Derek Bailey

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(1930 – 2005)

Derek Bailey (January 29, 1930 – December 25, 2005) was a free improvising avant-garde guitarist. For listeners unfamiliar with experimental music, 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).

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.)

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avant-garde, free jazz, experimental, jazz, free improvisation
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Ballads
Derek Bailey
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Guitar, Drums 'n' Bass
Derek Bailey
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Mirakle
Derek Bailey
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Pieces for Guitar
Derek Bailey
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Top Tracks

1	Please Don't Talk About Me When I'm Gone full track	46
2	What's New full track	41
2	Rockin' Chair full track	41
4	Laura full track	39
5	When Your Lover Has Gone full track	38
6	Body and soul full track	33
7	You Go To My Head full track	31
7	Gone With The Wind full track	31
9	Stella By Starlight full track	27
10	My Buddy full track	16
11	Georgia on My Mind full track	15
12	My Melancholy Baby	13
13	Bits	10
13	M 5 full track	10
13	Three Pieces for Guitar	10

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Fareday wrote:
Tuesday evening

you can hear him coughing on "Martin D18" from "Different Guitars" haha it's amazing

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Fareday wrote:
Tuesday afternoon

He is so authentic.

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ca-ro-li-na wrote:
last week

!!!!!!!!!!!

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handmeups wrote:
23 days ago

He was very intelligent, so he knew he didn't have to be pretentious and try to impress people.

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ShootTheCore wrote:
25 days ago

Carpal Tunnel is on Spotify, if that helps...

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MsGlorimar wrote:
26 days ago

I love the way last.fm gets me to know interesting music. His "similarity" with Patty Waters brought me here. After reading the comments, I am even more interested.

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dante_portinari wrote:
last month

His improvisation is so authentic.

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secretpassage wrote:
October 2009

and the hardy harest of them too

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hajjabuu wrote:
October 2009

I think it should be mentioned that Derek Bailey did have a thriving career as a jazz musician before he started working in improvisation and the avant-garde. A lot of people don't seem to understand that he can play very well, and upon heavier listening of any of Derek's work it shows. To new listeners who are interested I would recommend Listening to "Ballads" and "Standards," which are still the two albums that inspire me the most musically to this day. I really want to hear his carpal tunnel album as well, but haven't gotten around to it yet.

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trombipulation wrote:
October 2009

Currently reading his book "Improvisation." Y'all should read it too.

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busysignalbeats wrote:
October 2009

i like this

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Treason_is_bad wrote:
October 2009

Anyone actually meet the guy? I heard he was the least pretentious out of all his peers in the free Improvisation movement, and the hardy harest of them too.

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krautimogen wrote:
August 2009

doimperove

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MavonBarksfield wrote:
August 2009

lol guitar drums and bass sounds exactly like youd expect it to sound and it just doesnt work at all. i still kind of like it tho

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gbgermano wrote:
July 2009

best album to start?

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gamboda wrote:
July 2009

http://www.lastfm.ru/music/third+view/negative+premonition some free music from russia sibiria very intresting

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phillip360 wrote:
June 2009

did he and bryars work together after the the Joseph Holbrooke trio?

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Barjomet wrote:
April 2009

міцний вуйко!

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pizzasummer2k4 wrote:
April 2009

great artist or GREATEST ARTIST?

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momopiras wrote:
March 2009

un mito il piu grande improvvisatore ma anche come melodia

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