Derek Bailey pictured at the Vortex Club, Stoke Newington, 1991.

Derek Bailey (January 29, 1930 – December 25, 2005) was an English free improvising avant-garde guitarist and part of the European free jazz scene. File history Legend: (cur) = this is the current file, (del) = delete this old version, (rev) = revert to this old version. ... The Dalston Culture House now houses the Vortex Jazz Club. ... The Castle Climbing Centre, once the main Water Board pumping station. ... January 29 is the 29th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar. ... 1930 (MCMXXX) was a common year starting on Wednesday (link is to a full 1930 calendar). ... December 25 is the 359th day of the year (360th in leap years) in the Gregorian Calendar, with 6 days remaining for the year. ... 2005 (MMV) was a common year starting on Saturday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Free improvisation or free music is improvised music without any rules beyond the taste of the musicians involved, and not in any particular style. ... Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. ... Different kinds of guitars The guitar is a fretted and stringed musical instrument, used in a wide variety of musical styles, and is also widely known as a solo classical instrument. ... There are very few or no other articles that link to this one. ...

Career summary

Bailey was born in Sheffield, England. A third generation musician, he began playing the guitar at the age of ten, going on to study with John Duarte among others. As an adult he found work as a guitarist and session musician in clubs, radio, dance hall bands, and so on, playing with many performers including Gracie Fields, Bob Monkhouse and Kathy Kirby, and on television programs such as 'Opportunity Knocks'. Bailey was also part of a Sheffield based trio founded in 1963 with Tony Oxley and Gavin Bryars called 'Joseph Holbrooke' (named after the composer, whose work they never actually played). Although originally performing relatively 'conventional' jazz this group became increasingly free in direction ^[1]. For other articles with similar names, see Sheffield (disambiguation). ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... John W. Duarte(October 2, 1919–December 23, 2004) was a British composer and classical guitarist. ... Session musicians are musicians available for hire, as opposed to musicians who are either permanent members of a musical outfit or who have acquired fame in their own right. ... Dance hall in its general meaning is a hall for dancing. ... Dame Gracie Fields, DBE (9 January 1898–27 September 1979), born Grace Stansfield, was an English singer and comedian who became one of the greatest stars of both cinema and music hall. ... Bob Monkhouse presenting Celebrity Squares (Image copyright British Film Institute) Robert Allen Monkhouse OBE (June 1, 1928 – December 29, 2003), was an English entertainer in the traditional sense, though primarily known as a comedian and game show host. ... Kathy Kirby (born October 20, 1940 with the name Kathleen ORourke) was a popular British singer of the 1960s. ... Opportunity Knocks was a UK television talent show originally hosted by Hughie Greene. ... For other articles with similar names, see Sheffield (disambiguation). ... To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Richard Gavin Bryars (born 1943) is an English composer and double bass player that can be related to experimental music, avant-garde, neoclassicism, and ambient. ... Joseph Charles Holbrooke (b. ... Jazz is an original American musical art form that originated around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans, rooted in African American musical styles blended with Western music technique and theory. ...

Bailey moved to London in 1966, frequenting the Little Theatre Club run by drummer John Stevens. Here he met many other like-minded musicians, such as saxophonist Evan Parker, trumpet player Kenny Wheeler and double bass player Dave Holland. These players often collaborated under the umbrella name of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, recording the seminal album Karyobin for Island Records in 1968. In this year Bailey also formed the Music Improvisation Company with Parker, percussionist Jamie Muir and Hugh Davies on homemade electronics, a project that continued until 1971. He was also a member of the Jazz Composers Orchestra and Iskra 1903, a trio with double bass player Barry Guy and trombone player Paul Rutherford that was named after a newspaper published by the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin. London (pronounced ) is the capital city of England and the United Kingdom. ... A session drummer at practice A drummer is a musician who plays the drums, particularly the drum kit, marching percussion, or hand drums. ... John Stevens (June 10, 1940 - September 13, 1994) was a British drummer. ... A saxophonist is a musician who plays the saxophone. ... Evan Parker (born 5 April 1944) is a British free-improvising saxophone player. ... Trumpeter redirects to here. ... Kenny Wheeler (born 14th January 1930, Toronto, Canada) is a Canadian composer trumpet and flugelhorn player, based since the 1950s in the UK. Most of his output is rooted in jazz, but he has also been active in free improvisation and rock music. ... Side and front views of a modern double bass with a French bow. ... Dave Holland (born October 1, 1946) is a jazz bassist and composer. ... The SME playing in Islington, London, 1991. ... Island Records was founded in Jamaica in 1959 by Chris Blackwell and Graeme Goodall but moved to the UK in May 1962. ... See also: 1967 in music, other events of 1968, 1969 in music, 1960s in music and the list of years in music // January 4 - Guitarist Jimi Hendrix is jailed by Stockholm police, after trashing a hotel room during a drunken fist fight with bassist Noel Redding. ... Percussion instruments are played by being struck, shaken, rubbed or scraped. ... Jamie Muir is a percussionist. ... Hugh Seymour Davies (April 23, 1943 – January 1, 2005) was a musicologist, composer, and inventor of musical instruments. ... Barry Guy (born 1947 in London) is a British composer and performer on the double bass. ... The trombone is a musical instrument in the brass family. ... Paul Rutherford (29 February 1940 London) is a British jazz trombonist. ... Vladimir Ilyich Ulyanov (Russian: , better known by the alias   (Ленин)) (April 22, 1870 – January 24, 1924), was a Russian revolutionary, a communist politician, the main leader of the October Revolution, the first head of Soviet Russia, and the primary theorist of the ideology that has come to be called Leninism, which...

In 1970, Bailey founded the record label Incus with Tony Oxley, Evan Parker and Michael Walters. It proved influential as the first musician-owned independent label in the UK. Oxley and Walters left early on; Parker and Bailey continued as co-directors until the mid-1980s, when friction between the men led to Parker's departure. Bailey continued the label with his partner Karen Brookman until his death in 2005. Incus is an artist owned record label specialising in the dissemination of free-improvised music set up by Derek Bailey and Evan Parker Categories: Album stubs | Record labels ...

Along with a number of other musicians, Bailey was a co-founder of Musics magazine in 1975. This was described as "an impromental experivisation arts magazine" ^{[citation needed]} and circulated through a network of like-minded record shops, arguably becoming one of the most significant jazz publications of the second half of the 1970s, and instrumental in the foundation of the London Musicians Collective. To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... 1975 (MCMLXXV) was a common year starting on Wednesday. ... London Musicians Collective is a charity devoted to contemporary music. ...

1976 saw Bailey form Company, an ever changing collection of like-minded improvisors, which at various times has included Anthony Braxton, Tristan Honsinger, Misha Mengelberg, Lol Coxhill, Fred Frith, Steve Beresford, Steve Lacy, Johnny Dyani, Leo Smith, Han Bennink, Eugene Chadbourne, Henry Kaiser, John Zorn, Buckethead and many others. Company Week, an annual week long free improvisational festival organised by Bailey, ran until 1994. Company was an ever changing collection of free improvising musicians. ... Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American composer, multi-reedist and pianist. ... Tristan Honsinger is a cello player active in free jazz and free improvisation. ... Misha Mengelberg (born June 5, 1935) is a Dutch jazz pianist and composer. ... Lowen Coxhill, almost universally known as Lol Coxhill, born September 19, 1932, Portsmouth, Hampshire, England, is a free improvising saxophonist. ... Fred Frith performing at the Moers Jazz Festival, 1 June 1998. ... Beresford at the Red Rose club, London, 1990 Steve Beresford (born 1950) is a British musician. ... Steve Lacy (July 23, 1934 – June 4, 2004), born Steven Norman Lackritz in New York, was an innovative jazz soprano saxophonist. ... Johnny Mbizo Dyani (30 November 1945 – 24 October 1986) was a South African jazz double bassist who played with such musicians as Don Cherry, Steve Lacy and Leo Smith. ... Ishmael Wadada Leo Smith (Dec 18, 1941 in Leland, Mississippi) is a jazz trumpeter. ... Han Bennink (born April 17, 1942) is a Dutch jazz drummer and percussionist. ... Eugene Chadbourne (4 January 1954 in Mount Vernon, NY) is a USA composer, improvisor, guitarist and banjoist. ... Henry Kaiser, born in Oakland, California, on 19 September 1952, is a widely-recorded experimental guitarist and frequent collaborator with other musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area. ... John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist. ... Buckethead is an American guitarist and composer. ...

In 1980, he wrote the book Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice. This was adapted by UK's Channel Four into a four part TV series in the early nineties, edited and narrated by Bailey. Channel 4 is a television broadcaster in the United Kingdom (see British television). ...

Bailey died in London on Christmas Day, 2005. He had been suffering from motor neurone disease. The motor neurone diseases (MND) are a group of progressive neurological disorders that destroy motor neurones, the cells that control voluntary muscle activity such as speaking, walking, breathing, and swallowing. ...

Bailey's music

For listeners unfamiliar with experimental musics, Bailey's distinctive style can be initally quite difficult. Its most noticeable feature is what appears to be its extreme discontinuity, often from note to note: there may be enormous intervals between consecutive notes, and rather than aspiring to the consistency of timbre typical of most guitar-playing, Bailey interrupts it as much as possible: four consecutive notes, for instance, may be played on an open string, a fretted string, via harmonics, and using a nonstandard technique such as scraping the string with the pick or plucking below the bridge. Many of the key features of his music -- radical discontinuity, the self-contained brevity of each gesture, an attraction to wide intervals -- owe much to Bailey's early fascination with Anton Webern, an influence most audible on Bailey's earliest available recordings, Pieces for Guitar (1966-67, issued on Tzadik). Experimental music is any music that challenges the commonly accepted notions of what music is. ... Anton Webern (December 3, 1883 – September 15, 1945) was an Austrian composer. ... Tzadik Records is a record label based in New York City specialising in avant-garde and experimental music. ...

Playing both acoustic and electric guitars (although more usually the former), Bailey was able to extend the possibilities of the instrument in radical ways, obtaining a far wider array of sounds than are usually heard. He explored the full vocabulary of the instrument, producing timbres and tones ranging from the most delicate tinklings to fierce noise attacks. (The sounds he produced have been compared to those made by John Cage's prepared piano.) Typically he played a conventional instrument, in standard tuning, but his use of amplification was often crucial. In the 1970s, for instance, his standard set-up involved two independently controlled amplifiers to give a stereo effect onstage, and he often would use the swell pedal to counteract the "normal" attack and decay of notes. He also made highly original use of feedback, a technique demonstrated on the album String Theory (Paratactile). John Cage For the character of John Cage from the TV show Ally McBeal see: John Cage (Character) John Milton Cage (September 5, 1912 – August 12, 1992) was an American experimental music composer, writer and visual artist. ... A prepared piano is a piano that has had its sound altered by placing objects (preparations) between or on the strings or on the hammers or dampers. ... Different kinds of guitars The guitar is a fretted and stringed musical instrument, used in a wide variety of musical styles, and is also widely known as a solo classical instrument. ... In popular usage, stereo generally to dual-channel sound recording and sound reproduction – sound that contains data for more than one speaker simultaneously. ... Audio feedback (also known as the Larsen effect) is a special kind of feedback which occurs when a loop exists between an audio input (for example, a microphone or guitar pickup) and an audio output (for example, a loudspeaker). ...

Although Bailey occasionally made use of 'prepared' guitar in the 1970s (e.g., putting paper clips on the strings, wrapping his instruments in chains, adding further strings to the guitar, etc), often for Dadaist/theatrical effect, by the end of this decade he had, in his own words, 'dumped' such methods ^[2]. Bailey argued that his approach to music making was actually far more orthodox than performers such as Keith Rowe of the improvising collective AMM, who treats the guitar purely as a 'sound source' rather than as a musical instrument. Instead Bailey preferred to "look for whatever 'effects' I might need through technique." ^[3]. A prepared guitar is a guitar which has had its timbre altered by placing various objects on or between the instruments strings, including other extended techniques. ... DaDa is an album by Alice Cooper, released in 1983 (see 1983 in music). ... Keith Rowe (born March 16, 1940 in Plymouth UK) is a British free improvisation guitarist. ... AMM is an important British free improvisation group, founded in London, England in 1965. ...

Eschewing labels such as "jazz" (even "free jazz"), Bailey describes his music as 'non-idiomatic', a label which has been much-debated. In the 2nd edition of his book, Improvisation..., Bailey indicated that he felt that free improvisation was no longer "non-idiomatic" in his sense of the word, as it had become a recognizable genre and musical style itself. In his efforts to avoid predictability he always sought out collaborators from many different fields: players as diverse as Pat Metheny, John Zorn, Lee Konitz, David Sylvian, Cyro Baptista, Cecil Taylor, tap dancer Will Gaines, 'Drum 'n' Bass' DJ Ninj, Thurston Moore of Sonic Youth and the Japanese 'noise rock' group Ruins. In fact despite often performing and recording in a solo context, he was far more interested in the dynamics and challenges of working with other musicians, especially those who did not necessarily share his own approach; "There has to be some degree, not just of unfamiliarity, but incompatibility [with a partner]. Otherwise, what are you improvising for? What are you improvising with or around? You've got to find somewhere where you can work. If there are no difficulties, it seems to me that there's pretty much no point in playing. I find that the things that excite me are trying to make something work. And when it does work, it's the most fantastic thing. Maybe the most obvious analogy would be the grit that produces the pearl in an oyster, or some shit like that." ^[4] Jazz is an original American musical art form that originated around the start of the 20th century in New Orleans, rooted in African American musical styles blended with Western music technique and theory. ... Free jazz is a movement of jazz music characterized by diminished dependence on formal constraints. ... Patrick Bruce Metheny (born August 12, 1954 in Lees Summit, Missouri) is a world renowned American jazz guitarist and leader of the Pat Metheny Group as well as various collaborations, duets, solo works, and other side projects. ... John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist. ... Lee Konitz (born 1927 in Chicago, Illinois) is an American jazz composer and saxophone player. ... David Sylvian (born David Alan Batt, February 23, 1958) is an English singer, musician and composer who first rose to fame as the lead vocalist and main songwriter of the band Japan, and whose subsequent solo career has been influenced by a variety of musical styles and genres, including jazz... Born December 23, 1950 in Sao Paulo, Brazil, Cyro Baptista arrived in the U.S. in 1980 with a scholarship to the Woodstock-based Creative Music Studio, and has since emerged as one of the premier percussionists in the country. ... Cecil Percival Taylor (born in New York City March 15, 1930) is an American pianist and poet now generally acknowledged to be one of the great innovative sources of free jazz (along with the better known Ornette Coleman). ... Tap dance was born in the United States during the 19th century, and today is popular all around the world. ... Drum and bass (drum n bass, drumnbass, DnB, dnb) is an electronic music style. ... DJ or dj may stand for Disc jockey, dinner jacket The DeadJournal website, or Djibouti. ... Thurston Moore Thurston Joseph Moore (born July 25, 1958) is an American musician best known as a singer and guitarist for Sonic Youth. ... Sonic Youth is a rock group formed in New York City in 1981. ... Lightning Bolt Live at the Southgate House 2005. ... The Japanese duo of Yoshida Tatsuya and Sasaki Hisashi are Ruins, a twisted progressive rock outfit that specialize in short, sharp, jerky numbers that resemble the improvisational convulsions of Boredoms. ...

Bailey was also known for his dry sense of humour. In 1977 Musics magazine sent the question "What happens to time-awareness during improvisation?" to about thirty musicians associated with the free improvisation scene. The answers received varied from lengthy and highly theoretical essays to more direct comments. Typically pithy was Bailey's reply; "The ticks turn into tocks and the tocks turn into ticks" ^[5].

Carpal Tunnel, the last record to be released during his lifetime, documented his personal struggles to come to terms with the development of Carpal Tunnel Syndrome in his right hand, which had rendered him unable to grip a plectrum (and in fact marked the onset of his motor neurone disease). Characteristically, he refused invasive surgery to treat his condition, instead being more "interested in finding ways to work around" this limitation. He chose to "relearn" guitar playing techniques by utilising his right thumb and index fingers to pluck the strings. Carpal tunnel syndrome (CTS) is a medical condition in which the median nerve is compressed at the wrist. ... A plectrum (plural: plectra) is a device for plucking or strumming a stringed instrument. ...

Partial discography

• Karyobin (with the SME, Island records, 1968)
• The Topography of the Lungs (with Han Bennink and Evan Parker, Incus, 1970 (nb, this was the first release on the Incus record label))
• The Music Improvisation Company, 1968 - 1971 (with the Music Improvisation Company, Incus, 1971)
• The London Concert (with Evan Parker, Incus, 1971)
• Solo Guitar Volume 1 (Incus, recorded 1971, reissued 1992)
• Solo Guitar Volume 2 (Incus, 1972)
• Duo (with Anthony Braxton, Emanem, 1974, reissued on CD with extra material, 1996)
• Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet/The Sinking of the Titanic (with Gavin Bryars and others, Obscure Records, 1975)
• Company 6 & 7 (other players on this re-issue originally recorded at the 1977 Company Week include Lol Coxhill, Han Bennink, Leo Smith, Tristan Honsinger, Steve Beresford, Anthony Braxton and others, Incus 1992)
• Dart Drug (with Jamie Muir, Incus, 1981)
• Cyro (with Cyro Baptista, Incus, 1982)
• Yankees (with John Zorn and George Lewis, recorded 1983; issued variously on Celluloid and Charly)
• Figuring (with Barre Phillips, Incus, 1987)
• Takes Fakes and Dead She Dances (Incus, 1987}
• Lace (solo guitar, Emanem, recorded 1989)
• Village Life (with Thebe Lipere and Louis Moholo, Incus 1992)
• Playing (with John Stevens, Incus 1992)
• Rappin & Tappin (with Will Gaines, Incus, 1994)
• Guitar, Drums and Bass (with DJ Ninj, Avant records, 1996)
• The Sign Of Four (with Pat Metheny, Gregg Bendian, Paul Wertico, Knitting Factory, 1997)
• The Gospel Record (with Amy Denio, Dennis Palmer, recorded 1999; released on Shaking Ray Records, 2005)
• Ballads, (Tzadik, 2002)
• Pieces for Guitar, (Tzadik, 2002)
• Barcelona (with Agusti Fernandez), Hopscotch Records, 2001, available from emusic
• Wireforks (with Henry Kaiser) Shanachie/Jazz, 1993 available from emusic
• Legend of the Blood Yeti with Thirteen Ghosts and Thurston Moore
• Limescale (with Tony Bevan, Incus, 2002)
• Improvisation Ampersand/Runt 1975, available from emusic
• Soshin (with Fred Frith and Antoine Berthiaume) Ambiances Magnetiques, 2003, available from actuellecd.com
• Carpal Tunnel, Tzadik, 2005
• To Play (The Blemish Sessions), Samadhi, 2006

Front cover The Topography of the Lungs was the first release on Incus Records, the record label founded by Derek Bailey, Evan Parker and Tony Oxley. ... Jesus Blood Never Failed Me Yet is a piece of music composed by Gavin Bryars in 1971. ... Anthony Braxton (born June 4, 1945) is an American composer, multi-reedist and pianist. ... Jamie Muir is a percussionist. ... John Zorn (born September 2, 1953) is an American composer and saxophonist/multi-instrumentalist. ... Barre Phillips (born 1934 in San Francisco) is a jazz and free improvisation bassist. ... Emanem is an independent record label specialising in free improvised music. ... Louis Tebugo Moholo, born in Cape Town on 10 March 1940, is a South African jazz drummer. ... Patrick Bruce Metheny (born August 12, 1954 in Lees Summit, Missouri) is a world renowned American jazz guitarist and leader of the Pat Metheny Group as well as various collaborations, duets, solo works, and other side projects. ... Gregg Bendian is a jazz drummer, percussionist and composer. ... Paul Wertico (born January 5, 1953 in Chicago, Illinois) is a jazz drummer. ... The Knitting Factory is a New York City music club, in its heyday specializing in jazz and experimental music (though these are no longer its main focus). ... Amy Denio (b. ... Henry Kaiser, born in Oakland, California, on 19 September 1952, is a widely-recorded experimental guitarist and frequent collaborator with other musicians from the San Francisco Bay Area. ... This article or section does not cite its references or sources. ... Fred Frith performing at the Moers Jazz Festival, 1 June 1998. ...

References

1. ^ BBC 3 Tribute & John Zorn's Tribute live at The Barbican, June 2006 http://www.users.on.net/~dubrosa/bbc/02%20Derek%20Bailey%20Tribute.mp3
2. ^ Correspondance with bailey from 1997, quoted at http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mbailpg3.html
3. ^ Correspondance with bailey from 1997, quoted at http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mbailpg3.html
4. ^ Jazziz, March 2002, quoted at http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/frontpage/001106.html
5. ^ Musics, no. 10, November 1976, quoted at http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mbaileym.html

• Derek Bailey - Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice (1992)
• Ben Watson - Derek Bailey and the Story of Free Improvisation. ISBN 1-84467-003-1

External links

• European Free Improvisation index page on Bailey
• Sample of Derek Bailey's playing 1
• Sample of Derek Bailey's playing 2
• Sample of Derek Bailey's playing 3
• Sample of Derek Bailey's playing 4 (with Han Benninik)
• Video footage of Derek Bailey playing
• Video footage of Derek Bailey playing with tap dancer Will Gaines
• 'Audio ad' for Incus records featuring Bailey speaking and playing
• Derek Bailey interview 1
• Derek Bailey interview 2
• Obituary by John Fordham from the UK Guardian
• Obituary by Steve Voce from the UK Independent
• Appreciation by Gavin Bryars from the UK Guardian
• Tributes from The Wire magazine archive
• Ben Watson obituary from Socialist Worker online
• BBC 3 Tribute & John Zorn's Tribute live at The Barbican, June 2006