Django Bates Beloved - Confirmation

British pianist Bates pays homage to Charlie Parker through the idiosyncratic deconstruction of bebop classics, twisting the alto sax legend’s lines into weird shapes, while retaining their puckish sense of adventure. Bates’ knotty improvisations and skewed Monk-like basslines are fiendishly clever, but full of life and beauty, bursting into flurries of birdsong. Bassist Peter Eldh and drummer Peter Bruun match Bates’ creativity, rolling in like a steam train on ‘We Are Not Lost …’ before a drunken stumble around time signatures. On Bacharach and David’s ‘A House Is Not A Home’, the trio is joined by singer Ashley Slater and a swelling reverb, turning notes into phantoms.