Derek Bailey

Derek Bailey (born January 29, 1930) is a free improvising avant garde guitarist.

Bailey's music

For listeners unfamiliar with experimental musics, Bailey's distinctive style can be difficult. He tends to eschew conventional notions of melody, harmony or rhythm, and on a superficial level his playing can seem like little more than random noises.

Related Topics:
Experimental music - Melody - Harmony - Rhythm

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There is, however, an unconventional logic to Bailey's playing; Steven Loewy suggests that Baily's music "might be compared to musical approximations of abstract expressionist art, with each number unfolding in unanticipated ways."http://www.allmusic.com/cg/amg.dll?p=amg&token=&sql=10:vq3m96oogepo

Related Topics:
Steven Loewy - Abstract expressionist

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Playing both acoustic and electric instruments, Bailey obtains a far wider range of sounds from the instrument than are usually heard, producing delicate tinkles as well as the most fierce noise. He sometimes plays on the body of the guitar rather than the strings, but typically plays a conventional instrument, in standard tuning, without preparations. Nonetheless, the sounds he produces have been compared to those made by John Cage's prepared piano. Bailey himself argues that his approach to music making is actually far more orthodox than performers such as Keith Rowe of improvising collective AMM (group), who treats the guitar purely as a 'sound source' rather than as a musical instrument.

Related Topics:
Standard tuning - Preparations - John Cage - Prepared piano - Keith Rowe - AMM (group)

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Eschewing labels such as 'jazz', Bailey prefers to describe the music he plays as 'non-idiomatic', and has collaborated with other musicians as diverse as Pat Metheny, John Zorn, Lee Konitz, David Sylvian, John Stevens, DJ Ninj and the Japanese group Ruins.

Related Topics:
Jazz - Pat Metheny - John Zorn - Lee Konitz - David Sylvian - John Stevens - Ruins

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