Bates was born in Beckenham, Kent, United Kingdom. He rose to prominence in Loose Tubes, a jazz orchestra which was considered one of the UK’s most exciting and inspirational groups of the 1980s. He founded his small group Human Chain in 1979. In 1991, he started his own 19-piece jazz rchestra Delightful Precipice. He also put together the Powder Room Collapse Orchestra (which recorded Music for The Third Policeman), and created Circus Umbilicus, a musical circus show. In recent years, Bates has concentrated on writing large scale compositions on commission (see list below). These include “Dream Kitchen” for percussionist Evelyn Glennie, “Fine Frenzy” for the Shobhana Jeyasingh Dance Company, and a piano concerto for Joanna MacGregor and the Royal Philharmonic Orchestra entitled “What It’s Like to be Alive”. He also wrote the first concerto for electric keyboard entitled “2000 Years Beyond UNDO”, which was performed at the millennium Barbican Festival. Bates worked closely with director Lucy Bailey on several theatre projects, including Gobbledegook for The Gogmagogs, Baby Doll, (Birmingham Rep, National Theatre, Albery Theatre), Stairs to the Roof (Chichester Festival Theatre), The Postman Always Rings Twice (West Yorkshire Playhouse, Albery Theatre) and Titus Andronicus(The Globe Theatre). They also worked on a short film You Can Run. Other theatre work includes Greg Doran’s production of As You Like It (RSC), and Campbell Graham’s Out There!.Django was the inaugural Artistic Director of the music festival FuseLeeds in 2004. He used this opportunity to initiate the first orchestral commission for Jonny Greenwood (Radiohead). Django also commissioned sixty composers including Laurie Anderson, Gavin Bryars, Sir Patrick Mooreand John Zorn, to write one bar each. He then quilted these bars into the piece “Premature Celebration” which was performed by Evan Parker and the London Sinfonietta to celebrate Evan’s 60th birthday. The Wire voted Django “Best UK Jazz Composer” in 1987 and 1990. In 1997, he won the Jazzpar Prize, the world’s only international award for jazz. In addition to his work as a leader, Bates has been prominently featured as a sideman as a member of Dudu Pukwana’s Zila, Tim Whitehead’s Borderline, Ken Stubbs’ First House, Bill Bruford’s Earthworks, Sidsel Endresen and in the bands of George Russell and George Gruntz. He has performed alongside Michael Brecker, Tim Berne, Christian Jarvi, Vince Mendoza, David Sanborn, Kate Rusby and Don Alias. In 2008, he was nominated for the PRS New Music Award