StoRMChaser (band)
Encyclopedia
StoRMChaser is a Danish
jazz
big band
/orchestra
led by British
composer and keyboard virtuoso Django Bates
.
in Copenhagen
, Denmark
. As with Bates' other current big band/orchestra, Delightful Precipice
, StoRMChaser is a 19-piece band.
The band name incorporates the acronym of Rhythmic Music Conservatory
. Bates notes “What I said at my (2005) interview (for the Rhythmic Music Conservatory
) was that if I got the job, if I got the chance, I'd form a band with the letters RMC in the name and take it round the world and put the RMC on the map. They looked at me for a moment and then it was kind of, "Go on then, do it."
Regarding the band, Bates has commented “The young musicians of StoRMChaser are at the tip of their international careers and accept that music of substance and detail may take months to slot together. Their reward is that they are the only people in the world who can play this music with the required level of joy, commitment, and understanding.”
The band has played live with Django Bates on various occasions, in particular on the British tour in autumn 2008 to promote the Bates album on which they had performed that year - Spring Is Here (Shall We Dance?). Reviewing one of these concerts in The Guardian, John Fordham commented " (Bates) encourages as many people as possible to play different things at the same time, and frequently to play off the beat as well. The result not only hangs together, but hurtles dizzyingly, and sometimes hilariously, into space.”
In a 2008 interview on the All About Jazz website, Bates described his work with the band in these terms:
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
jazz
Jazz
Jazz is a musical style that originated at the beginning of the 20th century in African American communities in the Southern United States. It was born out of a mix of African and European music traditions. From its early development until the present, jazz has incorporated music from 19th and 20th...
big band
Big band
A big band is a type of musical ensemble associated with jazz and the Swing Era typically consisting of rhythm, brass, and woodwind instruments totaling approximately twelve to twenty-five musicians...
/orchestra
Orchestra
An orchestra is a sizable instrumental ensemble that contains sections of string, brass, woodwind, and percussion instruments. The term orchestra derives from the Greek ορχήστρα, the name for the area in front of an ancient Greek stage reserved for the Greek chorus...
led by British
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...
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,...
.
History
StoRMChaser is Bates’ most recent project to date and is drawn from the young post-graduate students from the courses he leads at the Rhythmic Music ConservatoryRhythmic 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
Copenhagen
Copenhagen is the capital and largest city of Denmark, with an urban population of 1,199,224 and a metropolitan population of 1,930,260 . With the completion of the transnational Øresund Bridge in 2000, Copenhagen has become the centre of the increasingly integrating Øresund Region...
, Denmark
Denmark
Denmark is a Scandinavian country in Northern Europe. The countries of Denmark and Greenland, as well as the Faroe Islands, constitute the Kingdom of Denmark . It is the southernmost of the Nordic countries, southwest of Sweden and south of Norway, and bordered to the south by Germany. Denmark...
. As with Bates' other current big band/orchestra, 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...
, StoRMChaser is a 19-piece band.
The band name incorporates the acronym of 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...
. Bates notes “What I said at my (2005) interview (for 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...
) was that if I got the job, if I got the chance, I'd form a band with the letters RMC in the name and take it round the world and put the RMC on the map. They looked at me for a moment and then it was kind of, "Go on then, do it."
Regarding the band, Bates has commented “The young musicians of StoRMChaser are at the tip of their international careers and accept that music of substance and detail may take months to slot together. Their reward is that they are the only people in the world who can play this music with the required level of joy, commitment, and understanding.”
The band has played live with Django Bates on various occasions, in particular on the British tour in autumn 2008 to promote the Bates album on which they had performed that year - Spring Is Here (Shall We Dance?). Reviewing one of these concerts in The Guardian, John Fordham commented " (Bates) encourages as many people as possible to play different things at the same time, and frequently to play off the beat as well. The result not only hangs together, but hurtles dizzyingly, and sometimes hilariously, into space.”
In a 2008 interview on the All About Jazz website, Bates described his work with the band in these terms:
“I thought "Spring Is Here" would work with StoRMChaser, because I've worked a lot with young musicians, presenting them with what is in some ways complex music, and it's always been my experience that if you go at it with utter confidence and commitment it's successful. When you start, it's an enormous mountain to climb — sometimes we'd rehearse something for a week and then there'd be a gig where we could try it out — but the adrenalin and the excitement that is created by the process kick in and you're swept along with it... We meet every Friday and just keep pressing home, playing around, having fun. The RMC set-up means I can experiment. To have a band like this that I can play around with every Friday—it's a real luxury. It's something people like Duke EllingtonDuke EllingtonEdward Kennedy "Duke" Ellington was an American composer, pianist, and big band leader. Ellington wrote over 1,000 compositions...
had. Ellington had his band on a retainer and so he could always call them up when he needed to and say, "Could you come in and play this chord for me? It's a wonderful resource to have. I had it back in the days of Loose TubesLoose TubesLoose 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...
. We met up even when there was nothing new to play. It was like a social commitment, a very nice social commitment. It gives the opportunity to try out ideas — slow processes, rather than the usual thing where you write all the music and go into the studio and read it, nail it, get it down and that's that.”
Discography
on Django Bates’ albums:- Spring Is Here (Shall We Dance?), Lost Marble Recordings, LM003