Artist description Michael Bates' Outside Sources is a group that primarily performs compositions that I have written. My main objective as a writer is to create pieces of music that will create unique contexts for improvising. It is important to me that the music that I write is open enough to be claimed by the band as a whole. Ideally, if the opportunity presented itself, the compositions would manifest themselves in a different way every night. I have found that inspiration for all of my music so far has come from many sources. They are not necessarily big attention grabbers from the outside but just things that are just important to me as a person. Some that come immediately to mind are: certain passages in certain books, climbing a mountain, a good conversation, losing a loved one, other forms of art, meeting a new person, playing music with people I love....the list remains open. Everthing mentioned hints at specific events that have altered me or "parted the curtains" for me in one way or another. I love that.

Music Style Modern improvised music

Musical Influences A wide variety of people have deeply affected me. If forced, I would mention Dave Douglas, Edgar Meyer, Bill Evans, Shostakovich, Mark Helias, Tony Malaby, Miles Davis, Wayne Shorter, Joni Mitchell...you name it!

Artist History Michael Bates is a bass player/composer originally from the west coast of Canada. He is a graduate from the Jazz Performance program at the University of Toronto and studied privately with Don Thompson and Dave Young during his four years at U. of T. Michael has performed a great deal across Canada with a variety of people. He has also performed in Japan, Korea, various cities in the U.S. and in October, he will be heading to Melbourne, Australia and Hong Kong for about a month to play with the Peter Knight band. Michael is a member of the Mario Potestio trio which is band that has been together for four years and concentrates on playing in a more open context. He leads a quintet called "Outside Sources" that concentrates on his own compostions and in June of 2001 recorded his first cd. Michael is also currently studying bass and compositon in New York with bassist Mark Helias and in September of 2002 he will be doing an artist-in-residency at the Banff School of Fine Arts with band called the Australian/Canadian Connection. This band hopes to tour both the festival circuit in Canada as well as Australia and Hong Kong.

Location Toronto, Ont - Canada

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