The ‘kin way in!
(Put it on yer ‘kin pod)
Miss, have we got any drumsticks innit blud??…. Hello again. Sorry it’s been a while- I’m doing a ‘kin PGCE at the mo, learning how to get my message across properly to Secondary School kidz. I managed to get Lennie Tristano (see earlier “ben talks jazz”) into the first piece of schoolwork I prepared, so it’s going to plan!! This baby’z gonna keep your ears busy forever, so you shouldn’t feel cheated by my brief absence. (If you do, I’ll steal yer ‘kin dinner money)
Django Bates: You Live And Learn…(Apparently) [2004]
1. You Live And Learn…(Apparently)
2. Revision
3. My Way
4. Weird World
5. Life On Mars
6. Cumulus
7. Horses In Rain
8. Football
9. From Chaos, Anything Is Possible
10. Around Each Corner
11. Interval Song
12. Alone Again (Naturally)
Keyboards/ Eflat Horn/ Vocals/ England’s greatest composer: Django Bates
Tenor Sax: Iain Ballamy
Vocals: Josefine Lindstrand
Drums/ Percussion: Martin France
Bass: Michael Mondesir
Strings: The Smith Quartet
Guests: David Sanborn (alto sax), Chris Batchelor (trumpet), Jim Mullen (guitar), Laurence Cottle (bass), Barak Schmool (percussion), Nikki Yeoh (vocals), School-kids.
Two reasons for the Django selection- First is that I went to some of the F-IRE collective festival performances at Kings place, nr Kings Cross station the other week. (BUT I COULDN’T GET TO SEE DJANGO’S stoRMChaser group!!) What I did see though was amazing, and in the Django Bates vein. “Oh I love F-IRE” http://www.f-ire.com/ (and not just cos I’ve mega fancied Ingrid Laubrock since approx 2004). Second is that I’ve just bought a new ‘kin laptop. I took her back to Derby to commit hours and hours into putting stuff onto itunez, so my beautiful sounds could follow me on my travels. I didn’t want to stick full albums on and waste space with filler, so I just picked tracks off. Out of the hundreds there were only three FULL albums that made the grade- “For Pleasure” by Omar, “One Sweet Life” by Brotherly, and Django’s “You Live And Learn…(Apparently)”. (I also got a nice picture of Jane Seymour in “Live and Let Die” for my wallpaper- aint she just great!?)
So, Django Bates has been on the scene since the 80’s and has given us so much MUSIC. If he were a part of the brain, he’d be the “good ideas” bit, and even though all his stuff sounds very Django, no two albums are samey. There’s something for Jazz and 20th century classical lovers, but Pop and “World” fans will take as much, aswell as anyone with emotions or a sense of humour. Of course credit needs to go to the amazing musicians that step up to play the necessary instruments, and are I’m sure vital to the finished product, but to have a bandleader with so much musical personality is the reason this music is celebrated round the entire globe. What I love (as a composer) is that no part of any track is neglected. There’s no “ooh that’s a nice chord sequence and beat, lets just loop it for ages”. It’s nu music made the old skool way.
“You Live and Learn” is probably the most accessible album to new listeners. There’s a small band +string quartet set-up, and it’s mainly song based, but they’re like songs you’ll have never heard before. The title track was inspired by Django’s desire to write a pop song with musical finesse – “financial success would be assured if he failed, and if he succeeded the band would have another fine piece to play”. Football, The Millennium Dome, Education- (The Interval Song contains every musical interval sung over every possible bass note in the most annoyingly catchy way), and darker themes like losing loved ones (in O’Sullivan’s “Alone Again (Naturally)” set to a masterful string arrangement) are presented Bates stylee, and I guarantee his treatment of the Sinatra favourite “My Way” will leave you screaming “I LOVE POST-MODERNISM”.. If you give a shit, my favourite bits are the end groove of “Weird World”, the lushness explosion in “Horses In Rain”, “Football”, the title track, AND the strings in general.
So, for the unlucky ones of you that haven’t got all the tapes already, Bates n his gang are masters of making highly complex and deeply emotional music that could entertain even the most juvenile ear. It’s clever, it’s fun, it’s funNY, it’s beautiful, and it’s catchy, and there’s absolutely no possibility of second guessing which direction the phlavaz will go. “You Live And Learn… (Apparently)” really is the triumph of man over music.
Please please please those that do check it out- don’t just stick it on in the background whilst you chat to yer mayyyytes n offer opinions after snatched listens. It deserves attention, volume, and should be passionately embraced (like Jane Seymour and Ingrid Laubrock).
Best listened to: Yes
Check Django’s website (odd address I know), for this stuff, old stuff, and the new album!
