Delightful Precipice
Encyclopedia
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 Schmool (F-Ire Collective) and Chris Batchelor
. The band is a direct descendant of the 1980s jazz
big band
Loose Tubes
, sharing most of the same personnel and (like the parent band) playing compositions written by Django Bates. The central difference between the two bands is that Bates is the clearly established bandleader and sole composer for Delightful Precipice (although the band has occasionally played music written outside the band by other band members).
Delightful Precipice concerts are infrequent due to the financial and logistical problems involved in organising a regular large ensemble, and the band has never issued any recordings under its own name. Instead, the band is one of the several ensembles appearing on Django Bates' own recordings (alongside others such as Human Chain
).
disbanded in 1990. Bates (who had been one of the band's major composers) formed Delightful Precipice in 1991 as one of two outlets for his continuing work. (The other was the Human Chain
quartet, which had been in existence for several years already with varying lineups, and which now also formed the core of Delightful Precipice).
The original Delightful Precipice (named after the Bates-written title composition from the second Loose Tubes album) was an eighteen-piece outfit with a small string section and a small brass section including instruments not usually associated with jazz, such as French horn. Bates' first project with the new band was a commission from The Old Bull Arts Centre in Barnet, London. This was a series of new compositions to accompany work by one of Europe's leading new circus companies, Snapdragon Circus, and based primarily on Angela Carter
's novel Nights at the Circus
. The music was performed alongside circus acts under canvas in London for a week, and included delicacies such as a bagpipe-playing chicken on a piece called "Scotch Egg". Bates subsequently rearranged the band, dropping the string section and leaving it close to its current lineup of nineteen musicians but including those orchestral instruments uncommon to a jazz big band such as French horn, tuba and violin.
In the autumn of 1993, Delightful Precipice undertook a major tour in the UK and Europe, concluding with a date at the Berlin JazzFest relayed live across Germany by television and radio. In the same year, the band made its recorded debut on Bates' second solo album Summer Fruits (And Unrest).
In subsequent years the band has toured Europe and the UK on several occasions, with performances at the Koln Triennal in Germany, Jazz an der Donau
in Vilshofen in Germany, Vooruit Festival in Gent in Belgium, London Jazz Festival
in the UK, and Saalfelden Jazz Festival. The band has often been associated with the Vortex Jazz Club in North London, playing many of its concerts there (including a fundraiser for the venue when it was threatened with closure).
The band has contributed to two more of Django Bates' records. His 1995 album Winter Truce (and Homes Blaze) was dominated by Delightful Precipice performances, while his 1998 album Like Life featured a "special" version of the band (mixing some of its British-based personnel with Danish musicians) performing both new material and alternative versions of previously-recorded pieces.
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
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 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,...
.
Delightful Precipice contains many individual solo artists, music educators and bandleaders as ensemble members, including Julian Arguelles
Julian Argüelles
Julian Argüelles is a saxophonist. He is currently a member of the HR Big Band in Frankfurt am Main, Germany....
, 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...
, Eddie Parker
Eddie Parker (musician)
Eddie Parker is an English jazz flautist and composer.As well as being one of Britain's leading jazz flautists, Eddie is a multi-instrumentalist and often plays keyboards during live performances and workshops....
, Steve Buckley
Steve Buckley
Steve Buckley is a British jazz musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who is most often heard playing alto, soprano and tenor saxophones, penny whistle and bass clarinet....
, 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....
, Barak Schmool (F-Ire Collective) and Chris Batchelor
Chris Batchelor
Chris Batchelor is a jazz trumpeter and composer. He gained his first professional experience with Dudu Pukwana's Zila aged 17, at the suggestion of Harry Beckett. He subsequently became a founder member,composer and soloist with Loose Tubes, contributing many pieces to the repertoire of the band...
. The band is a direct descendant of the 1980s 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...
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...
, sharing most of the same personnel and (like the parent band) playing compositions written by Django Bates. The central difference between the two bands is that Bates is the clearly established bandleader and sole composer for Delightful Precipice (although the band has occasionally played music written outside the band by other band members).
Delightful Precipice concerts are infrequent due to the financial and logistical problems involved in organising a regular large ensemble, and the band has never issued any recordings under its own name. Instead, the band is one of the several ensembles appearing on Django Bates' own recordings (alongside others such as Human Chain
Human Chain
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....
).
History
Following an ecstatically-received six year career, 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...
disbanded in 1990. Bates (who had been one of the band's major composers) formed Delightful Precipice in 1991 as one of two outlets for his continuing work. (The other was the Human Chain
Human Chain
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....
quartet, which had been in existence for several years already with varying lineups, and which now also formed the core of Delightful Precipice).
The original Delightful Precipice (named after the Bates-written title composition from the second Loose Tubes album) was an eighteen-piece outfit with a small string section and a small brass section including instruments not usually associated with jazz, such as French horn. Bates' first project with the new band was a commission from The Old Bull Arts Centre in Barnet, London. This was a series of new compositions to accompany work by one of Europe's leading new circus companies, Snapdragon Circus, and based primarily on Angela Carter
Angela Carter
Angela Carter was an English novelist and journalist, known for her feminist, magical realism, and picaresque works...
's novel Nights at the Circus
Nights at the Circus
Nights at the Circus is a novel by Angela Carter, first published in 1984 and that year's winner of the James Tait Black Memorial Prize for fiction. The novel focuses on the life and exploits of Fevvers, a woman who is – or so she would have people believe – a Cockney virgin, hatched from an egg...
. The music was performed alongside circus acts under canvas in London for a week, and included delicacies such as a bagpipe-playing chicken on a piece called "Scotch Egg". Bates subsequently rearranged the band, dropping the string section and leaving it close to its current lineup of nineteen musicians but including those orchestral instruments uncommon to a jazz big band such as French horn, tuba and violin.
In the autumn of 1993, Delightful Precipice undertook a major tour in the UK and Europe, concluding with a date at the Berlin JazzFest relayed live across Germany by television and radio. In the same year, the band made its recorded debut on Bates' second solo album Summer Fruits (And Unrest).
In subsequent years the band has toured Europe and the UK on several occasions, with performances at the Koln Triennal in Germany, Jazz an der Donau
Jazz an der Donau
Jazz an der Donau is a jazz festival in Germany....
in Vilshofen in Germany, Vooruit Festival in Gent in Belgium, London Jazz Festival
London Jazz Festival
The London Jazz Festival is a London-wide music festival held every November. It takes place in a variety of London venues, including larger concert halls—such as the Barbican and the Royal Festival Hall—and smaller jazz clubs, such as Ronnie Scott's and Vortex...
in the UK, and Saalfelden Jazz Festival. The band has often been associated with the Vortex Jazz Club in North London, playing many of its concerts there (including a fundraiser for the venue when it was threatened with closure).
The band has contributed to two more of Django Bates' records. His 1995 album Winter Truce (and Homes Blaze) was dominated by Delightful Precipice performances, while his 1998 album Like Life featured a "special" version of the band (mixing some of its British-based personnel with Danish musicians) performing both new material and alternative versions of previously-recorded pieces.
Musicians
- 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,...
- pianoPianoThe piano is a musical instrument played by means of a keyboard. It is one of the most popular instruments in the world. Widely used in classical and jazz music for solo performances, ensemble use, chamber music and accompaniment, the piano is also very popular as an aid to composing and rehearsal...
, keyboards, peck horn, bandleader and composer - 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...
- sopranoSoprano saxophoneThe soprano saxophone is a variety of the saxophone, a woodwind instrument, invented in 1840. The soprano is the third smallest member of the saxophone family, which consists of the soprillo, sopranino, soprano, alto, tenor, baritone, bass, contrabass and tubax.A transposing instrument pitched in...
and alto saxophoneAlto saxophoneThe alto saxophone is a member of the saxophone family of woodwind instruments invented by Belgian instrument designer Adolphe Sax in 1841. It is smaller than the tenor but larger than the soprano, and is the type most used in classical compositions...
s - Steve BuckleySteve BuckleySteve Buckley is a British jazz musician. He is a multi-instrumentalist who is most often heard playing alto, soprano and tenor saxophones, penny whistle and bass clarinet....
- soprano and alto saxophones - Mark LockheartMark LockheartMark Lockheart is a British jazz tenor saxophonist who came to prominence as a member of the Loose Tubes big band during the 1980s....
- tenor saxophoneTenor saxophoneThe tenor saxophone is a medium-sized member of the saxophone family, a group of instruments invented by Adolphe Sax in the 1840s. The tenor, with the alto, are the two most common types of saxophones. The tenor is pitched in the key of B, and written as a transposing instrument in the treble... - Barak Schmool - tenor saxophone
- Julian ArguellesJulian ArgüellesJulian Argüelles is a saxophonist. He is currently a member of the HR Big Band in Frankfurt am Main, Germany....
- baritone saxophoneBaritone saxophoneThe baritone saxophone, often called "bari sax" , is one of the largest and lowest pitched members of the saxophone family. It was invented by Adolphe Sax. The baritone is distinguished from smaller sizes of saxophone by the extra loop near its mouthpiece... - Sid Gauld - high trumpetTrumpetThe trumpet is the musical instrument with the highest register in the brass family. Trumpets are among the oldest musical instruments, dating back to at least 1500 BCE. They are played by blowing air through closed lips, producing a "buzzing" sound which starts a standing wave vibration in the air...
- Chris BatchelorChris BatchelorChris Batchelor is a jazz trumpeter and composer. He gained his first professional experience with Dudu Pukwana's Zila aged 17, at the suggestion of Harry Beckett. He subsequently became a founder member,composer and soloist with Loose Tubes, contributing many pieces to the repertoire of the band...
- soloing trumpet - Eddie ParkerEddie Parker (musician)Eddie Parker is an English jazz flautist and composer.As well as being one of Britain's leading jazz flautists, Eddie is a multi-instrumentalist and often plays keyboards during live performances and workshops....
- fluteFluteThe flute is a musical instrument of the woodwind family. Unlike woodwind instruments with reeds, a flute is an aerophone or reedless wind instrument that produces its sound from the flow of air across an opening...
, bass fluteBass fluteThe bass flute is the bass member of the flute family. It is in the key of C, pitched one octave below the concert flute. Because of the length of its tube , it is usually made with a "J" shaped head joint, which brings the embouchure hole within reach of the player... - Sarah Homer - clarinetClarinetThe clarinet is a musical instrument of woodwind type. The name derives from adding the suffix -et to the Italian word clarino , as the first clarinets had a strident tone similar to that of a trumpet. The instrument has an approximately cylindrical bore, and uses a single reed...
, bass clarinetBass clarinetThe bass clarinet is a musical instrument of the clarinet family. Like the more common soprano B clarinet, it is usually pitched in B , but it plays notes an octave below the soprano B clarinet... - Dave Laurence - French horn
- Roland Bates - tromboneTromboneThe trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. Like all brass instruments, sound is produced when the player’s vibrating lips cause the air column inside the instrument to vibrate...
- Richard Henry - bass trombone
- Sarah Waterhouse - tubaTubaThe tuba is the largest and lowest-pitched brass instrument. Sound is produced by vibrating or "buzzing" the lips into a large cupped mouthpiece. It is one of the most recent additions to the modern symphony orchestra, first appearing in the mid-19th century, when it largely replaced the...
- Steve WattsSteve WattsSteve Watts is a retired English footballer who last played for Sutton United. Watts is also a professional poker player who played in the World Series of Poker in 2009...
- acoustic bass - Mike Mondesir - electric bass guitarBass guitarThe bass guitar is a stringed instrument played primarily with the fingers or thumb , or by using a pick....
- 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....
- electric guitarElectric guitarAn electric guitar is a guitar that uses the principle of direct electromagnetic induction to convert vibrations of its metal strings into electric audio signals. The signal generated by an electric guitar is too weak to drive a loudspeaker, so it is amplified before sending it to a loudspeaker...
, violinViolinThe violin is a string instrument, usually with four strings tuned in perfect fifths. It is the smallest, highest-pitched member of the violin family of string instruments, which includes the viola and cello....
, lap steel, banjoBanjoIn the 1830s Sweeney became the first white man to play the banjo on stage. His version of the instrument replaced the gourd with a drum-like sound box and included four full-length strings alongside a short fifth-string. There is no proof, however, that Sweeney invented either innovation. This new... - 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 - Thebe Lipere - percussion
Discography
(on Django Bates albums)- Summer Fruits (And Unrest) (1993) JMT 514 008-2
- Winter Truce (and Homes Blaze) (1995) JMT 514 023-2
- Like Life (1998) Storyville Records
Radio
- Django Bates' Delightful Precipice. Included interview with Bates and Delightful Precipice performances of "Tightrope", "Armchair March", "Eden Express", "Fox Across the Road", "Queen of Puddings", "You Can't Have Everything", "The Loneliness of Being Right", "Candles Still Flicker in Romania's Dark", "sad Afrika", "Peculiar Terms of Intimacy", "Discovering Metal", "Open Letter to Dave DeFries" - recorded at Adrian Boult HallAdrian Boult HallThe Adrian Boult Hall is the main concert hall of the Birmingham Conservatoire in central Birmingham, England. It is named after the conductor Adrian Boult....
, Birmingham, UK in October 1993 and broadcast by BBC Radio Three on 14 May 1994.