Tins Cans Down An Alleyway

Derek Bailey died on Christmas day so I thought I'd post some of his stuff:

mp3: Praxis
mp3: The Lost Chord

These are both from the 1976 album "Guitar Solos 2" with Bailey, Fred Frith, GF Fitzgerald and Hans Reichel. DB has 3 tracks on it but I only posted 2 because... "Virginal" and "Praxis" sound like one big piece to me except for a small stop in between them. I put in "The Lost Chord" because it's an example of his dry-as-dust and sour-faced humour. A part of him that wasn't often acknowledged. For more - read the full Wire Invisible Jukebox interview at the back of Ben Watson's biography.

I've always had a problem with music that is as abstract as Bailey's - all the free improv stuff linked with Incus, etc to a certain degree. I can handle Frith's range of improvisations much better because all his tracks seems to have some sort of flow in them - an effort on his part, I believe, to impart a song-like structure to sound work. I get the same feeling from Henry Cow's improvs too.

But Bailey is more dedicated to the pure art of playing, listening, responding and asserting that is all wrapped up in free improv. And it makes the tracks appear formless or, at least, my mind can't handle the form that it's making. I don't think there's any doubt that he is a superb guitarist - this stuff might seem easy to play but I know from limited experience that it's very, very hard to pull off with anything other than clumsiness.

I only saw him live once - in an East End London council town hall ante-room playing to about 10 people including me. He walked in, picked up his guitar, played for 60 minutes, stood up and walked out without once looking at or acknowledging the 'audience'. It was one of the weirdest events I'd ever witnessed.

So - here's to Derek, a true one-off.