Django Bates & Stormchaser - Spring is Here

[Bruce Lindfield]

Well if you want something "challenging" ,but also strangely accessible - then this is taking Jazz to some new boundaries!

Ostensibly this is a "big band" recording made mostly with DJango Bates students - but that doesn't prepare you for the incredible talent and huge variety on show in this CD!

It is seriously weird and yet it makes sense - the big band at times sound like they are falling downstairs - but all together in perfect time!

The other unusual thing about this is the prominence given to vocals and in fact two tracks are just the "choir" - also the lyrics are eccentric and their weirdness is exacerbated by the cool scandinavian accents.

How to describe this music - ? Well it is somewhat in the tradition of Loose Tubes, European Big Bands - but also there's some Zappa and the Mothers in there.

I can only say that you have to hear it - there really is nothing like this about and you can't fail to be surprised ...pleasantly!!

[LutherBlissett]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

Well if you want something "challenging" ,but also strangely accessible - then this is taking Jazz to some new boundaries!

Ostensibly this is a "big band" recording made mostly with DJango Bates students - but that doesn't prepare you for the incredible talent and huge variety on show in this CD!

It is seriously weird and yet it makes sense - the big band at times sound like they are falling downstairs - but all together in perfect time!

The other unusual thing about this is the prominence given to vocals and in fact two tracks are just the "choir" - also the lyrics are eccentric and their weirdness is exacerbated by the cool scandinavian accents.

How to describe this music - ? Well it is somewhat in the tradition of Loose Tubes, European Big Bands - but also there's some Zappa and the Mothers in there.

I can only say that you have to hear it - there really is nothing like this about and you can't fail to be surprised ...pleasantly!!

Nice review , will check it soon

yes Django has always been in a world of his own

[Bruce Lindfield]

Yes there really is nothing like this - so I feel that normally composers have to make compromises with big bands, as they don't necessarily know who will be playing the music.

But as he was working with these people over an extended period - it appears that no concessions have been made and it is much more wacky and "out there" than you would expect from material that is as "composed" - so it often sounds as if the whole band is improvising together, but clearly they must have been playing to instruction, to keep together.

[LutherBlissett]

Originally Posted by Bruce Lindfield

Yes there really is nothing like this - so I feel that normally composers have to make compromises with big bands, as they don't necessarily know who will be playing the music.

But as he was working with these people over an extended period - it appears that no concessions have been made and it is much more wacky and "out there" than you would expect from material that is as "composed" - so it often sounds as if the whole band is improvising together, but clearly they must have been playing to instruction, to keep together.

yes, sounds like an earlier project Delightful Precipice , have u heard that ? Bates used student ensembles before Royal Acad. in UK, he writes alot of complex Pre-D stuff then improvs over it : freedom and order in tandem , it does take rehearsals to do it well