Derek Bailey

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Derek Bailey (1991)

Derek Bailey (born January 29, 1930 in Sheffield , † December 25, 2005 in London ) was a British guitarist and improvisation musician . As an “uncompromising avant-garde ” he was one of the first European musicians who dealt with form-free, also thematically unbound improvisation and who opened improvisation music to electronic music .

Live and act

Bailey learned to play the guitar from an early age; He received initial suggestions from his grandfather and an uncle, both professional musicians. Since 1951 he has played light music as a soloist, accompanist or orchestral musician for ten years. He played on the radio, television, clubs, in dance and concert halls.

For Bailey's musical development, the collaboration with the double bass player Gavin Bryars and the drummer Tony Oxley in the Sheffield-based combo Joseph Holbrooke was crucial. The group was founded in 1963 and initially played conventional modern jazz , but soon turned to advanced musical trends. While Bryars began to be more interested in composition, radical “free” improvisation became the dominant starting point for Bailey's musical work. Increased from mid-1965, and only after moving to London , Bailey appeared as a free improvisation musician. In 1968 he founded the Music Improvisation Company with saxophonist Evan Parker and electronics technician Hugh Davies , which was soon supplemented by percussionist Jamie Muir . Another high point of contemporary improvisation music was the also radically free-playing trio "Iskra 1903" with Barry Guy and Paul Rutherford from 1970 onwards .

In the same year, Bailey founded the record label Incus with Evan Parker and Tony Oxley , which is regarded as England's first independent, musician-managed record company. Bailey appeared with important free jazz improvisers (e.g. Peter Brötzmann , Han Bennink , Cecil Taylor , William Parker , Peter Kowald , John Butcher , Louis Moholo and Tristan Honsinger ), but also as a solo guitarist. He played both electric and acoustic guitar, but has also performed as a reciter. He also worked on the theory of (free) improvisation in musicology. This resulted in a book publication and a four-part documentary film series on improvisation in various musical styles. Under the title On the Edge , this series was broadcast in 1992 on Channel 4 of the BBC .

Today, Bailey is considered one of the outstanding founding fathers of modern European improvisation music, which - not least through Bailey's own musical work - was able to break away from the model of US free jazz by the 1970s at the latest and established its own European concept of musical improvisation, whereby the So-called freemusic temporarily came close to certain currents of new music , which in the 1960s, quite independently of the contemporary developments in jazz, produced its own improvisational ensemble (cf., among others, Gruppo di Improvvisazione Nuova Consonanza ). Bailey remained open to occasional cross-over projects, for example in the merger area with Arcana .

Prizes and awards

In 1977 he was recognized by the Down Beat critics' poll as a guitarist, which earned further attention. His solo album Aida , recorded in 1980, was included on The Wire's “100 Records That Set the World on Fire (While No One Was Listening)” . Music Improvisation Company with Evan Parker (ECM 1970) was selected for Jazzwise's The 100 Jazz Albums That Shook the World .

Publications by Derek Bailey (selection)

Books

Discography

Derek Bailey has published hundreds of recordings. This is a small selection of outstanding examples:

  • Iskra 1903 , with Derek Bailey (guitar), Paul Rutherford (trombone) and Barry Guy (double bass). Incus 1970.
  • Free improvisation , with Derek Bailey (guitar), Paul Rutherford (trombone) and Barry Guy (double bass). Deutsche Grammophon 1973.
  • The Sinking of the Titanic , The Cockpit Ensemble (Derek Bailey, Michael Nyman , John Nash, John White, Sandra Hill and Gavin Bryars) 1975.
  • Machine Music , with Derek Bailey, Fred Frith , Brian Eno, and Gavin Bryars. Obscure 1978.
  • Ballads , Derek Bailey solo on acoustic guitar. Tzadik 2002.

literature

  • Ben Watson: Derek Bailey and the Story of Free Improvisation , Verso, London, 2004, ISBN 1-84467-003-1

Lexical entries

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Kunzler Jazz Lexicon
  2. ^ Ulrich Kurth The 4th Quarter of the Triad: Tony Oxley. Five decades of improvised music. Wolke Verlag, Hofheim am Taunus 2011
  3. ↑ With Iskra 1903 only one of the three records is in the box
personal data
SURNAME Bailey, Derek
BRIEF DESCRIPTION British guitarist and improvisation musician
DATE OF BIRTH January 29, 1930
PLACE OF BIRTH Sheffield
DATE OF DEATH December 25, 2005
Place of death London