Chris Bates

Bad pun intended…. That’s how I roll!

OK – we’ve all been crazy slogging through this so called ‘spring’ but we also know it’s inevitable that the seasons will change around here. The transformative power of change is truly a wonderful thing to watch season after season. Music has transformative powers as well – sometimes the song becomes the time. The daily grind of every second and minute dissolves into beats, measures and phrases that allow our normal patterns of life to be suspended. When I play music it transforms my perception of time so much that I lose sense of all those minutes and all that remains is the musical time of the song. It’s the magic of music. I hope you can come and enjoy some time within this musical world with me in May!

Wednesday May 8th: Jazz Central Studios 407 Central Ave NE, MPLS   8:30pm   $5-10 donation   All Ages welcome

Chris Bates’ Magica Improvisado presents: The Good Vibes trio.

Phil Hey on drums, Dave Hagedorn on vibes and CB on bass. This band recorded a bunch of music in December and we are working on getting it prepared for release. Original tunes and jazz classics re-imagined.

Friday May 10th: Bryan Nichols and Chris Bates duo at Icehouse. 6:30-9:30

Saturday May 11th: Hopkins Center for the Arts (click through for all the details and tickets)   8pm

Laura Caviani: From Bach to Bop (feat. Dave Hagedorn, Adam Meckler, David Milne, Phil Hey and Chris Bates). Pianist Laura Caviani has arranged several classical pieces for this ensemble including works from Schumann, Chopin, Bach, Schubert, Stravinsky and Faure. A very challenging and rewarding musical experience.

Monday May 13th: Atlantis Quartet at Icehouse   9:30pm  $7   21+

AQ will play the second set after a blistering first set from Luke Polipnick, Anthony Cox and JT Bates.

Tuesday May 14th: Framework at the Black Dog.   7:30pm

Chris Olson, Jay Epstein and CB will play all sorts of music for you. YUM.

Saturday May 18th: Jazz at St Barney’s (click through for details)   7pm

Mary Louise Knutson trio w/ Jay Epstein and Chris Bates. Mary Louise is always a blast to play music with. This will be a night of swinging fun!

Monday May 20th: Nate Shaw w/ Chris & Jt Bates at Icehouse   9:30pm   $7   21+

Jt and I are pleased and flipped to announce this trio date with our old rhythm section mate from Motion Poets – Nate Shaw! I will be sending out a special mailer regarding this concert as we get closer. It’s going to be seriously fun!!!!

I hope you all have an incredible May and I hope to see you at a show sometime! Thanks for stopping by and stay classy MPLS.

cb

The Bates Update

Last Friday I was playing a gig on a hotel deck in San Jose Del Cabo, Mexico with my friend, guitarist Todd Clouser. John Medeski (from Medeski, Martin and Wood, John Scofield etc) played keyboards and Anton Fier (Lounge Lizards, Feelies, Pere Ubu, Bill Laswell etc) was on drums. We had been gathered up to play a bunch of new music of Todd’s and it was fascinating to be in the middle of all the intense musical energy emanating from the stage. Everyone was open and connected confidently to the songs. It was enormous fun to play music with these guys and experience that raw connection when musical chemistry gels around great songs and you feel the band elevate and bring the audience right along with them! It’s these small, subtle moments that contain some of my favorite musical memories.

April Performance Highlights

Wednesday April 10th: Chris Bates’ Magica Improvisado

Jazz Central Studios   8:30pm   $5-10 donation.

ENORMOUS QUARTET: This is a long standing band I have had with some of my greatest musical friends. It has been dormant for the last few years but we are bringing it back for you now because we can. Is it a comeback? Let’s play the first game and find out?? Please join Park Evans on guitar, Chris Thomson on sax, Joey Phillips on drums and CB on bass as we play a crazy mix of original music, jazz standards and covers by Thom Yorke, Kevin Drew, Flaming Lips and The Police.

Friday April 12th: Todd Clouser & A.L.E. @ Amsterdam   Midnight set.

Saturday April 20th: Riverview Cafe   8pm   $10   All Ages

Zacc Harris Quartet: Come on out to the intimate Riverview Cafe for their annual listening event. I’ll be playing bass with Zacc on guitar, Bryan Nichols on keys and Jt Bates on drums. There will be plenty of music from Zacc’s CD “The Garden” and some new music as well! Always an awesome time playing with these fine fresh fellows. www.zaccharris.com

Sunday April 21st: Landmark Center Auditorium   4pm   $15   All Ages

Red Planet and Twin Cities Jazz Society present “The Spirit of ‘Trane”.

This will be a very special early evening concert featuring Red Planet playing the music of John Coltrane. Red Planet IS: Dean Magraw on guitar, Jay Epstein on drums and CB on bass. We have been playing and drawing inspiration from John Coltrane for our entire musical lives and we would be thrilled if you joined us for this special presentation of his music. http://www.tcjs.org/ for ticket and concert info.

Also this month I’ll be finishing the mixing for the Grease Gun project. Atlantis Quartet is also finishing up the mixing on our next record so stay tuned for more new music in the next few months. Stay classy!

photo by Don Berryman

February was fun! After some great music with Bryan Nichols and JT Bates, the debut of my series Magica Improvisado and the Todd Clouser CD release and short tour I’m excited to be back in town to play music for you! March is looking great with some very exciting shows and another tour with Todd.

March Highlights:

Friday and Saturday March 1st & 2nd:
- Chris Bates’ Red 5 @ Artists Quarter  9pm  $10

feat: Chris Bates, Brandon Wozniak, Jt Bates, Adam Meckler, Pete Whitman (3/1) and Chris Thomson (3/2).

Red 5 ensemble was created to challenge my abilities, to stretch my composing skills and lastly to celebrate the improvisational culture of this geographical area. This is NOT a SAFE band and it’s a testament to the depth of talent we have here in the Twin Cities that I can call on Pete Whitman and Adam Meckler to not just fill in but fully integrate into Red 5. This unit was built to celebrate the making of music. We let the moment take us. Each show is a unique experience, song to song, set to set, second to second, it’s pure joy. I think the smiles on our faces are proof. There is a great deal of love and respect on the bandstand and we really want our audience to participate in this…..its a community vibe!

This is Red 5…we are going in…full throttle, no holds barred, improvisation at its finest.
Wednesday March 5th:
- Bill Simenson Big Band @ Jazz Central  8:30pm  $5

Wednesday March 13th: 
- Chris Bates’ Magica Improvisado @ Jazz Central  8:30pm  $5

Magica Improvisado takes place on the 2nd Wednesday of the month and will feature a rotating cast of characters playing my original tunes in unique combinations. This month will be a solo bass concert with special bass guests.

Monday March 18th:
-Tatsuya Nakatani, Adam Linz and Chris Bates @ Black Dog 7:30pm $10

The return to the Twin Cities of percussionist and bowed gong artist Tatsuya Nakatani! This is going to be a phenomenal evening of improvisation. I highly recommend this show. Tatsuya Nakatani info.

Friday & Saturday March 22nd & 23rd:
- Atlantis Quartet @ Artists Quarter  9pm  $10

Atlantis Quartet continues to be one of my favorite outlets for playing music! There is so much energy and passion with this band that it’s hard to contain at times. We have a new album in the works and we’ll be playing lots of tunes from that plus many of our favorites! Join Brandon Wozniak, Zacc Harris, Pete Hennig and CB for a weekend of improvisational exploration in 3,4,5,7 and 9!

Tuesday March 26th:
- Adam Meckler Orchestra @ Jazz Central  8:30pm  $7

Thurs March 28th – Saturday March 30th:
- Todd Clouser tour in San Jose del Cabo, MX.
I’ll be playing bass with Todd bringing his rocking and eclectic tunes to life with an AMAZING band. The stellar rocker Anton Fier on drums and the genius John Medeski on keyboards for this little run. Talk about dreams coming true!

That’s all for now but I’m looking forward to many new musical adventures with you all in the spring of 2013 including upcoming album releases from Atlantis Quartet, the Good Vibes trio and Grease Gun.  I’m mixing the last chunk of the Grease Gun album in a week and I promise we’ll be leaking a few snippets after that. -cb

Well I just played a really nice show with Red 5 on Saturday night at Studio Z. The band played brilliantly and even thought the crowd was rather small we had a real connection going between performer and audience. It’s the kind of thing I live for. Whenever that connection happens it immediately takes the gig from normal to great and it’s simply because we’ve all decided to be INTO this MOMENT. Now. No cell phone pics, no texting your friend during the song you don’t like, no band members talking to each other within earshot of the rest of the band. Just pure honest musical expression being respected and absorbed by a willing audience. Simple and straight forward.

A couple of weeks ago I was in Florida playing with my good friend Todd Clouser and a drummer named Jason Stander. It was a great experience getting to know Jason and developing a new rapport with another drummer. We had a great time and the music was really gelling quite quickly . Todd and I will be working together quite a bit in the next couple of months. His new album comes out Feb 19th and so we are playing a CD Release show at Icehouse on Feb 16th and then going on a short tour down through Iowa into Oklahoma and back up. Then at the end of March I’ll be playing with Todd in Mexico with the great and powerful Anton Fier on drums and in a holy-shit-dreams-do-come-true moment John Medeski on keyboards. John is one of my musical heroes along with his bandmates in MMW. Needless to say I’ll be super happy on that gig.

The biggest news coming up right now has to do with Bach and France. I’ll be playing with Framework on Jan 25th and 26th at Patrick’s Cabaret as part of Bach Society’s concert series. This is a reprisal of last years collaboration but we’ll be performing a whole swath of different selections including some pieces with vocalist Carrie Henneman-Shaw. She’s the bee’s knees in the classical singing world. Then it’s off to France with my brother JT for a set of three gigs with the British pianist Tony Hymas. We made an album a little while ago that features a bunch of blues tunes reworked by Tony to reflect some of his influences.

Look for more in Spring 2013!

cb

“Hello all you boys and girls. I’d like to take you to the inside world. It’s quite an irregular place to be. But never fear you’re safe with me. Well, maybe.”

Jt, Chris and Tony @ Black Dog 2010. Party!

The Jape – Chris Bates’ Red 5 09-14-12