''The Study of Touch'' is an album by the

Django Bates Django Bates (born Leon Bates, 2 October 1960) is a British jazz musician, composer, multi-instrumentalist, band leader and educator. He plays the piano, keyboards and the tenor horn. Bates has been described as "one of the most talented musici ...

' Belovèd recorded in Norway in June 2016 and released on

ECM ECM may refer to: Economics and commerce * Engineering change management * Equity capital markets * Error correction model, an econometric model * European Common Market Mathematics * Elliptic curve method * European Congress of Mathematics ...

November the following year. The trio features rhythm section

Petter Eldh Frans Petter Eldh (born 19 September 1983 in Gothenburg) is a Swedish jazz bass player and composer, who predominantly has worked first in Denmark, and since 2009 he has lived in Berlin. Biography Eldh was raised in a family of artists. At ...

and Peter Bruun.ECM Catalogue
accessed December 19, 2017Django Bates discography
accessed December 19, 2017

Reception

Allmusic AllMusic (previously known as All Music Guide and AMG) is an American online music database. It catalogs more than three million album entries and 30 million tracks, as well as information on musicians and bands. Initiated in 1991, the databas ...

, Thom Jurek observed "Ultimately, Bates' Beloved is a piano trio with attitude. For them, composition and improvisation are interlocutors in a diverse and individual musical language that's meant to "slip" through the cracks whenever purpose—or desire—dictate in order to make something new, or at least new again. On ''The Study of Touch'', that shared attitude carves out a new potential space for the jazz piano trio in the 21st century." Writing for

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

reviewer John Fordham called it "A session by a master improvising composer, and in ideal company."Fordham, J
The Guardian Review
November 17, 2017 On

All About Jazz ''All About Jazz'' is a website established by Michael Ricci in 1995. A volunteer staff publishes news, album reviews, articles, videos, and listings of concerts and other events having to do with jazz. Ricci maintains a related site, ''Jazz Near ...

, Mike Jurkovic noted "With boundless humor and flexible grace, pianist Django Bates offers us ''The Study of Touch'' the perfect piano trio music for the significant other who absolutely hates piano trio music" while Karl Ackermann said "it seems that in teaming with Eldh and Bruun, more than ten years back, Bates was simultaneously laying the groundwork for what has become his own version of a standards trio. In covering much of the trio's previous work, Bates allows himself the luxury of poetic license by reinterpreting pieces through an always expanding lens."Jurkovic, M
All About Jazz Review 1
November 10, 2017Ackermann, K
All About Jazz Review 2
November 20, 2017

Financial Times The ''Financial Times'' (''FT'') is a British daily newspaper printed in broadsheet and published digitally that focuses on business and economic current affairs. Based in London, England, the paper is owned by a Japanese holding company, Nik ...

' writer Mike Hobart said "The Belovèd piano trio has given Django Bates’ vivid musical imagination an added focus and internal discipline that the pyrotechnics of his orchestral projects sometimes lack. The dramatic juxtapositions and intriguing twists remain, but now they unfold organically from within, driven by a tight-knit interplay that sustains mood and gives the music more room to breathe.... This release highlights Bates’ intimate grasp of grand piano textures and the intuitive bond between piano, bass and drums and has a more introspective air."Hobart, M
Financial Times Review
November 23, 2017

Track listing

All compositions by Django Bates except where noted # "Sadness All the Way Down" – 2:16 # "Giorgiantics" – 6:06 # "Little Petherick" – 6:24 # "Senza Bitterness" – 3:29 # "We Are Not Lost, We Are Simply Finding Our Way" – 6:10 # "This World" (

Iain Ballamy Iain Ballamy (born 20 February 1964) is a British composer and saxophonist. He is considered one of the greatest modern jazz saxophonists. Career Ballamy was born in Guildford, Surrey, and educated at George Abbot School, Guildford, from 1975 ...

) – 5:30 # "The Study of Touch" – 9:45 # "Passport" (

Charlie Parker Charles Parker Jr. (August 29, 1920 – March 12, 1955), nicknamed "Bird" or "Yardbird", was an American jazz saxophonist, band leader and composer. Parker was a highly influential soloist and leading figure in the development of bebop, a form ...

) – 2:48 # "Slippage Street" – 7:40 # "Peonies as Promised" – 4:51 # "Happiness All the Way Up" – 1:18

Personnel

Django Bates' Belovèd

–

piano The piano is a stringed keyboard instrument in which the strings are struck by wooden hammers that are coated with a softer material (modern hammers are covered with dense wool felt; some early pianos used leather). It is played using a keyboa ...

–

bass Bass or Basses may refer to: Fish * Bass (fish), various saltwater and freshwater species Music * Bass (sound), describing low-frequency sound or one of several instruments in the bass range: ** Bass (instrument), including: ** Acoustic bass gui ...

* Peter Bruun –

drums A drum kit (also called a drum set, trap set, or simply drums) is a collection of drums, cymbals, and other Percussion instrument, auxiliary percussion instruments set up to be played by one person. The player (drummer) typically holds a pair o ...

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Study of Touch, The ECM Records albums Django Bates albums 2017 albums Albums produced by Manfred Eicher