16.12.06
Derek Bailey died in Hackney on Christmas Day last year, aged 75, but his passing won’t stop his annual showing in this list for the foreseeable future. In the mid-1960s, Bailey was the most uncompromising of the European jazz musicians responding to the American avant-garde, and never stopped experimenting. To Play (SamadhiSound) collects solo acoustic and electric-guitar improvisations recorded in 2003 for David Sylvian to sing over on his album Blemish. Sylvian used three, presented here unblemished, alongside five other ceaselessly inventive flurries.
STEWART LEE
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Website design and build: Rebels In Control, after cover art by Chris Bigg. Art direction: David Sylvian. Banner images from the Hypergraphia book.