Bates Update – May the Thanks be with YOU!

Greetings! A hearty and warm thank you to ALL who attended the Good Vibes trio CD release events. It was an immensely joyous occasion and an enormous honor to play for such an in tune and out-of-this-world attentive audience. Dave, Phil and I all agree it was some of our best playing as a trio and we feel a lot of it stemmed from the support we got from all of you! Once again, we see proof that the collective organism of experience known as live music connects us and binds us all. Luminous beings we are, not this crude matter.

Apologies, I’ve been binge watching Cosmos and Star Wars lately.

In the interim since the trio release I’ve been lucky to play with some world class players in Darren Barrett and Kevin Harris at the U of M Morris Jazz Festival. Check these guys out if you can. Darren won the Monk competition on trumpet several years ago and Kevin is a wonderfully creative pianist who deserves much wider recognition. I’ve been in the studio with a great group of people from MacPhail working on an Early Childhood Music CD and recording with the Duluth based duo Pushing Chain, getting their country / folk inspired songs down for their new album. I’ll keep you posted on the release info for those projects. Perhaps the most mind blowing experience amongst all of this was getting the chance to meet and hear percussionist Efrain Toro in clinic. Thanks to Mac Santiago at Jazz Central and Dave Stanoch for joining forces to bring Efrain to town. Check out www.rhythmlineinstitute.com for Efrain’s story. Suffice it to say he confirmed some of my own longstanding thoughts about music but also opened me up to a totally new universe of expression. I’m very inspired to explore Efrain’s concepts more deeply and to see what results manifest themselves into my playing and composing.

I’m excited to announce that I am one of four local improvisor’s selected to write a piece for Zeitgeist as part of their Jazz Commission’s Project! The other composer’s are Steve Kenny, Zacc Harris and Davu Seru. They are currently taking donations to help fund the project and all the details can be found in the link above. Zeitgeist is one of the guiding lights of new classical chamber music and I’m getting fired up to write a piece for them.

I recently redesigned my website’s store and launched a Bandcamp site (www.chrisbates.bandcamp.com) where you can purchase my music in hardcopy or download. Currently there are 4 albums available – Red Planet Space Dust, Framework Framework, Chris Bates’ Red 5 New Hope and the new Good Vibes trio album. I will be adding links to my Red 5 t-shirts and hopefully other items as we merch on.
Please check it out if you can. www.doublebates.com

Here are the upcoming May Shows:

Tuesday May 6th
Bill Simenson Big Band @ Jazz Central
8:30pm  $10 donation   All Ages
Bill is writing some really challenging music that pushes my skills and really needs to be heard. Come out and support this exciting band!

Monday May 12th – Special EARLY show!
8-9:15 pm @ Icehouse (pre Jazz Implosion)
Mankwe N’Dosi, DeVon Gray, Greg Schutte, Jt Bates, Casey O’Brien and Chris Bates invite Julien Desprez.
This special show has just popped up and we are going to throw down a slab of improvised spoken word and worldly melodicism with French guitarist Julien Desprez.

Tuesday May 13th
Chris Olson, Cory Healy & CB @ Black Dog
Originals and deconstructed rock from this new band.
7:30pm   donations/tips   All Ages

Wednesday May 14th
Framework @ Jazz Central
8:30pm   $10 donation   All Ages Welcome
Framework has been making music together for 18 years, or something like that. We seem to have developed a deep catalog and unique vibe with each other, spanning rock to baroque. Chris Olson on guitar and Jay Epstein on drums.

Friday May 16th
Jazz Central All Stars in Austin, MN
Jazz Central has won a MN State Arts Board touring grant and will be bringing their music and education initiatives to towns all over Minnesota. I’m excited to be involved in the first one down in Austin. Send your friends!
Doug Haining, Dave Graf, Zack Lozier, Tanner Taylor, Mac Santiago, CB

Saturday May 17th
Joel Shapira with CB & Eric Kamau Gravatt @ Loring Pasta Bar
6:00-9:00pm   FREE   FREE   FREE
I’m excited to be playing with Joel again and ecstatic to be paired with one of the unsung superheroes of drumming Eric Gravatt! As your social planner I ask you to please consider this for you dinner plans on Saturday 😉

Monday May 19th
Atlantis Quartet & Fantastic Merlins w/ Jean Brice Godet @ Icehouse
9:30pm   $10   21+
How are we going to deal with this much creative energy and force majeure in one night?!?!? Fantastic Merlins make unclassifiable improvisations with beautiful patience and melodic virtue. Here they invite Clarinetist Jean Brice Godet. Magic will happen!
Atlantis Quartet “A vibrant and contrasting approach that envelops listeners in waves of sound… Their creative improvised music defies labels” – MPR
Zacc Harris, Brandon Wozniak, CB, Pete Hennig, Nathan Hanson and Brian Roessler

Tuesday May 20th
Andrew Walesch American Songbook Series @ Pioneer Place in St Cloud
Third and final installment of Andrew’s series this year. Duke Ellington all night.

Friday May 23rd
Good Vibes trio plays The Bridge Series @ Jazz Central
7:30pm   $10   All Ages
Come on down and enjoy the Good Vibes trio in concert with Phil Hey on drums and Dave Hagedorn on vibes. We’ll be playing music from our new release and trying out some new stuff too! “A riveting band …presenting sounds that are by turns hard-swinging, dreamy, arresting, spontaneous, soulful, lovely, deep, even witty.” – Tom Surowicz MPLS Star Tribune  http://www.startribune.com/entertainment/music/254959711.html

Saturday May 24th
Zacc Harris, Jay Epstein & CB @ Merlin’s Rest
8:30pm   FREE   21+
Swing out and catch us at Merlin’s! Loose and fun at the neighborhood pub!

Mark your calendars now for the next Red 5 show on June 11th at Jazz Central.
…and the Red Planet will rise on the cusp June!

All the best and let’s be careful out there!
-CB