derek bailey

Is it? I asked for Bailey recs. once & many suggested this & I couldn't find it anywhere. Last in print in US on Dexter's Cigar which is defunct.

never seen derek live but I do believe that even if artists x greatness may not be obvious from the rec you may 'get' it by seeing x on the flesh live.

I know there are lot of DB imitators out there, but there's still nobody else that has quite the same touch/tone/speed - and it's really difficult to think of anybody who sounded like DB before DB. Yet it doesn't all 'sound the same' - there's quite a diff between 60s/70s/80s/90s Bailey, not to mention between electric or acoustic gtr recs, between different kinds of amplification, live and studio sessions, solo or group etc etc. Also, he seems to have got noizier and nastier over the years - the Harras rec, or the Ruins collabs, are great fuckin' rackets! - and how many ppl (esp. in 'jazz') can you say that abt?

It's difficult to separate 'admiration' (for his single-mindedness, his idiosyncracies, his willingness to take risks w/ different situations, his complicated relationship w/ the jazz tradition, the fact that he's managed to do something new w/ a pretty tired old instrument) from 'pleasure' (I mean the actual fun you might get from listening to the recs). And yeah, sometimes the last thing I feel like is being 'confronted' by DB at his most austere, but then other times he can strike you as surprisingly pretty (as on 'Aida'), surprisingly emotional, surprisingly dynamic in a 'rock' sort of a way.

I saw his ATP set a couple of years ago. He played electric for abt an hour, solo, w/ some backing tapes supplied by Casey Rice (you can hear similar sort of stuff on the otherwise lame-ish 'Playbacks' CD) and he really 'rocked the joint'. Pople were even dancing, and he got a fantastic reception from a v. mixed audience, including friends of mine who were reluctant to accompany me but actually really enjoyed themselves. Plus, he was the loudest thing I saw the whole weekend - this prickly 70 year-old, who didn't say a word, really sticking it to the kids! Oh man, it was fucking great!

I don't know that many Chadbourne recs, but I think DB does have a sense of humour - it's quite 'dry', I grant you, but it is there...

This is definetely true from the free improv gigs I've seen: a free improvisor looks at an instrument differently. I'll pick on Rhodri davies on Harp as an example. if you only hear his recs then you can't believe its just a harp but by seeing him live you can see what he's doing with the strings (attaching a block of polystyrene in between strings to get diff sounds out of it for instance). Also it does have a phyiscal effect upon you. There was quite a stormy passage from rhodri and a muscle at the back started to ache quite a bit, very strange...

''Oh, and I think 'Aida' might still be available from the Drag City website. I'm not quite so fussed abt 'Music and Dance' as Julio is - I prefer 'Lace' (I think that's the one where DB goes into a great monologue abt clocks... he sounds like John Shuttleworth...)''

heh. it really is take your pick time. there are so many recs, all have their own differences to be honest and I will have to get 'Lace'. Well, I will have to get them all if i can. I am so wrapped up in derek's universe I will just have to do it.

''I saw his ATP set a couple of years ago. He played electric for abt an hour, solo, w/ some backing tapes supplied by Casey Rice (you can hear similar sort of stuff on the otherwise lame-ish 'Playbacks' CD) and he really 'rocked the joint'. Pople were even dancing, and he got a fantastic reception from a v. mixed audience, including friends of mine who were reluctant to accompany me but actually really enjoyed themselves. Plus, he was the loudest thing I saw the whole weekend - this prickly 70 year-old, who didn't say a word, really sticking it to the kids! Oh man, it was fucking great!''

you hurting me andrew, you really are. I'm not one for festivals because I really need to drag someone I know along with me but my brother or my friends won't have anything to do with the music I listen to so it's hard for me to get out there but I will have to make it on tuesday for that duo with prevost, I really will.

Very nice!

''For his kind of stimulus I think I'd rather read a book or something, I dunno.''

yes, you don't know, do you?

The shop is about halfway down Brook Drive and has a red door but is otherwise unmarked; you have to ring the bell to get in but the guys in there are very nice and helpful.

I might be going to the gig with Prevost on Tuesday night, so would be nice to see you there if you can make it.

yes if i can make it I'll have a black puma bag on me. what about you? or mark?

I have a green 'Freak Bros' record bag, btw...

bah i forgot to call ep and am out tonight

this is improv foax, the empty seats are part of the pleasure ("it's all abt the music maaaan" = improvism)

yeah...it won't be a sell out unless there's enough space for only 15 ppl.

''perhaps they will say "allo julio"''

bad mark...so you haven't phoned ep to 'cinfirm' seat availability.

The idea of Derek Bailey sharing vocals with Phil Collins on "Easy Lover" -- and especially appearing in the video -- disturbs my tender soul.

Actually, wld someone be so gd as to post full address etc. (I didn't buy the Wire this month... I know I'll be drummed out of the B. Coley School for ageing improv lovers for admitting that, but hey ho)

http://www.ukgameshows.com/atoz/programmes/m/mr_and_mrs/batey_assistant.jpg

I'll be waiting outside the gallery. I'll have an orange t-shirt, black trousers and a black puma bag.

It's in Yorkton Road, E2. Not near a tube unfortunately (Cambridge Heath BR is a bit of a walk) but quite near Homerton Hospital and bang next to Haggerston City Farm. Most Hackney-bound buses stop there.

also the organisers started it at 8:40pm not at 8pm which I really ddin't like.

Marcello: where were you?

But i met mark s. The first ILM-er from London I've emt and it was very good indeed.

well never mind...hopefully we can meet soon.

hmm i just noticed you mentioned yorkton road upthread => the entrance we were gathered at is off the carpark which you enter straight off hackney road itself

oh bah, how miserable for you

of course i really enjoyed it but i feel bad about that now as andrew AND marcello AND julio all missed it!!

dr c there were more beards than you could throw a stick at, but *also* more girls than i would have predicted, and a table of middle-aged laydeeZoRs behind me who said aloud that the tri before E/D was "mesmerising" so :P

Middle-aged laydeeZoRs!! I imagine a table of chain smoking Diana Rigg-alikes. k-HornXOR!

Graham - gremlins alert!!

The geography of East London never fails to bamboozle me. Once past the Old Street roundabout I am a truly lost soul.

''but would it have been worth missing Oz for i wonder?''

Bob what do you think of taping things and watching them later?

Derek Bailey on the front cover of The Wire September 2004

That will make Julio happy !

About time there was one.

x-post: first time ever in abt 3 years I've been buying the thing.

http://www.serious.org.uk/event_info.cfm?ref=238
Cecil Taylor/ Bill Dixon/ Tony Oxley
Anthony Braxton Quintet

now, if derek bailey were on the cover of mojo...

replace "bill dixon" with "girls aloud" in that line-up and i'll be first in the queue!

x-post

Its a very gd issue and i can confidently say its the best in a while even if I haven't read everything - and I also must mention a lovely epiphany by geeta - the chemistry/music : father/son/daughter undercurrent in both of the pieces was something I couldn't miss.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00pnvbj

seems odd that it's more than five years since he died.

wish that i was better at sitting, and listening to music, and not doing other things, while i do those two things.

except, maybe, other minor activities, like breathing and drinking tea.

plinky plink plinky

aweeaweeaweeawee

SKRONGGG

Super looking forward to this:

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/41IPxA%2BzitL.jpg

I just bought a copy of his Improvisation book the other day. I'm looking forward to reading it but haven't cracked it open yet because I'm still working through Blues People.

watson bk came out before, didn't it? i guess this is a revised version.

crüt, you can watch the accompanying tv series here: http://www.ubu.com/film/bailey.html

(although, frustratingly, the link for part 4 is actually part 3)

oh yeah, forgot about that. I suspect this is more of a reissue than a revision.

xp

Details of the book Launch

This event has been organised by the AMM (Association of Musical Marxists)

That acronym...such a coincidence ;-)

yeah I've watched the film series. Great stuff.

iirc Part 4 was on youtube.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ow-YPRq-t8A

"Playing for friends" is all rather too cosy but he's often actual funny and then hes asking for the time at the end in a "have I entertained these buggers for long enough already" so its all ok.

i saw Bailey at Tonic with Zorn, Joey Baron and Reggie Workman, and though seeing him live was a treat and a great show, i didn't really 'get' anything that didn't come across on record before. if you can't stand his playing after making the best attempt to acquire a taste for it, you're probably fUx0red.

I was at this gig too, having interviewed Bailey for a feature in Jazziz, of all magazines, earlier that day. I also remember there being a duo performance (with Susie Ibarra, maybe?) that was much better than the quartet set.

Anyway, there's a fantastic looking new 4CD box set out - Topographie Parisienne, 3 1/2 hours or so of live material from 1981 with Bailey, Evan Parker, and Han Bennink performing in various combinations (trio, different duos, and some Parker solo - no Bailey solo stuff, though). I just ordered one from Squidco.

Here's the full track listing:

CD1
1. DB-HB-EP Trio 41:53
2. DB-EP Duet 12:10

CD2
1. DB-HB-EP Trio 46:01
2. EP Solo 11:51

CD3
1. DB-EP Duet 27:56
2. EP Solo 10:16
3. HB-EP Duet 17:19

CD4
1. DB-HB Duet 39:35
2. HB-EP Duet 12:11

Listening to Webern lately and given that Bailey spoke about him often I shouldn't have been surprised, but op 18 and 19 are amazing because they sound like Bailey is in the ensemble as a featured soloist

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OXqpeoYSGdY