Django Bates hits 60 with grand salute to Charlie Parker on new LP and concerts at Frankfurt Jazz Festival
Monday, August 17, 2020
The renowned pianist makes a big band return to celebrate his 60th birthday and Charlie Parker's 100th anniversary
Internationally renowned British pianist and composer Django Bates is set to mark his 60th birthday this autumn with a major new album, Tenacity, his large-scale celebration of the music of Charlie Parker (2020 is the saxophonist’s centenary year), released on 2 October via his own Lost Marble imprint.
The album once again features his highly regarded Belovèd trio of bassist Petter Eldh and drummer Peter Bruun, as well as Sweden’s Norrbotten Big Band, on a wide-ranging suite that mischievously deconstructs some of Parker’s best-loved pieces that sit beside four wistful Bates originals.
Commenting on the project the pianist said: “Charlie Parker was a childhood hero of mine, perhaps because a live recording of his ‘My Little Suede Shoes’ was playing in the room as I was born. While my school friends had shrines to Gordon Banks and other sportsmen with cubist hairstyles, I had a self-made plasticine model of my hero Charlie Parker.”
Bates is currently a professor of jazz at Bern University of the Arts, Switzerland and in 2019 was awarded the The Ivors Jazz Award.
The album will now get a live launch at the Frankfurt Jazz festival 2020 as Bates’ Trio are joined by the HR Big Band ‘Celebrating Charlie Parker’ for two back-to-back concerts on 28 October – taking place at 6pm and 8.30pm – full details here www.hr2.de/veranstaltungen
See the October issue of Jazzwise for a major interview with Django Bates about the album and reaching his 60th milestone.