Django Bates’ Belovèd

Pianist Django Bates is one of the architects of the British jazz renaissance that began in the late 1980s, together with saxophonists like Courney Pine and Iain Bellamy. Bates, who was born near London in 1960, originally rejected the classic piano trio as he felt there were already too many such ensembles. But then, some 12 years ago, he met Swedish bass player Petter Eldh and Danish drummer Peter Bruun in Copenhagen and founded his trio Beloved, which plays a collage-like modern jazz, taking influences from pop, punk and folk motifs. Bates’s own compositions are unconventional in style, rough and complex with contrary rhythmic and melodic lines, but not at the expense of a pulsating groove. Jazz that has wit, playfulness and tonal control.