Derek Bailey
Derek Bailey (1930 to 2005) was an English experimental guitarist who gave free improvisation its guiding philosophy. He came out of the dance-band and jazz work of the 1950s and by the late 1960s was a member of the Joseph Holbrooke Trio, the Spontaneous Music Ensemble and the Music Improvisation Company, later the ever-changing Company. His playing abandoned pulse, key and idiom for a language of intervals, harmonics and abrupt silences.
The Advocate
One of the most important musical partnerships in English Free Improvisation was the duo of Tony Oxley and Derek Bailey. Their long standing friendship began as early as 1963 with the group Joseph Holbrooke (including composer/bassist Gavin Bryars) a…
Breath Awareness
Derek Bailey - guitarSabu Toyozumi - drums
Recorded live on November 2nd, 1987 at IMAI-Tei, Fukuoka City, Japan by Hidenobu EharaConcert produced by Masahiro TomiokaMastered by Arūnas Zujus at MAMAstudiosDesign by Oskaras AnosovasPhoto by Yumi Mochiz…
At Sound 323
Originally released by Confront in 2013 on compact disc as The Complete August 15th 2001. Now freshly remixed and remastered in 2023 for release on a delux double 180g white vinyl LP set and digital. Recorded at Sound 323, London by Tim Fletcher on 1…
The Topography of the Lungs
2023 Much-needed Repress. Finally reissued, one of the key recordings in the development of free improvisation and originally the first release on Incus, the label founded by Evan Parker, Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley to document the music. Outstanding…
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Duo in Concert
Frozen Reeds is proud to present the only recorded duo playing of two legendary musical figures.
“This is one of those moments that we’re always hoping for, and it's so rare. And it's so hard to talk about, because it's so beautiful. It's like you'r…
Drops
*2023 stock* In the history of free improvised music, there has been arguably no greater advocate for the idiom’s power and potential than the English guitarist Derek Bailey. Fiercely principled, between his emergence during the 1960s and his death i…
The Sinking of The Titanic
2026 Repress. Mega-Tip! Gavin Bryars was born in Yorkshire, England in 1943. His first musical forays were as a jazz bassist working in the early 1960s with improvisors Derek Bailey and Tony Oxley. Bryars later worked with composers John Cage and Cor…
New York 1982
*Limited edition of 400 copies.* Recital is thrilled to publish an album of lost Derek Bailey sessions recorded with his friend and collaborator Charlie Morrow. In 1982, Bailey and Morrow organized a series of live concerts and studio sessions around…
Instant Composers Pool
**2025 Stock. Very last copies** A Monumental 52 CD + 2DVD + photo-book box (Every box is numbered and unique because Han Bennink himself painted each copy by hand! ) to celebrate 45 years of Instant Composers Pool - and worldwide delivery is includ…
Groupcomposing
* Limited LP reissue, and the first time the album has been in print on vinyl since its initial release* Our swimmer presents a reissue of Misha Mengelberg's Groupcomposing, recorded in 1970 and originally released in 1978. Comprised of a one-time in…
Dynamics of the Impromptu
** 2021 Stock ** Entropy Stereo Recordings presents Dynamics of the Impromptu by Derek Bailey, John Stevens and Trevor Watts. These pieces run the gamut from whispery low key musings through enraging or boisterous call and response. The moods constan…
Live at FarOut, Atsugi 1987
Bristling with tension and remarkable restrained interplay, encountering both players at the top of their game, No Business’ latest LP, Live at FarOut, Atsugi 1987, a never before issed duo between Bailey and the Japanese saxophonist, Mototeru Takagi…
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Time
A rare 1979 duo of Derek Bailey with multi-reedist Tony Coe, who sticks to clarinet. The press hears a shared debt to Webern behind the free playing, in tight clusters of fixed pitches.
Cyro
A 1982 New York studio session that pairs Derek Bailey with Brazilian percussionist Cyro Baptista and his cuica, surdo and berimbau. Polyrhythms and traces of samba meet a guitarist who declines the bait.
Company Week
In May 1977 Derek Bailey gave me a press ticket for Company Week - a series of concerts of improvised music in London. I made some notes at the time, but there seemed to be nowhere suitable to publish the extended commentary I eventually produced. So…
Groupcomposing
Corbett vs. Dempsey presents a reissue of Misha Mengelberg's Groupcomposing, recorded in 1970 and originally released in 1978. Comprised of a one-time international free music supergroup, and originally released as the sixth production on pianist Men…
Aida
Derek Bailey's 1980 solo acoustic guitar masterwork, reissued on vinyl for the first time. Two unreleased solos recorded for Charles Fox's Jazz in Britain on BBC Radio 3 in the same months are added.
Dart Drug
Derek Bailey and Jamie Muir, the percussionist who left King Crimson after Larks' Tongues in Aspic, recorded in 1981. Consistently thrilling, often very funny, and not easy listening.
Good Cop Bad Cop
Recorded in Liverpool back in 2003, this improvised performance unites two of the UK's foremost improv exponents (Tony Bevan and Paul Hession) with two pioneers of modern free music, the multi-talented guitarist, turntablist and noise artist Otomo Yo…
Royal
Derek Bailey and Anthony Braxton, recorded in 1974 at the Royal Hotel in Luton. Volume 1 appeared in 1984; the planned second volume is issued here for the first time, remastered by Rashad Becker.
The London Concert
Following on from the re-issue of Topography of the Lungs, Otoroku is proud to follow up with another legendary free-improvised document, this one from the duo of Derek Bailey and Evan Parker, originally released on the INCUS label in 1975. "The Lond…
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Derek Bailey & Han Bennink
Derek Bailey and Han Bennink in London, 1972, a blueprint for generations of free improvisers, paired with an equally combative session from the year after. Mal Dean's sketch of tussling vegetables is on the cover.
Klinker
Factory pressed double CD in printed triple panel Ekopack cardboard sleeve. Derek Bailey : guitar. Simon H. Fell : double bass. Will Gaines : tap dance. Mark Wastell : violoncello. Recorded live at The Klinker, London on Thursday 24th August 2000. …
Lot 74 Solo Improvisations
Derek Bailey's second solo LP on Incus, from 1974, remastered. It includes a side-long piece for his stereo electro-acoustic guitar set-up, recorded on 13 May that year after a first visit without the guitar.
Duo
Derek Bailey and cellist Tristan Honsinger in a duo first issued on Incus in 1976, newly transferred from tape at Abbey Road and remastered by Rashad Becker. Honsinger's voice leans toward slapstick.
Solo Guitar Volume 1
Derek Bailey's first solo album, recorded in 1971 for Incus, expanded with extra tracks from earlier reissues and a 1972 performance at York University. The cover montage was shot in the guitar shop where he worked.
Solo Guitar Volume 2
Derek Bailey, solo guitar. Recorded on 22 June 1991 at approximately the times indicated.
Playing with a Dead Person
When you contacted me about the duos, I thought there is nothing more original than playing with a dead person […] which is curious because Derek Bailey is very much alive, especially when we hear his voice and I feel he's sort of sitting here, in th…
First Duo Concert (London 1974)
Their earliest meeting on record - the complete London (Wigmore Hall) concert (organised by Emanem), featuring them both at the top of their form. Highly acclaimed by both enthusiasts and critics. Reissue of 4006 which contained the concert section o…
28 rue Dunois, juillet 1982
Awesome collective improvisation. "The fundamental tension between freely improvised music’s momentary existence in performance and the monumentalizing impact of media becomes more nuanced with each new delivery system. While MP3 files lack the totem…
The complete 15th August 2001
Derek Bailey: acoustic guitar. Simon H. Fell: double bass. This is the full recording - freshly remastered - of the 2001 duo gig, an excerpt from which appeared in 2002 on a long-deleted Sound 323 mini-CD which was voted a record of the year by The W…
New Sights, Old Sounds
A much-needed reissue of Derek Bailey's 1978 2-CD Japanese release on the Morgue label, the first disc a series of studio improvisations and the second presenting two live performances in Nagoya and Kalavinka.Recorded and originally issued in Japan i…
Tout for tea
Guitar, Voice - Derek Bailey, Eugene Chadbourne. Recorded 2-1-1995. Released by Rectangle, a Jazz and improvisation music label from Paris.
And
Derek Bailey, electric guitar. Pat Thomas, keyboards. Steve Noble, turntables. Recorded at Moat Studios, London, August 1997.
Concert in Milwaukee
Recorded 31 March 1983 at Woodland Pattern, Milwaukee, Wisconsin, USA. 'This was a cassette not officially released on Incus or any other label. It was sold by Derek Bailey at concerts. For a short period in 2010 original copies were sold via the …
Scrutables
John Butcher and Derek Bailey first played in duo around 1989, at London's Red Rose Club. Butcher then took part in the 1990 & 1992 (London) and 1996 (Vancouver) Company weeks. Various other playing situations materialised in the 90s, ranging from…
More 74
UK free jazz guitar icon in unreleased solo material remastered from the original reel-to-reel recordings recorded in London, 1974, Bailey playing mostly electric guitar. Previously unreleased recordings, remastered from original reel-to-reel tapes.…
Music & Dance
Legendary guitarist derek bailey has plied his wholly original brand of free improvisation for over three decades. these live recordings of bailey's 1980 'accompaniment' to japanese dancer min tanaka, previously available only on a privately-released…
Out of the past
'Featuring Derek Bailey on electric guitar and Steve Noble on drums & cymbals. Recorded in a London studio in February of 1999 and not released until now.'
