 In 1991, he started the 19-piece jazz orchestra Delightful Precipice.He also assembled the Powder Room Collapse Orchestra (which recorded "Music for The Third Policeman") and created Circus Umbilicus, a musical circus show.Bates has appeared as a sideman or member of Dudu Pukwana's Zila, Tim Whitehead's Borderline, Ken Stubbs's First House, Bill Bruford's Earthworks, Sidsel Endresen, and in the bands of George Russell and George Gruntz.