Human Chain
Encyclopedia
Human Chain is a British
jazz quartet led by composer and keyboard virtuoso Django Bates
. The band has been Bates’s main musical outlet since 1990 and has performed on most of his albums.
Human Chain has toured in Europe, North America, South America, Japan, China, and India and has also worked in the classical orchestral world for concerts in the UK, Finland, Germany, and Greece (classical music collaborators have included Joanna MacGregor
, Britten Sinfonia
, London Sinfonietta
, and the Duisberger Philharmonic). The band has also sometimes been involved in theatre work.
, and both bands would share personnel.
By 1983, the band name had morphed into Human Chain, a tribute to the number of musicians who had passed through the band. At this point the list of past members was drummer Dave Trigwell, trumpeter John Eacott
, saxophonist Mark Lockheart
, double bassists Mick Hutton and Steve Berry, flute player Eddie Parker
and guitarist John Parricelli
). Bates has also commented “I also liked the political implications of the name 'Human Chain': these were the Thatcher years and all kinds of people were forming human chains in order to demonstrate peacefully."
. It was this lineup which recorded the band’s debut album, Human Chain which Bates would later describe as “fifteen folky miniatures.”
For 1988’s Cashin’ In
album, multi-instrumentalist Stuart Hall (musician)
joined the lineup, expanding the group’s instrumentation and sonic potential. Bates remembers that “ during performances in this trio formation, Stuart Hall would often make three instrument changes per tune, sometimes playing steel pan and piccolo flute simultaneously whilst unplugging a violin with his foot."
Over the next three years, the lineup continued to alter. Arguelles and Hall both left, saxophonist Steve Buckley arrived and the band also gained a permanent drummer, Martin France (brother of original Loose Tubes
drummer Nic). At one point the band featured two bass players, Steve Watts and Tim Harries. Bates admits "Neither of them knew why they were both there. I didn't know either; I was still trying to find a band that could be really powerful without being macho, and could be really experimental without being bollocks."
Following the collapse of Loose Tubes
in October 1990, Bates set up Delightful Precipice
to handle his large ensemble music and “set about sorting out Human Chain."
. This left the remaining members (Bates, Buckley and France) without a bass player just before the start of a Human Chain tour of South America. Rather than use another of his Loose Tubes colleagues, Bates opted to audition another bass guitarist - Michael Mondesir, brother of Jazz Warriors
drummer Mark Mondesir and a collaborator with up-and-coming British pianist Jason Rebello
.
Bates recalls: "I drove to Lewisham to hear him playing with (Rebello). It was a really funky band and gave no clues as to what Michael would do to Human Chain's music. By the end of our tour, I knew... and I was very happy! Michael has an infectious fascination with all things rhythmic: he chewed through pieces like “Three Architects Called Gabrielle... Just What I Expected” with an extreme verve and assurance that forced the whole band to perform at a new level of energy." Mondesir has remained Bates’s bass player of choice ever since (and also plays with Delightful Precipice
).
The Bates-Buckley-Mondesir-France lineup of Human Chain toured Chile, Colombia and Argentina in autumn 1991. They subsequently recorded two pieces ("Three Architects Called Gabrielle" and "Up, Up") for a sampler CD called Pyrotechnics. All of the musicians featuring on this album were promised a deal with Blue Note Records
. For Human Chain, this deal never arrived.
By 1992 Buckley had been replaced by Bates’s usual saxophone foil, Iain Ballamy
, and the long-term quartet was complete. The band played at a number of festivals in Europe including the Belfast International Festival, the Delta International Jazz Festival in the Hague in Holland and the Outside In International Contemporary Music Festival in Crawley, UK.
Despite the band having achieved a steady and stable lineup, there would not be another Human Chain record. Instead, they would become Bates’s most frequent musical outlet both live and on record, releasing all of their recorded output under Bates’s name.
In 1993, Human Chain were the central performers on Bates’s second album Summer Fruits (And Unrest), playing four tracks as themselves and the remaining seven as the core of Delightful Precipice
.
Also in 1993, Human Chain became involved in the innovative music-theatre piece 'Out There', conceived and directed by Campbell Graham and written by Simon Black with music by Bates. 'Out There' toured on various dates between 1993 and 1995, performing at The Place, Riverside Studios, Manchester Royal Exchange, Tron Theatre, Glasgow International Jazz Festival. Working with a cast including Jason Flemyng
, Human Chain provided the live music for the piece and also took on individual acting roles, most notably Bates playing “God” and Iain Ballamy playing “Steve the Prat”.
In 1995, Human Chain were again the main performers on Bates’s fourth album Winter Truce (And Homes Blaze), this time playing five tracks as themselves and five within Delightful Precipice
.
In 1996, Human Chain performed on Bates’s fifth album, the classical/Third Stream-inspired and predominantly orchestral Good Evening... Here Is The News. Human Chain played on four tracks accompanying the London Sinfonietta
and also performed one track by themselves (the bizarre “City In Euphoria/World In Chaos”)
In 1998, Bates released his sixth album Like Life, which was connected to his winning of the 1997 Jazzpar Award and featured several new pieces plus revisitations of his back catalogue of compositions. Although most of the album was performed by Bates with the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, the other three Human Chain members also contributed as part of an altered lineup of Delightful Precipice.
). The Quiet Nights band was to approach the same territory and continue to subvert the original songs, but generally with a much more down-tempo and peaceful approach.
In a 2008 interview with All About Jazz, Bates commented on his conversion to this kind of music as follows:
Their recordings of these songs made up the seventh Django Bates album, released in 1998 and also called Quiet Nights. It featured reinventions of songs including “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, “Solitude” and “Hi-Li-Ho”.
Quiet Nights would continue to tour and perform during the remainder of the 1990s, although Cronsholm left after the first tour to start a family. She was replaced by another Swedish jazz singer, Josefine Lindstrand
, about whom Bates has commented "She's a quite different singer to Josefine Cronholm, more lively and right on the beat compared to the very relaxed thing we'd done on Quiet Nights with standards and ballads."
At an unspecified point during this time, Bates claims that Human Chain "ate" Quiet Nights. This appears to mean that the Quiet Nights project was reabsorbed into Human Chain activity with Lindstrand becoming a fifth member of the band, although it's not entirely clear whether she is a full member or a longstanding guest collaborator.
in 2003.
Human Chain was once again the core band on Bates’s eighth album You Live And Learn (Apparently), which was released on his own label Lost Marble Recordings in 2004. Lindstrand was also a band member on the album which featured additional guest performances by The Smith Quartet, saxophonist David Sanborn
and guitarist Jim Mullen
. Human Chain played at the Fuse 2004 music festival in Leeds (curated by Bates) to promote the record.
The band’s work has diminished from 2005 onwards following Bates’s employment as a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory
in Copenhagen, Denmark. Ballamy, France, Mondesir and Lindstrand have all concentrated on different projects. However, the band remain formally active and reunited to record Bates’s ninth album Spring Is Here (Shall We Dance?), which was released in 2008.
, bass players Laurence Cottle
and Stuart Hall, and saxophonists Julian Seigel and Julian Arguelles
.
on Django Bates’s albums:
Compilation appearances:
"This is modern ensemble playing of the highest calibre, contemporary composition at its most vital" (The Guardian 2000)
United Kingdom
The United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern IrelandIn the United Kingdom and Dependencies, other languages have been officially recognised as legitimate autochthonous languages under the European Charter for Regional or Minority Languages...
jazz quartet led by composer and keyboard virtuoso Django Bates
Django Bates
Django Bates , is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and band leader. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. He currently lives in Copenhagen where he is a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and leader of the StoRMChaser orchestra.-Career:Django Bates was born in Beckenham,...
. The band has been Bates’s main musical outlet since 1990 and has performed on most of his albums.
Human Chain has toured in Europe, North America, South America, Japan, China, and India and has also worked in the classical orchestral world for concerts in the UK, Finland, Germany, and Greece (classical music collaborators have included Joanna MacGregor
Joanna MacGregor
Joanna MacGregor is a classical, jazz and contemporary pianist.-Biography:MacGregor grew up in North London, and was educated at home by her Seventh-day Adventist parents until she attended South Hampstead High School at the age of 11. Her mother is a piano teacher who studied at the Royal...
, Britten Sinfonia
Britten Sinfonia
Britten Sinfonia is a chamber orchestra ensemble based in Cambridge, UK. It was created in 1992, following an initiative from Eastern Arts and a number of key figures including Nicholas Cleobury, who recognised the need for an orchestra in the East of England. It is a flexible ensemble composed of...
, London Sinfonietta
London Sinfonietta
The London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
, and the Duisberger Philharmonic). The band has also sometimes been involved in theatre work.
Origins
In 1981, three years into the start of his career, Bates began rehearsing a band called Humans. He would continue with the band in parallel to his larger scale work with the big band Loose TubesLoose Tubes
Loose Tubes was a British jazz big band/orchestra active during the mid-to-late 1980s. Critically and popularly acclaimed, the band was considered to bethe focal point of a 1980s renaissance in British jazz...
, and both bands would share personnel.
By 1983, the band name had morphed into Human Chain, a tribute to the number of musicians who had passed through the band. At this point the list of past members was drummer Dave Trigwell, trumpeter John Eacott
John Eacott
John Eacott is a British composer and Principal Lecturer in Music at the University of Westminster.-Life:Eacott's career started in the 1980s with anarchic jazzers Loose Tubes, post-industrial metal bashers Test Dept, Roman Holliday, acid jazz group Vibraphonic, and a diverse array of artists...
, saxophonist Mark Lockheart
Mark Lockheart
Mark Lockheart is a British jazz tenor saxophonist who came to prominence as a member of the Loose Tubes big band during the 1980s....
, double bassists Mick Hutton and Steve Berry, flute player Eddie Parker
Eddie Parker
Eddie Parker was a stuntman and actor who appeared in many classic films, mostly westerns and horror films...
and guitarist John Parricelli
John Parricelli
John Parricelli is a jazz guitarist, appearing and recording mainly in the United Kingdom.Parricelli began his career as a guitarist in 1982 and was one of the founding members of the British big band Loose Tubes, with whom he recorded three albums...
). Bates has also commented “I also liked the political implications of the name 'Human Chain': these were the Thatcher years and all kinds of people were forming human chains in order to demonstrate peacefully."
Early albums and varying lineups (1986-1990)
By 1986 the project consisted of Bates plus drummer Steve ArguellesSteve Argüelles
Steve Argüelles is an English jazz drummer, producer and is the boss of the record label . He has also worked in film and theatre. He is the elder brother of saxophonist Julian Argüelles...
. It was this lineup which recorded the band’s debut album, Human Chain which Bates would later describe as “fifteen folky miniatures.”
For 1988’s Cashin’ In
Cashin' In (album)
Cashin' In is the second album by Human Chain, featuring Django Bates, Steve Argüelles and Stuart Hall. It was released on the EG label in 1988.-Track listing:# "Cashin' In" – 5:12...
album, multi-instrumentalist Stuart Hall (musician)
Stuart Hall (musician)
Stuart Hall is a British multi-instrumentalist from the UK. He is equally renowned for his talent on violin, guitar and double bass, and several less mainstream string instruments such as the oud, pedal steel, bouzouki, saz, banjo, kemence, tres, lyra & gudulka....
joined the lineup, expanding the group’s instrumentation and sonic potential. Bates remembers that “ during performances in this trio formation, Stuart Hall would often make three instrument changes per tune, sometimes playing steel pan and piccolo flute simultaneously whilst unplugging a violin with his foot."
Over the next three years, the lineup continued to alter. Arguelles and Hall both left, saxophonist Steve Buckley arrived and the band also gained a permanent drummer, Martin France (brother of original Loose Tubes
Loose Tubes
Loose Tubes was a British jazz big band/orchestra active during the mid-to-late 1980s. Critically and popularly acclaimed, the band was considered to bethe focal point of a 1980s renaissance in British jazz...
drummer Nic). At one point the band featured two bass players, Steve Watts and Tim Harries. Bates admits "Neither of them knew why they were both there. I didn't know either; I was still trying to find a band that could be really powerful without being macho, and could be really experimental without being bollocks."
Following the collapse of Loose Tubes
Loose Tubes
Loose Tubes was a British jazz big band/orchestra active during the mid-to-late 1980s. Critically and popularly acclaimed, the band was considered to bethe focal point of a 1980s renaissance in British jazz...
in October 1990, Bates set up Delightful Precipice
Delightful Precipice
Delightful Precipice is a 19-piece British jazz big band/orchestra led by Django Bates.Delightful Precipice contains many individual solo artists, music educators and bandleaders as ensemble members, including Julian Arguelles, Iain Ballamy, Eddie Parker, Steve Buckley, Mark Lockheart, Barak...
to handle his large ensemble music and “set about sorting out Human Chain."
Stabilising the lineup (1991-1992)
With Steve Watts having already departed, Tim Harries left Human Chain in September 1991 to join Steeleye SpanSteeleye Span
Steeleye Span are an English folk-rock band, formed in 1969 and remaining active today. Along with Fairport Convention they are amongst the best known acts of the British folk revival, and were among the most commercially successful, thanks to their hit singles "Gaudete" and "All Around My Hat"....
. This left the remaining members (Bates, Buckley and France) without a bass player just before the start of a Human Chain tour of South America. Rather than use another of his Loose Tubes colleagues, Bates opted to audition another bass guitarist - Michael Mondesir, brother of Jazz Warriors
Jazz Warriors
The Jazz Warriors were an all-black London-based group of jazz musicians that made their debut in 1986. The idea for the band came from the Abibi Jazz Arts - a London organization that promoted black music and black culture - in 1985...
drummer Mark Mondesir and a collaborator with up-and-coming British pianist Jason Rebello
Jason Rebello
Jason Rebello is a British jazz pianist, currently part of Sting's live and studio band, who has recorded a handful of albums under his own name. His debut album, A Clearer View was produced by Wayne Shorter....
.
Bates recalls: "I drove to Lewisham to hear him playing with (Rebello). It was a really funky band and gave no clues as to what Michael would do to Human Chain's music. By the end of our tour, I knew... and I was very happy! Michael has an infectious fascination with all things rhythmic: he chewed through pieces like “Three Architects Called Gabrielle... Just What I Expected” with an extreme verve and assurance that forced the whole band to perform at a new level of energy." Mondesir has remained Bates’s bass player of choice ever since (and also plays with Delightful Precipice
Delightful Precipice
Delightful Precipice is a 19-piece British jazz big band/orchestra led by Django Bates.Delightful Precipice contains many individual solo artists, music educators and bandleaders as ensemble members, including Julian Arguelles, Iain Ballamy, Eddie Parker, Steve Buckley, Mark Lockheart, Barak...
).
The Bates-Buckley-Mondesir-France lineup of Human Chain toured Chile, Colombia and Argentina in autumn 1991. They subsequently recorded two pieces ("Three Architects Called Gabrielle" and "Up, Up") for a sampler CD called Pyrotechnics. All of the musicians featuring on this album were promised a deal with Blue Note Records
Blue note
In jazz and blues, a blue note is a note sung or played at a slightly lower pitch than that of the major scale for expressive purposes. Typically the alteration is a semitone or less, but this varies among performers and genres. Country blues, in particular, features wide variations from the...
. For Human Chain, this deal never arrived.
By 1992 Buckley had been replaced by Bates’s usual saxophone foil, Iain Ballamy
Iain Ballamy
Iain Ballamy is a British composer, soprano, alto and tenor saxophone player.- Career :Ballamy was schooled at 1975-80 George Abbot School, Guildford. He then studied Musical Instrument Technology from 1980-1982 Merton College...
, and the long-term quartet was complete. The band played at a number of festivals in Europe including the Belfast International Festival, the Delta International Jazz Festival in the Hague in Holland and the Outside In International Contemporary Music Festival in Crawley, UK.
Despite the band having achieved a steady and stable lineup, there would not be another Human Chain record. Instead, they would become Bates’s most frequent musical outlet both live and on record, releasing all of their recorded output under Bates’s name.
Work as Bates’s main band (1991-1998)
Throughout the 1990s, Human Chain would be the band Bates most frequently played and toured with.In 1993, Human Chain were the central performers on Bates’s second album Summer Fruits (And Unrest), playing four tracks as themselves and the remaining seven as the core of Delightful Precipice
Delightful Precipice
Delightful Precipice is a 19-piece British jazz big band/orchestra led by Django Bates.Delightful Precipice contains many individual solo artists, music educators and bandleaders as ensemble members, including Julian Arguelles, Iain Ballamy, Eddie Parker, Steve Buckley, Mark Lockheart, Barak...
.
Also in 1993, Human Chain became involved in the innovative music-theatre piece 'Out There', conceived and directed by Campbell Graham and written by Simon Black with music by Bates. 'Out There' toured on various dates between 1993 and 1995, performing at The Place, Riverside Studios, Manchester Royal Exchange, Tron Theatre, Glasgow International Jazz Festival. Working with a cast including Jason Flemyng
Jason Flemyng
Jason Iain Flemyng is an English actor. He is known for his film work, which has included roles in British films such as Lock, Stock and Two Smoking Barrels and Snatch , both for Guy Ritchie, as well as Hollywood productions such as Rob Roy along with the Alan Moore comic book adaptations From...
, Human Chain provided the live music for the piece and also took on individual acting roles, most notably Bates playing “God” and Iain Ballamy playing “Steve the Prat”.
In 1995, Human Chain were again the main performers on Bates’s fourth album Winter Truce (And Homes Blaze), this time playing five tracks as themselves and five within Delightful Precipice
Delightful Precipice
Delightful Precipice is a 19-piece British jazz big band/orchestra led by Django Bates.Delightful Precipice contains many individual solo artists, music educators and bandleaders as ensemble members, including Julian Arguelles, Iain Ballamy, Eddie Parker, Steve Buckley, Mark Lockheart, Barak...
.
In 1996, Human Chain performed on Bates’s fifth album, the classical/Third Stream-inspired and predominantly orchestral Good Evening... Here Is The News. Human Chain played on four tracks accompanying the London Sinfonietta
London Sinfonietta
The London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
and also performed one track by themselves (the bizarre “City In Euphoria/World In Chaos”)
In 1998, Bates released his sixth album Like Life, which was connected to his winning of the 1997 Jazzpar Award and featured several new pieces plus revisitations of his back catalogue of compositions. Although most of the album was performed by Bates with the Danish Radio Jazz Orchestra, the other three Human Chain members also contributed as part of an altered lineup of Delightful Precipice.
Quiet Nights (1998-circa 2000)
In 1998, Bates set up a new Anglo-Swedish band called Quiet Nights, which consisted of the four members of Human Chain plus Swedish jazz singer Josefine Cronsholm. This band was to cover an area of jazz which Bates had previously shunned or mocked – songs which had become jazz standards. Bates had anticipated this new project with his infamous 1995 subversion of “New York, New York” (performed by Delightful Precipice and sung by Irish singer Christine TobinChristine Tobin
Christine Tobin is an Irish born jazz singer from Dublin who has been part of the London jazz and improvising scene since the second half of the 1980s. She has been influenced by a diverse range of singers and writers including Betty Carter, Bessie Smith, Leonard Cohen, and poets WB Yeats, Paul...
). The Quiet Nights band was to approach the same territory and continue to subvert the original songs, but generally with a much more down-tempo and peaceful approach.
In a 2008 interview with All About Jazz, Bates commented on his conversion to this kind of music as follows:
"Back in the early 1990s I did a couple of records with a Norwegian singer, Sidsel EndresenSidsel EndresenSidsel Endresen is a Norwegian jazz singer.She was part of the Jon Eberson Group from 1981 to 1987, resulting in five CDs and two "Spellemannprisen" awards...
. Doing them opened my ears to the possibilities of using a singer and words. It was almost like having an actor on stage, telling a story, rather than a singer in the traditional sense. Previously, I'd been put off the idea of jazz and singing together because there was certain style of doing that — very over the top, lots of vibrato —while I prefer something quite different, more natural.
Then a few years later, when I did the Jazzpar, and they asked me to put together a contrasting project, the first thing I saw when I went to gigs in Copenhagen was a student jam session. There was this girl who just sang a standard beautifully and then sat down—and all these males improvised for about an hour, all taking turns to solo kind of competitively, while she sat there quietly, like in a trance. Then when they finished she just got up and sang the song again. Something about that amused me and I was impressed by it.
After that, I got more interested in having the power of the human voice in my music. Because people had always said, "Yeah, I like your stuff, but it's kind of complicated, anybody who isn't a musician isn't going to be able to bear to listen to it." Maybe I'm exaggerating, but I got the impression that what I did was perceived as being quite muso orientated, and I found that a singer opened it out to more people."
Their recordings of these songs made up the seventh Django Bates album, released in 1998 and also called Quiet Nights. It featured reinventions of songs including “Somewhere Over The Rainbow”, “Solitude” and “Hi-Li-Ho”.
Quiet Nights would continue to tour and perform during the remainder of the 1990s, although Cronsholm left after the first tour to start a family. She was replaced by another Swedish jazz singer, Josefine Lindstrand
Josefine Lindstrand
Josefine Lindstrand is a Swedish singer who was born in Örebro in 1981.-Discography:* Sekten; Annars är det tyst, ILK-records.* "There will be stars" Caprice Records.* Django Bates; You live and learn apparently, Lost Marble records....
, about whom Bates has commented "She's a quite different singer to Josefine Cronholm, more lively and right on the beat compared to the very relaxed thing we'd done on Quiet Nights with standards and ballads."
At an unspecified point during this time, Bates claims that Human Chain "ate" Quiet Nights. This appears to mean that the Quiet Nights project was reabsorbed into Human Chain activity with Lindstrand becoming a fifth member of the band, although it's not entirely clear whether she is a full member or a longstanding guest collaborator.
Human Chain in the 21st century
From around 2000 onwards, Bates’ recorded output and live performances became rarer as he adapted to a shrinking British jazz scene. He began to concentrate more on composition, including large-scale commissions for classical performers and ensembles. However, Human Chain remained Bates's main performance band, and appeared alongside The Smith Quartet at the Venice BiennaleVenice Biennale
The Venice Biennale is a major contemporary art exhibition that takes place once every two years in Venice, Italy. The Venice Film Festival is part of it. So too is the Venice Biennale of Architecture, which is held in even years...
in 2003.
Human Chain was once again the core band on Bates’s eighth album You Live And Learn (Apparently), which was released on his own label Lost Marble Recordings in 2004. Lindstrand was also a band member on the album which featured additional guest performances by The Smith Quartet, saxophonist David Sanborn
David Sanborn
David Sanborn is an American alto saxophonist. Though Sanborn has worked in many genres, his solo recordings typically blend jazz with instrumental pop and R&B. He released his first solo album Taking Off in 1975, but has been playing the saxophone since before he was in high school...
and guitarist Jim Mullen
Jim Mullen
Jim Mullen is a Glasgow-born jazz guitarist with a distinctive style, like Wes Montgomery before him, picking with the thumb rather than a plectrum.-Biography:...
. Human Chain played at the Fuse 2004 music festival in Leeds (curated by Bates) to promote the record.
The band’s work has diminished from 2005 onwards following Bates’s employment as a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory
Rhythmic Music Conservatory
The Rhythmic Music Conservatory is a music conservatoire in Copenhagen, Denmark. The RMC was founded in 1986 as an independent institution of higher education under the Danish Ministry of Culture and is the only school in Denmark specializing in contemporary music training programmes.In 2005, it...
in Copenhagen, Denmark. Ballamy, France, Mondesir and Lindstrand have all concentrated on different projects. However, the band remain formally active and reunited to record Bates’s ninth album Spring Is Here (Shall We Dance?), which was released in 2008.
Current members
- Django BatesDjango BatesDjango Bates , is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and band leader. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. He currently lives in Copenhagen where he is a professor at the Rhythmic Music Conservatory and leader of the StoRMChaser orchestra.-Career:Django Bates was born in Beckenham,...
(keyboards, Eb tenor horn, occasional vocals) - Iain BallamyIain BallamyIain Ballamy is a British composer, soprano, alto and tenor saxophone player.- Career :Ballamy was schooled at 1975-80 George Abbot School, Guildford. He then studied Musical Instrument Technology from 1980-1982 Merton College...
(saxophones) - Michael Mondesir (bass guitar)
- Martin FranceMartin FranceMartin France is an English jazz drummer based in London. He has been the rhythmic backbone on more than 60 albums working with some of the world's finest musicians....
(drums, electric percussion) - Josefine LindstrandJosefine LindstrandJosefine Lindstrand is a Swedish singer who was born in Örebro in 1981.-Discography:* Sekten; Annars är det tyst, ILK-records.* "There will be stars" Caprice Records.* Django Bates; You live and learn apparently, Lost Marble records....
(vocals)
Deputising members
Although the lineup of Human Chain has remained steady since 1992, various other musicians have occasionally deputised in the absence/pre-booking of regular members. These guest members have included drummer Gary HusbandGary Husband
Gary Husband is a British jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer.- Short biography:Gary Husband is an English jazz and rock drummer, pianist and composer...
, bass players Laurence Cottle
Laurence Cottle
Laurence Cottle is an electric bass guitarist and composer.-Career:His solo recordings have been mostly in the jazz and jazz-fusion vein, with such notable releases as Five Seasons, Laurence Cottle Quintet Live and others....
and Stuart Hall, and saxophonists Julian Seigel and Julian Arguelles
Julian Argüelles
Julian Argüelles is a saxophonist. He is currently a member of the HR Big Band in Frankfurt am Main, Germany....
.
Discography
as Human Chain:- Human Chain (1986), Ah-Um 002
- Cashin' InCashin' In (album)Cashin' In is the second album by Human Chain, featuring Django Bates, Steve Argüelles and Stuart Hall. It was released on the EG label in 1988.-Track listing:# "Cashin' In" – 5:12...
(1988), Loose Tubes Records
on Django Bates’s albums:
- Summer Fruits (And Unrest) , JMT Records JMT 514 008-2 (reissued on Winter and Winter, 2005)
- Winter Truce (And Homes Blaze) JMT Records JMT 514 023-2 (reissued on Winter and Winter, 2005)
- Good Evening... Here is the News Argo ?????
- Quiet Nights, Screwgun Records, SCREWU 70007
- You Live And Learn (Apparently) Lost Marble Recordings, LM001
- Spring Is Here (Shall We Dance?) Lost Marble Recordings, LM002
Compilation appearances:
- Various Artists, Pyrotechnics, Blue Note 700659
Radio
- "Jazz On 3" - Django Bates's Human Chain. BBC RADIO 3 15/07/2005
- "Front Row". Django Bates talks about his first album in 6 years "You Live and Learn (Apparently)". BBC Radio Four 28/06/2004
- "Jazz on 3". Human Chain at London's Vortex Club. BBC RADIO 3 21/9/2001
- "Jazz on 3". Cheltenham Jazz Festival Django Bates's Human Chain with , Josefine CronholmJosefine CronholmJosefine Cronholm is a celebrated Swedish jazz vocalist who has won numerous awards. Her debut album Wild Garden was released in 2002. She also provided a cover of The Carpenters' Close to you for the film MirrorMask...
, Stian CarstensenStian CarstensenStian Carstensen is a multi-instrument Norwegian musician.-Biography:Carstensen was born in Eidsvoll. He started as an accordion player at the age of 9. He first learned from his father, and later from a classical player which he attended for 4 years. During this time he played in Norwegian TV,...
, Michael Mondesir, Martin FranceMartin FranceMartin France is an English jazz drummer based in London. He has been the rhythmic backbone on more than 60 albums working with some of the world's finest musicians....
and Paul ClarvisPaul ClarvisPaul Clarvis is an English percussionist, born in Enfield, London, on 9 April 1963.He is renowned for bringing his unique style of music to many genres and can be heard on recordings by Mick Jagger, Elvis Costello, Elton John, Paul McCartney, Annie Lennox, Sting, Bryan Ferry, John Williams, Andy...
. BBC RADIO 3 24/4/1999 - "Live from London". Chat show features music from Django Bates's Human Chain - Horses in the Rain. BBC Radio Four 27/03/1999
- "In Tune". ...including Django Bates: Candles Still Flicker. Human Chain, London SinfoniettaLondon SinfoniettaThe London Sinfonietta is an English chamber orchestra founded in 1968 and based in London. The ensemble specialises in contemporary music and works across a wide range of genres, performing modern classics alongside world premieres, and includes music by electronica artists as well as folk and...
/ Diego MassonDiego MassonDiego Masson is a French conductor, composer, and percussionist.The son of artist André Masson and brother of the singer and actor Luís Masson, Diego Masson studied piano and composition at the Paris Conservatoire...
. BBC RADIO 3 1/5/1997 - "Jazz Notes". Django Bates joins the BBC Big Band to perform a selection of his most recent compositions for his own group, Delightful Precipice, including the first UK performance of `Rest and Be Thankful'. With Iain BallamyIain BallamyIain Ballamy is a British composer, soprano, alto and tenor saxophone player.- Career :Ballamy was schooled at 1975-80 George Abbot School, Guildford. He then studied Musical Instrument Technology from 1980-1982 Merton College...
(saxophones). RADIO 3 16/5/1996. - "Jazz at the Bath Festival". Human Chain (Django Bates, Iain BallamyIain BallamyIain Ballamy is a British composer, soprano, alto and tenor saxophone player.- Career :Ballamy was schooled at 1975-80 George Abbot School, Guildford. He then studied Musical Instrument Technology from 1980-1982 Merton College...
, Stuart HallStuart Hall (musician)Stuart Hall is a British multi-instrumentalist from the UK. He is equally renowned for his talent on violin, guitar and double bass, and several less mainstream string instruments such as the oud, pedal steel, bouzouki, saz, banjo, kemence, tres, lyra & gudulka....
, Martin FranceMartin FranceMartin France is an English jazz drummer based in London. He has been the rhythmic backbone on more than 60 albums working with some of the world's finest musicians....
with pianist Joanna MacGregorJoanna MacGregorJoanna MacGregor is a classical, jazz and contemporary pianist.-Biography:MacGregor grew up in North London, and was educated at home by her Seventh-day Adventist parents until she attended South Hampstead High School at the age of 11. Her mother is a piano teacher who studied at the Royal...
. MacGregor plays solo in pieces by Nancarrow, Cowell, Ligeti and Rzewski. 10/7/1993 - "Outside In Festival". 11/02/1992
Review Quotes
"The music's commitment, spontaneity and intensity gave us a feeling of being witnesses to the very moment of creation" (Politiken, Denmark 1993)"This is modern ensemble playing of the highest calibre, contemporary composition at its most vital" (The Guardian 2000)