Derek Bailey’s gone

Bad news on returning to internetland:

From: emanemdisc@…com
Date: December 26, 2005 7:18:44 AM CST
To: emanemdisc@…com
Subject: Derek BaileyDerek Bailey died aged 75 inLondon in the early hours of December 25. He had motor neuron decease.

The most recent time I heard him play was last August at the 291 Gallery on a brief visit from his adopted Barcelona. The first time was when I lived in Hackney 15 or more years ago. He ran regular Saturday morning concerts on the Lower Clapton Road at a long-gone venue called the Oasis Wine Bar. I saw him play with the likes of Steve Noble, Alex Marshall, Pat Thomas and a host of others. The experience was ongoingly eye(ear)-opening. I recall the proximity of the players, just a few feet away - which proved dangerous sometimes when Steve Noble was swinging vacuum cleaner tubes round our heads. Much of the place was dark, chairs stacked in the corners, the audience small, but committed. I also saw the last couple of Company weeks at the Place Theatre off Euston Road, the festival of free improv that he organised for a while.

I’m sad to say that I own nothing of his music on CD, it’s all on vinyl. Amongst other things I have a duet album with Evan Parker recorded in the 70s for their Incus label before they fell out. I must get that record player fixed. Of course the iTunes Music Store has nothing by him and even Soulseek is pretty barren (though the snippet available below is the best I could find). With apologies - or not - to Spizz Energy: I want to hear that spiky dream flower music again.

I know it’s crass as hell, but I can’t help but compare Derek Bailey to Samuel Beckett. Both achieved a hard-won freedom out on the liminal edge of things. Both now have their ultimate freedom. I’m sure he’d laugh at such sentimentality.

MP3: Derek Bailey, Oren Marshall, John Butcher / Abode To