Derek Bailey Music

"Derek" is a release of a live recording by Derek Bailey and Cyro Baptista made in 2003 at Manhattan's Lower East Side's Tonic. With Bailey's death, there's been a substantial amount of material authorized by the master guitarist for release hitting the market lately, and by and large, all of it's proven interesting, but none of it has proven to be essential, "Derek" is another example of this.

The set is broken into two pieces-- the longer "Sheffield F.C." and the somewhat briefer "Ubachuva". On the first, it feels driven more by Baptista, on the latter by Bailey. Throughout, Baptista maintains commentary on percussion and voice (chanting, rambling, singing) with Bailey's guitar offset between it. Throughout, there's a sensitivity between the two musicians that's obvious but perhaps to its deteriment-- neither is quite willing to take the fore, and the conversational nature of the music makes you feel like you're listening to two friends chatting during a baseball game. It certainly paints an interesting portrait, but by and large, it lacks some of the urgency and energy that the best recordings by both gentlemen have.

That said, this is a highly enjoyable and entertaining conversation, but I feel about it the way I feel about watching baseball on TV-- it's great and all and I'll do it happily (frequently even, although my beloved Mets are hard to catch out in Boston), but there's something missing that you get when you're at the ballpark. If the worst thing I have to say about a recording is that it's missing intangibles, it's a fair shot it's pretty good. Odd's are if you're reading this, you're going to enjoy this.

Derek Bailey does "Stella by Starlight". No kidding. The track listings don't reveal it, but one of the live tracks is actually a version of the Victor Young standard, played against the unpredictable rumbling & howling of a "crackle box", whatever that is. (Yes, Bailey plays jazz. Try catching his 1930s-style picking on "Bunn Fights" on the recent album _Drop Me off at 96th_. Maybe he'll start doing duets with Marty Grosz or Howard Alden some day...)

And if that wasn't enough....Bailey does "The Lost Chord". Actually, he just speaks the lyrics over his typically spiky accompaniment. It's a hoot, as is the final "Happy Birthday" track--a reading of a passage about the effects of aging on the human body from de Beauvoir. There's also a terrific "Unity Theatre", a reading of a newspaper clipping describing the burning down of a theatre which used to be a frequent locus of free-improv activities in the 1970s.

What more can I say....the recording is gritty & unglamorous; the guitar playing is ferocious & intense, even though it's mostly quiet; this about as uncommercial & contrary a recording you can get, yet it's oddly engaging & involving. Don't miss it.