Derek Bailey R.I.P.

[zula]

British guitar god, one of the groundbreaking, original voices in creative music and one of the gutsiest players ever, Derek Bailey has left us. I'm hoping it's some stupid rumour, but, sadly, the source is quite reliable.

On a selfish note, I never got to see the man live & that saddens me even more!

May you rest in peace, Derek...

[zula]

http://www.revenantrecords.com/images/cover_big_3.jpghttp://www.artistdirect.com/Images/Sources/AMGCOVERS/music/cover200/drg700/g761/g76187bm0s5.jpg

http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B00000BICJ.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg http://images.amazon.com/images/P/B0000058W4.01._SCLZZZZZZZ_.jpg

[StefanSmulovitz]

I saw this link on the web for those of you who have never had a chance to listen to this unique voice. Listening to his version of Stella by Starlight right now from that site. He just heard things differently.

http://wfmu.org/playlists/shows/17495

Stefan

[zula]

"He just heard things differently."

Very much so!

Thank you very much for the killer link, Stefan! I've passed it on to others on the net & people agree it's a wonderfully well-balanced mix of Bailey.

[Ron Hearn]

Here's Derek's obit from the Independent
Ron


Derek Bailey, guitarist: born Sheffield 29 January 1930; twice married (one
son); died London 25 December 2005.

Oddly, for an avant-garde player whose music was so intense and
uncompromising that his following was devoted but small, the guitarist Derek
Bailey appeared at the 1968 Royal Command Performance. In his time he also
worked as an accompanist to Gracie Fields and Kathy Kirby - and it should be
pointed out that for the royal concert he was in the pit band.
He turned his back on commercial music and rose to become the most renowned
member of the British free-form jazz movement.
Bailey had an uncompromising philosophy that involved exterminating music
that he had already played. It led him rigorously to move on from one group
of musicians to the next: he believed that familiarity bred predictability.
He was perhaps at his happiest in his metamorphosis to solo guitar player.
Paradoxically his improvisations were recorded many times and the resultant
albums were much sought by his followers across the world.
He believed in turbulence and musical aggression, although it was notable
that, when more conventional musicians like Tony Coe or Steve Lacy were
drawn into his orbit, he softened to form exquisite musical partnerships
that led non-believers to wonder at what could have been. In his regular
conversations with his audiences he showed a beguiling sense of humour that
perhaps didn't chime with the density of the music.
But Bailey, like the musicians he mixed with, was a man convinced and
possessed. From his playing he stripped out rhythm and conventional harmony
and cast aside anything recognisable as jazz tradition. Over the years he
withdrew from group playing and played without accompaniment. He worked
often on the Continent, mostly in Germany, but chose to stay in England.
"He was rapidly arriving at the stage where he saw the nearest parallel to
his own role in those of a writer or a painter," wrote the trumpeter Ian
Carr, who described Bailey as "fastidious and ascetic" in his music:
He is austere, uncompromising and formidably committed to exploring and
expressing his own interior vision . . . With monastic vigilance he tries to
avoid the habitual side of playing.
Bailey was a key figure in the 13-hour concert played in Camden Town,
London, in the summer of 1978 by the London Musicians Collective - this was
in itself a compromise, because the saxophonist Evan Parker, a close comrade
of Bailey's, had planned for the musicians to play around the clock.
Derek Bailey's grandfather was a professional banjo player and his uncle a
professional guitarist. He took to the guitar when he was 11 and became a
professional musician in Sheffield during the Fifties, working mostly at
music that he didn't like. But, before leaving for London in 1966, he formed
his own avant-garde band that included the like-spirited drummer Tony Oxley.
In London Bailey fell in with Evan Parker, Paul Rutherford, Barry Guy and
other free-form players and played regularly with the drummer John Stevens's
Spontaneous Music Ensemble. He joined the London Jazz Composers' Orchestra
and formed the trio Iskra 1903 with the trombonist Rutherford and bassist
Guy, whilst he was also a member of the Music Improvisation Company. His
frequent partnerships with Evan Parker gained him fame across Europe and he
was soon working with musicians on the Continent and with visiting Americans
including Anthony Braxton and Steve Lacy.
With Rutherford, Guy and Bailey's wife Karen, Bailey in 1970 founded the
record company Incus, the first musician-run label in Britain, to distribute
their music. He eventually came to own the label himself and continued its
policy of never deleting albums. In 1976 he formed Company, an ensemble
bringing together groups of British and international improvisers. An annual
Company week was held for 17 years until 1994. Bailey was a member of Kenny
Wheeler's band in 1978 but from then on mainly played as a soloist or at
best in duos.
He made an exception during the Eighties when the avant-garde Ganelin Trio
came from Russia to work in Britain for a period. Bailey worked happily with
them until the leader, the pianist Vyacheslav Ganelin, emigrated to Israel.
Bailey influenced guitarists as far away as Japan and in 1997 worked with
the avant-rock Japanese duo Ruins. In that period he also played with the
drummer Tony Williams and the guitarist Pat Metheny.
His book Improvisation: its nature and practice in music (1980) led to the
Channel 4 television series On the Edge (1989-91).