Derek Bailey Quotes

• I think the blues is fine for blues players, but free blues has never made much sense to me.

  Derek Bailey

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Blue

• For me, Company is still the best way for me to work.

  Derek Bailey

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Company

• Solo concerts are murder, I find; I don’t like doing them.

  Derek Bailey

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Murder, Solo, Concerts

• I think playing solo is a second rate activity, really. For me, playing is about playing with other people.

  Derek Bailey

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Solo

• I’ve always liked the effect of having somebody in there who hadn’t the faintest idea what was going on.

  Derek Bailey

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Faintest, Hadn, Somebody

• In the absence of that, I am happy to play solo, but I don’t think there is any comparison.

  Derek Bailey

  Topics in Uncategorized

  Tags in Absence

• Younger players in this music often turn out to be middle aged; it is not a young music.

  Derek Bailey

• Playing music is not really susceptible to theory much. Circumstances affect it so much.

  Derek Bailey

  Tags in Affect, Susceptible

• Personally, I’ve found that the kind of thing that I like is going into somebody else’s area and not playing their music but doing whatever I do in their area.

  Derek Bailey

• Personally, I’ve found one of the more stimulating ways of playing in recent times has been to kind of move outside the free improvised area and work with people who are probably improvisers but they have a particular way of working.

  Derek Bailey

  Tags in Improvised, Stimulating

• Nowadays, I really like playing in studios.

  Derek Bailey

  Tags in Nowadays

• In fact it’s quite gratifying for me to see some of the people who really objected to this method of working now being quite so profligate in their use of it.

  Derek Bailey

  Tags in Gratifying, Objected

• I’m not much into current electronic stuff, what I think of as lounge electronics, mumbling electronics.

  Derek Bailey

  Tags in Current, Electronics

• I wouldn’t want to be ideological about it but I think of it as being the best way to approach this kind of playing. I don’t think it works in other music, other kinds of playing.

  Derek Bailey

  Tags in Ideological

• I like duos with percussionists. I like the songs that percussionists sing.

  Derek Bailey

• I have always been attracted to the cottage industry side of this business.

  Derek Bailey

  Tags in Side, Attracted, Cottage

• I don’t research anything.

  Derek Bailey

• I am reactive.

  Derek Bailey

• For me, playing is about playing with other people.

  Derek Bailey

• Even if it is difficult playing with other people – sometimes it’s great, sometimes it isn’t, but that is kind of the point of it. It loses its point playing solo.

  Derek Bailey

  Tags in Loses

Derek Bailey (20)

Birth:	29th January, 1930
Death:	25th December, 2005
Nationality:	British
Profession:	Guitarist

About

Derek Bailey was born in Sheffield, England. He was an English avant-garde guitarist and leading figure in the free improvisation movement. As an adult he worked as a guitarist and session musician in clubs, radio, dance hall bands, and so on, playing with many performers including Morecambe and Wise, Gracie Fields, Bob Monkhouse and Kathy Kirby, and on television programs such as Opportunity Knocks. In 1980, he wrote the book Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice.

Related Authors

• Jeff Buckley
• Jerry Reed Hubbard
• Dave Davies
• Eddie Money
• Larry Graham
• Don Dokken
• Michael Schenker
• Jack Barakat
• Chuck Berry

Advertisement

Today's Anniversary - 30th March

Births

• 1928 - Tom Sharpe
• 1934 - Paul Crouch
• 1950 - Robbie Coltrane
• 1937 - Warren Beatty
• 1913 - Richard Helms

Deaths

• 2003 - Michael Jeter
• 1994 - William Arthur Ward
• 1925 - Rudolf Steiner
• 1950 - Leon Blum
• 2004 - Michael King