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Derek Bailey (guitarist)
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== Music == [[File:Derek Bailey.jpeg|thumb|left|200px|Derek Bailey performing at the ICA Company Week, 1978]] Throughout both his commercial and improvising careers, Bailey's principal guitar was a 1963 Gibson ES 175 model.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.incusrecords.force9.co.uk/features/gibson1.html |title=Derek Bailey's guitar by John Russell |publisher=Incusrecords.force9.co.uk |access-date=2012-06-25}}</ref> Although he occasionally made use of [[prepared guitar]] in the 1970s (he would, for example, put paper clips on the strings, wrap his instruments in chains, or add further strings to the guitar), often for [[Dada]]ist/theatrical effect,{{Citation needed|date=January 2012}} by the end of that decade he had, in his own words, "dumped" such methods.<ref name="efi.group.shef.ac.uk">{{cite web |url=http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mbailpg3.html |title=Correspondence with bailey from 1997, quoted at |publisher=Efi.group.shef.ac.uk |access-date=2012-06-25 |archive-date=19 July 2007 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20070719131746/http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mbailpg3.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> Bailey argued that his approach to music-making was actually far more orthodox than that of performers such as [[Keith Rowe]] of the improvising collective [[AMM (group)|AMM]], who treats the guitar purely as a "sound source" rather than as a musical instrument. Instead, Bailey preferred to "look for whatever 'effects' I might need through technique".<ref name="efi.group.shef.ac.uk" /> Eschewing labels such as "jazz" and "free jazz", Bailey described his music as "non-idiomatic". In the second edition of his book ''Improvisation...'', Bailey indicated that he felt that free improvisation was no longer "non-idiomatic" in his sense of the word, as it had become a recognizable genre and musical style itself. Bailey frequently sought performance contexts that would provide new stimulations and challenge that would prove musically "interesting", as he often put it. This led to work with collaborators such as [[Pat Metheny]], [[John Zorn]], [[Lee Konitz]], [[David Sylvian]], [[Cyro Baptista]], [[Cecil Taylor]], [[Keiji Haino]], [[tap dance]]r Will Gaines, [[Drum 'n' Bass]] [[DJ]] Ninj, [[Susie Ibarra]], [[Thurston Moore]] of [[Sonic Youth]] and the Japanese [[noise rock]] group [[Ruins (Japanese band)|Ruins]]. Despite often performing and recording in a solo context, he was far more interested in the dynamics and challenges of working with other musicians, especially those who did not necessarily share his approach. As he put it in a March 2002 article of ''Jazziz'' magazine: {{quote|There has to be some degree, not just of unfamiliarity, but incompatibility [with a partner]. Otherwise, what are you improvising for? What are you improvising with or around? You've got to find somewhere where you can work. If there are no difficulties, it seems to me that there's pretty much no point in playing. I find that the things that excite me are trying to make something work. And when it does work, it's the most fantastic thing. Maybe the most obvious analogy would be the grit that produces the pearl in an oyster, or some shit like that.<ref>''Jazziz'', March 2002, quoted at {{cite web |url=http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/frontpage/001106.html |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060113133830/http://www.bagatellen.com/archives/frontpage/001106.html |url-status=dead |archive-date=2006-01-13 |title=Derek Bailey 1930β2005|publisher=Bagatellen.com |date=2005-12-26 |access-date=2012-06-25 }}</ref>}} Bailey was also known for his dry sense of humour. In 1977, ''Musics'' magazine sent the question "What happens to time-awareness during improvisation?" to about thirty musicians associated with the free improvisation scene. The answers received varied from long, and theoretical essays to plain, direct comments. Typically pithy was Bailey's reply: "The ticks turn into tocks and the tocks turn into ticks."<ref>{{cite web |url=http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mbaileym.html |title="Musics", no. 10, November 1976, quoted at |publisher=Efi.group.shef.ac.uk |date=1953-10-12 |access-date=2012-06-25 |archive-date=28 September 2006 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20060928231506/http://efi.group.shef.ac.uk/mbaileym.html |url-status=dead }}</ref> ''[[Mirakle]]'', a 1999 recording released in 2000, shows Bailey moving into the [[free funk]] genre, performing with bassist [[Jamaaladeen Tacuma]] and drummer [[Grant Calvin Weston]]. ''Carpal Tunnel'', the last album to be released during his lifetime, documented his struggle with the [[carpal tunnel syndrome]] in his right hand which had rendered him unable to grip a [[plectrum]]. This problem marked the onset of [[Amyotrophic lateral sclerosis|motor neurone disease]]. Characteristically, he refused invasive surgery to treat his condition, instead being more "interested in finding ways to work around"{{citation needed|date=August 2010}} this limitation. He chose to "relearn" guitar playing techniques by utilising his right thumb and index fingers to pluck the strings.
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