Derek BaileyMusic and Dance (Revenant)Guitar, Drums ‘n’ Bass (Avant)
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Now, after three and a half decades, a genre devoted to avoiding cliches has given birth to a few of its own; there are free groups and players whose sounds and styles are as defined and predictable as the most hidebound classical music or hard bop. English guitarist Derek Bailey, one of free music’s originators and leading exponents, must know this, and on two recently released CDs he shows that one way to escape stasis is by, in a manner of speaking, learning to dance.
His immense discography is completely devoted to freely improvised music–and he quite literally wrote the book on the topic. Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice in Music (Da Capo Press, 1980, 1992) subsequently became the basis of a BBC television series. He has also spurred free music’s growth by founding and operating the Incus record label and by organizing Company, a rotating-cast ensemble of improvisers that held week-long convocations nearly every year between 1976 and 1994.
A few jungle enthusiasts have told me they hate this album because Ninj’s beats are generic and dated. “Formula,” says one, “gets old more quickly in the world of dance music.” But Guitar, Drums ‘n’ Bass is an extremely atypical disc for Bailey. He’s recorded numerous duets with percussionists, but not one of them has played in straight time. The very idea would doubtless offend many improv fundamentalists, but that’s what makes Ninj’s tape such an inspiring improvisational framework. The percussive onslaught of “DNJBB (cake-mix)” brings out the latent linear qualities in Bailey’s playing; he sends jagged, gurgling chords and gnarled knots of notes sailing over the programmed clatter, sounding almost like a rock guitarist extemporizing over a riff. On “NINJ (de-mix)” he intricately laces the stuttering snare-beats with shimmering harmonics. Throughout the album Bailey successfully adapts his distinctive instrumental language to a foreign environment, and his playing is so lively that I imagine he had one hell of a good time doing it.
