DEREK BAILEY 1930-2005


On December 25th, avant/jazz/guitar legend Derek Bailey passed away at the
age of 75. He suffered what was at first diagnosed as Carpal Tunnel Syndrome
for the past few years and eventually succumbed to motor neuron disease. He
was living in Barcelona, Spain for the past few years, but was back in
London when he flew from this world.
Derek Bailey was perhaps the most influential and adventurous
experimental guitarist to come from England, evolving out of the trad-jazz
scene of the fifties into the avant/jazz scene in '60s London. By the late
sixties he was a member of the Joseph Holbrooke Trio (w/ Evan Parker & Gavin
Bryars), Spontaneous Music Ensemble (w/ John Stevens & Trevor Watts) and
Music Improvisation Company [with Parker, Hugh Davies, and Jamie Muir],
which later became the amorphous Company under his leadership. These groups
were at the birth and center of the British free-jazz scene. Derek Bailey
and Evan Parker started their own record label called Incus in the early
seventies, one of the first artist-run outfits. Although Derek and Evan had
long since parted ways, the Incus label continued with 60+ releases, many of
which are now sadly unavailable.
Derek's playing was absolutely unique and idiosyncratic - nobody
sounded quite like him. His style was constantly evolving and, when playing
electric, he developed a distinctive way of using feedback. Although he
played with the best members of the British free/jazz scene, he also forged
relationships with a number of European players like Han Bennink & Peter
Brotzmann, Japanese free players like Kaoru Abe, Toshinori Kondo and
Motoharu Yoshizawa, as well as American improvisers like Anthony Braxton,
George Lewis and John Zorn. Derek organized an annual festival called
Company Week in the 80's & 90's, which brought together a unique group of
international improvisers from varied backgrounds.
What set Derek apart is that he was always 'game' to play with just
about any "interesting" player, no matter where they were coming from. Due
to his friendship with John Zorn, Derek had performed and recorded with an
unlikely cast of characters: The Ruins, Haino Keiji, Jamaaladeen Tacuma &
Calvin Weston, Tony Williams & Bill Laswell, et al. Over the past decade,
Derek & Zorn organized a few Company festivals at Tonic, again putting
together unrelated musicians for their first time. At the last of these
festivals a few years back, Derek brought the members of IST (Simon H. Fell,
Mark Wastell & Rhodri Davies), as well as the veteran tapdancing legend Will
Gaines.
Although Derek enjoyed playing with other avant guitarists (Eugene
Chadbourne, Henry Kaiser, Fred Frith, Noel Akchote & even Pat Metheny), he
has played more duos with drummers than any other combination. Check out
this list: Tony Oxley, Louis Moholo. Han Bennink, John Stevens, Eddie
Prevost, Cyro Baptista, Gregg Bendian, Susie Ibarra, Jamie Muir, Ingar Zach,
Shoji Hano & Michael Welch. Other amazing duos would include Cecil Taylor,
Steve Lacy, Evan Parker and Joelle Leandre.
Almost exactly four years ago, Derek Bailey played a solo acoustic
guitar concert at our old store on 5th Street. It was one of the proudest
moments for me in the near 15-year history of DMG. It was captured on video
and released on DVD by our pal Robert O'Hare and it makes me smile whenever
I view it.
Derek told a story at that performance about working in a record/musical
instrument store that was pretty hilarious. He had such a dry yet gentle
wit. Morever, his playing will always be a constant source of inspiration to
adventurous musicians and listeners the world over. He will be sorely
missed. - BLG

Derek would have turned 76 this coming January 29th

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