie Parker's music from my birth onwards, I knew it was good in the way that I knew that food was good. It was nutrition: a life force'. Parker classics such as Now's The Time and Moose the Mooche will be re-arranged and de-constructed resulting in various levels of recognizability.
Beloved Bird features Petter Eldh on bass and Peter Bruun on drums. Best known for playing keyboards, this is the first time Bates has toured with an acoustic piano trio in many years, and he acknowledges that two classic American piano trios provided particular inspiration: the Bill Evans Trio and The Bad Plus. For the latter, the admiration is certainly mutual, and this programme also features an extensive interview with Bates by Bad Plus pianist Ethan Iverson.
Now residing in Copenhagen, where he's Professor of Rhythmic Music at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory, Django Bates first came into the public eye as a member of seminal 1980s big band Loose Tubes. Since then he has led his own large ensemble Delightful Precipice, found an outlet for his more experimental compositions with his small group Human Chain and won numerous awards including being voted Best UK Jazz Composer three times by The Wire.