Archive for the ‘Michael Bates (Artist Thoughts)’ Category

The photos above were taken at gig we did in Brussels. They were edited and manipulated by an artist we met named Ana Marin Sanchez. Lovely stuff to check out on her site.

Also just met the fellow who put together the website, Jazz Clubs Worldwide, which is an incredible resource for any jazz musicians looking to travel the globe.

We had an excellent time in Belgium and we’re about to get on our way to Germany for about five days. The tour has been a lot of fun so far…last night we played in Heist-op-den-Berg in a beautiful old club called Hnita. It’s one of the oldest jazz spots in Belgium and real who’s who of jazz have passed through (Sonny Rollins, Clarke Terry and many others). We had a very attentive audience and happily, many came to see the band because of the Greenleaf connection. I was happy to note that.

More in a few days….

Here’s a quick post to say a hearty thank you to all who have made the “Clockwise” release a such a success so far. The US and Canadian dates were great and it’s been a blast meeting so many of you.

Tomorrow, we hit the road in Europe and I’m looking forward to getting out there too. I’m going to do my best to check in here at the Greenleaf Blog every couple of days with updates and news from the road so please stay tuned…..

If you’re in the area stop by and join the hang…

-See you,

Michael

09-21-2008: Brussels, Belgium – L’Archiduc
09-22-2008: Heist-op-den-Berg, Belgium – Hnita-Jazz Club
09-23-2008: Cologne, Germany – LOFT
09-25-2008: Dresden, Germany – Club Neuetonne
09-26-2008: Munich, Germany – Unterfarht
09-27-2008: Nurnberg, Germany – Jazz Studio
09-29-2008: Graz, Austria – Stockwerk Jazz
10-01-2008: Berlin, Germany – Miss Hecker
10-03-2008: Amsterdam, Netherlands – Bimhuis
10-04-2008: Lyon, France, La Salle Genton

A few days ago a friend introduced me to Pandora radio which has proved to be a great way to check out some new music. For those of you who aren’t familiar with Pandora Radio, it’s a free or subscription-based internet service that streams music based on parameters set up by entering an artist or a song into the service and it responds by playing related music.

Since I joined, I’ve been walking over to my computer constantly to find out more about what’s playing and consequently have also been adding considerably to my digital music collection. In thinking about it, my purchases are directly a result of coming into contact with what Chris Anderson describes in his book “The Long Tail” as a “force that connects supply and demand”. Based on my parameters, Pandora has effectively been driving me down the long end of the tail towards artists that I probably would like to hear… and, for the most part, it’s been working.

I’m always on the look out for new music and don’t always have time to make it to cd shops to find out what’s out there… and let’s face it, it’s expensive to experiment so sites like Pandora can help. But obviously, they are only one piece of the puzzle. There are many opportunities all over the web to hear about new happenings in the music world and, at risk of doing some shameless self promotion, certainly Greenleaf Music is another great information source that is also high on my list.

So while I still find my way over to New York’s Academy Records once a week or so, I can tell already that services like Pandora and Greenleaf Music certainly help keep my music consumption healthy.

Here’s quick sampling of my Pandora stations:

John Coltrane radio
Blind Willie Johnson radio
Fugazi radio
Dave Douglas radio (of course!)
Hand Jive radio
Ornette Coleman radio
Dmitry Shostakovich radio
Hanne Hukkelberg radio
Slayer radio
John Zorn radio

Hi All,

Wow. George E. Lewis’ book, A Power Stronger Than Itself, just arrived in the mail today. GREAT stuff. I can’t wait to dig into this over the next few weeks…

I was just also reading Donny McCaslin’s post and made me want to get out here in cyberspace to say hello too. September is coming up fast and I’m very pysched to be releasing a new cd on Greenleaf Music on the 9th of that month. Both September and October 2008 are busy with Outside Sources dates in Canada, the US, Belgium, Germany, Austria, Netherlands, France and Italy… let’s just say I’ve spent a fair chunk of time recently on the phone and on the computer. Nevertheless, I can’t wait to get out there and be a part of all the great things happening at Greenleaf Music. It’s exciting stuff…

Hey while I’m at it, I wanted to mention the guys who make up my quartet. They are fantastic musicians that’s for sure: we recorded thirteen pieces of fairly complex music for the new cd “Clockwise” in about five hours and that included two broken bass strings…don’t ask, I got kind of excited. ugh. Anyway, these guys are good friends too and when we’re on the road, the hang is as good as the music making. Check them out if you get chance. Each one is a unique instrumentalist and leader and composer of new music: Russ Johnson on trumpet, Quinsin Nachoff on saxophone and clarinet and Jeff Davis on drums.

So until September, I’ll be working on a bunch of new music to play and I’ll spend some time checking out the recordings Donny mentioned and doing what I can to make sure these tours go smoothly. It’s going to be fun! Stop by www.outsidesources.org if you want to check on the tour dates and say hello too. I’d love to hear from you.

Thanks again to Dave, Ben, Jim and everyone at Greenleaf for everything so far. It’s been great.

Hope to see you out there…