DJANGO BATES - Hanging In The Air...
Interview by Chris Baber
In the Autumn of 2017, Django Bates has returned to the ECM label, with his piano trio, Belovèd and their The Study of Touch album, as well as playing piano on Anouar Brahem’s Blue Maqams, alongside Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. In this interview, I ask about the Belovèd album and begin by pointing out it has been some time since he was on ECM. “After First House, there were two albums with Sidsel Endresen and then, yes indeed, a long gap... Over the years I’ve often gone back to certain tracks from my early ECM works with the observation that they captured something very different from my own recordings. Somehow they are less planned; more like actual performances preserved. On my first album with Sidsel there are intense and spontaneous moments between me and Nils Petter Molvaer because we’d only just met and were trying things out for the first time.”
In the Autumn of 2017, Django Bates has returned to the ECM label, with his piano trio, Belovèd and their The Study of Touch album, as well as playing piano on Anouar Brahem’s Blue Maqams, alongside Dave Holland and Jack DeJohnette. In this interview, I ask about the Belovèd album and begin by pointing out it has been some time since he was on ECM. “After First House, there were two albums with Sidsel Endresen and then, yes indeed, a long gap... Over the years I’ve often gone back to certain tracks from my early ECM works with the observation that they captured something very different from my own recordings. Somehow they are less planned; more like actual performances preserved. On my first album with Sidsel there are intense and spontaneous moments between me and Nils Petter Molvaer because we’d only just met and were trying things out for the first time.”
The Study of Touch continues Bates’ exploration of the piano trio, which is somewhat ironic given his belief that there were enough piano trios in the world. He tells the story of, when, he had started teaching at Copenhagen’s Rhythmic Music Academy, in 2005, “I was walking along its corridors when I heard a drummer and a bass player playing in an ensemble in one of the practise rooms, and thought ‘If I ever changed my mind about piano trios I’d definitely want to use those two guys’”. The trio released their first recording, Belovèd Birdin 2010 and this was followed in 2012 by Confirmation (both released on Bates’ own Lost Marble label).
I asked what makes the piano trio structure work for the three of you? “The difference between this and other bands of mine is the way it was created. We rehearsed everything to do with musical performance for a year before I introduced any composed music. We’d set up a different way every week until we found the final position that gave perfect sight-lines and the best internal acoustic sound. Practising freely with very open instructions - fast, quiet, gauchely, gingerly - gave the band a common background of spontaneity. So now when I bring a new, detailed, written piece like Slippage Street we still approach it with open minds as if we were at one of our early improvisation sessions." Bates also notes that, “What Petter and Peter bring to this music of mine is a refusal to play what I’ve written. It’s difficult for a composer to learn that this can be the best way, and hard to explain why it works. I write very detailed music, there’s no lack of detail, and I have my dream sound in mind. Then these guys, each of them, adds at least one other layer of their own. And they bring their own personalities to the music, and then it really takes off…” He develops this point further in our interview, “Some of the music is very clearly defined by me as the composer, but even with these parts I accept anything which can be seen to build upon what’s written. I play with different possibilities within the trio, for example: the first and last pieces on the album are completely written for piano and bass but the drums are left to comment with complete freedom. I often write sections that have the purpose of merging from written music into improvisation. The music I write down has the function of setting the scene, providing a context for improvisation, playing with the expectations of the listener, exploring where else an initial story can lead to.”
I asked what makes the piano trio structure work for the three of you? “The difference between this and other bands of mine is the way it was created. We rehearsed everything to do with musical performance for a year before I introduced any composed music. We’d set up a different way every week until we found the final position that gave perfect sight-lines and the best internal acoustic sound. Practising freely with very open instructions - fast, quiet, gauchely, gingerly - gave the band a common background of spontaneity. So now when I bring a new, detailed, written piece like Slippage Street we still approach it with open minds as if we were at one of our early improvisation sessions." Bates also notes that, “What Petter and Peter bring to this music of mine is a refusal to play what I’ve written. It’s difficult for a composer to learn that this can be the best way, and hard to explain why it works. I write very detailed music, there’s no lack of detail, and I have my dream sound in mind. Then these guys, each of them, adds at least one other layer of their own. And they bring their own personalities to the music, and then it really takes off…” He develops this point further in our interview, “Some of the music is very clearly defined by me as the composer, but even with these parts I accept anything which can be seen to build upon what’s written. I play with different possibilities within the trio, for example: the first and last pieces on the album are completely written for piano and bass but the drums are left to comment with complete freedom. I often write sections that have the purpose of merging from written music into improvisation. The music I write down has the function of setting the scene, providing a context for improvisation, playing with the expectations of the listener, exploring where else an initial story can lead to.”
The trio’s first CD, Belovèd Bird, was commissioned by Copenhagen Jazz House for arrangements of Charlie Parker tunes. On The Study of Touch, they include a short, lesser-known, Parker tune. “On this album there is one Parker tune “Passport" as a reminder of Belovèd’s first influence. The title felt pertinent in the light of the disaster of Brexit. Charlie Parker was my first childhood hero. There is a childish joy in his improvising and in his saxophone sound that makes me smile. For me, he’s the very essence of jazz and his work has informed my ideas about what brings a melody to life and what makes it personal.”, explains Bates.
The Study of Touch begins with melancholic, almost hesitant piano playing, with Bates moving around the keys and working a new version of an old piece. “Sadness All The Way Down was one of the first pieces I wrote specifically for the Belovèd trio. I went walking with just pencil and paper and wrote some very childish guidelines like, “start at the very top of the piano and go all the way to the very bottom”. I like the challenge of turning such a simple instruction into a very detailed composition. For this new album I wrote a piece called "Happiness All The Way Up" as an answer to the earlier piece and of course it made sense to include them both as bookends to the album. “Happiness" ends on an imaginary note, an aural illusion made without studio trickery, one note higher than the last note on the piano, like a stretching for the impossible. I like to record new versions of old works because Belovèd are eternally remodelling the music and I hope people like to observe this growth.”
The title track has been performed live several times (after its premiere at the The Proms) and Bates wanted to document the piece, “And it also seemed a good name for an album" he adds, "so we started to build pieces around it to tell a story. And they could be old pieces or newer pieces, it didn’t really matter to me, because our music is always changing and evolving. By memorising the music and allowing it to constantly develop, we take away the unnecessary division between what is written and what is improvised. At a Belovèd gig you hear big slices of wide-ranging music bound together by a constant flow of interplay between the three musicians. I play a lot more in Belovèd than I do in my other projects, which often have a huge density of sound. Nothing is lost, nothing is hidden in the trio. Everything I play has a space to have a meaning.” The CD includes reworkings of tunes from the Confirmation CD, but these have been changed to such an extent that each has the feel of a new piece.
The Study of Touch begins with melancholic, almost hesitant piano playing, with Bates moving around the keys and working a new version of an old piece. “Sadness All The Way Down was one of the first pieces I wrote specifically for the Belovèd trio. I went walking with just pencil and paper and wrote some very childish guidelines like, “start at the very top of the piano and go all the way to the very bottom”. I like the challenge of turning such a simple instruction into a very detailed composition. For this new album I wrote a piece called "Happiness All The Way Up" as an answer to the earlier piece and of course it made sense to include them both as bookends to the album. “Happiness" ends on an imaginary note, an aural illusion made without studio trickery, one note higher than the last note on the piano, like a stretching for the impossible. I like to record new versions of old works because Belovèd are eternally remodelling the music and I hope people like to observe this growth.”
The title track has been performed live several times (after its premiere at the The Proms) and Bates wanted to document the piece, “And it also seemed a good name for an album" he adds, "so we started to build pieces around it to tell a story. And they could be old pieces or newer pieces, it didn’t really matter to me, because our music is always changing and evolving. By memorising the music and allowing it to constantly develop, we take away the unnecessary division between what is written and what is improvised. At a Belovèd gig you hear big slices of wide-ranging music bound together by a constant flow of interplay between the three musicians. I play a lot more in Belovèd than I do in my other projects, which often have a huge density of sound. Nothing is lost, nothing is hidden in the trio. Everything I play has a space to have a meaning.” The CD includes reworkings of tunes from the Confirmation CD, but these have been changed to such an extent that each has the feel of a new piece.
Click on the album cover to read our review
One of my favourite tracks on the CD is ‘Little Petherick’, which feels like it pulls in lots of different jazz piano styles in its 6 minutes, but keeps everything in a delicately framed vision. I asked Django, how do you go come up with initial ideas for a piece, and then develop these in the composition? “Little Petherick is a small village in Cornwall. My mother spent the last part of her life in Cornwall and I visited her there regularly until her death earlier this year. Unusually for me, this is a piece composed in the traditional way whereby a melody comes to mind and haunts the composer until he or she completes it. I was in Cornwall when I wrote the piece and it is meant as a picture of a peaceful, free, pastoral Britain that probably only exists in my imagination.”
This is an intimate set that follows from the massive blow-out of the recording with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band and the group ‘Eggs Laid by Turtles’ (in which Peter Brunn drums). We asked how did you manage the transition from the very big to the very small? “Composing music always feels like a rewarding act of creation. I don’t change the feelings or the methods for different projects, be they large or small. I gather ideas, develop them, and share them among whichever instruments are in the band in a way that keeps everyone involved, engaged, challenged, amused… When working on a new piece I often picture myself in an audience hearing it for the first time. This raises useful questions like "how long can a simple idea be pursued?”, “Can this section cope with another layer of musical activity?”, “Should this piece end with a feeling of conclusion or should I just leave it hanging in the air like a…”
For more information visit ECM Records and Django's website.
This is an intimate set that follows from the massive blow-out of the recording with the Frankfurt Radio Big Band and the group ‘Eggs Laid by Turtles’ (in which Peter Brunn drums). We asked how did you manage the transition from the very big to the very small? “Composing music always feels like a rewarding act of creation. I don’t change the feelings or the methods for different projects, be they large or small. I gather ideas, develop them, and share them among whichever instruments are in the band in a way that keeps everyone involved, engaged, challenged, amused… When working on a new piece I often picture myself in an audience hearing it for the first time. This raises useful questions like "how long can a simple idea be pursued?”, “Can this section cope with another layer of musical activity?”, “Should this piece end with a feeling of conclusion or should I just leave it hanging in the air like a…”
For more information visit ECM Records and Django's website.
