{"id":8959,"date":"2018-01-05T17:41:15","date_gmt":"2018-01-06T01:41:15","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/?p=8959"},"modified":"2018-01-08T11:01:35","modified_gmt":"2018-01-08T19:01:35","slug":"recent-listening-django-bates-trio","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/2018\/01\/recent-listening-django-bates-trio\/","title":{"rendered":"Recent Listening: Django Bates Trio"},"content":{"rendered":"

Django Bates\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Belov\u00c3\u00a8d, The Study Of Touch<\/a> (ECM)<\/p>\n

\"\"<\/p>\n

Following his engrossing participation in Anouar Brahem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Blue Maqams<\/em>, pianist Bates returns to ECM with his trio in nine of his compositions, a Charlie Parker piece and one by British saxophonist Iain Ballamy. In the Blue Maquams<\/em> review, I wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For his soft touch and canny harmonies, Bates was a perfect choice.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d His approach to the keyboard is the central attraction in this trio collection, as much for his gentle release of notes as for his soft initial keystrokes. That is not to suggest that there is anything resembling cocktail or background music in his approach to the instrument. This is an album that deserves\u00e2\u20ac\u201dindeed, requires\u00e2\u20ac\u201dattention. If aspects of pianists like John Lewis, Bill Evans and Tommy Flanagan come to mind, Bates\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s touch is unlikely to be mistaken for theirs. The depth and substance of his chords buoy virtually every passage, including those in the trio\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s brief romp through Bates\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s reworking of Parker\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Passport,\u00e2\u20ac\u009d which has rhythmic quirks that may challenge the listener\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s ability to recognize that the piece is a blues. Ballamy\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s \u00e2\u20ac\u0153This World\u00e2\u20ac\u009d has lyricism with a quiet melodic and harmonic suggestion of \u00e2\u20ac\u0153Danny Boy.\u00e2\u20ac\u009d Bates fills it with flowing expression that blooms just short of outright pianistic display.<\/p>\n

There is nothing in Bates\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s work here that has quite the thrusting intensity of his interaction with Brahem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s oud in parts of Blue Maqams<\/a>. Still, the subtle flow of energy among Bates and his longtime sidemen, bassist Petter Eidh and drummer Peter Brun, is a primary factor in the success of an album that seems likely to be a highlight of jazz releases in 2018.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Django Bates\u00e2\u20ac\u2122 Belov\u00c3\u00a8d, The Study Of Touch (ECM) Following his engrossing participation in Anouar Brahem\u00e2\u20ac\u2122s Blue Maqams, pianist Bates returns to ECM with his trio in nine of his compositions, a Charlie Parker piece and one by British saxophonist Iain Ballamy. In the Blue Maquams review, I wrote, \u00e2\u20ac\u0153For his soft touch and canny harmonies, […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":8960,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[4],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-8959","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-main","8":"entry"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8959","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=8959"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8959\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/8960"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=8959"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=8959"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.artsjournal.com\/rifftides\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=8959"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}