Bailey was born in Sheffield, England. A third-generation musician,[1] he began playing the guitar at the age of ten, going on to study music with Sheffield City organist C. H. C. Biltcliffe and guitar with George Wing and John Duarte.[1] As an adult he found work as a guitarist and session musician in clubs, radio, dance hall bands, and so on, playing with many performers including Gracie Fields, Bob Monkhouse and Kathy Kirby, and on televisi...(展开全部)Bailey was born in Sheffield, England. A third-generation musician,[1] he began playing the guitar at the age of ten, going on to study music with Sheffield City organist C. H. C. Biltcliffe and guitar with George Wing and John Duarte.[1] As an adult he found work as a guitarist and session musician in clubs, radio, dance hall bands, and so on, playing with many performers including Gracie Fields, Bob Monkhouse and Kathy Kirby, and on television programs such as Opportunity Knocks. Bailey was also part of a Sheffield-based trio founded in 1963 with Tony Oxley and Gavin Bryars called "Joseph Holbrooke" (named after the composer, whose work they never actually played). Although originally performing relatively "conventional" jazz this group became increasingly free in direction.[2]
Bailey moved to London in 1966, frequenting the Little Theatre Club run by drummer John Stevens. Here he met many other like-minded musicians, such as saxophonist Evan Parker, trumpet player Kenny Wheeler and double bass player Dave Holland. These players often collaborated under the umbrella name of the Spontaneous Music Ensemble, recording the seminal album Karyobin for Island Records in 1968. In this year Bailey also formed the Music Improvisation Company with Parker, percussionist Jamie Muir and Hugh Davies on homemade electronics, a project that continued until 1971. He was also a member of the Jazz Composer's Orchestra and Iskra 1903, a trio with double-bass player Barry Guy and trombone player Paul Rutherford that was named after a newspaper published by the Russian revolutionary Vladimir Lenin.
In 1970, Bailey founded the record label Incus with Tony Oxley, Evan Parker and Michael Walters. It proved influential as the first musician-owned independent label in the UK. Oxley and Walters left early on; Parker and Bailey continued as co-directors until the mid-1980s, when friction between the men led to Parker's departure. Bailey continued the label with his partner Karen Brookman until his death in 2005.
Along with a number of other musicians, Bailey was a co-founder of Musics magazine in 1975. This was described as "an impromental experivisation arts magazine" [3] and circulated through a network of like-minded record shops, arguably becoming one of the most significant jazz publications of the second half of the 1970s, and instrumental in the foundation of the London Musicians Collective.
1976 saw Bailey form Company, an ever-changing collection of like-minded improvisors, which at various times has included Anthony Braxton, Tristan Honsinger, Misha Mengelberg, Lol Coxhill, Fred Frith, Steve Beresford, Steve Lacy, Johnny Dyani, Leo Smith, Han Bennink, Eugene Chadbourne, Henry Kaiser, John Zorn, Buckethead and many others. Company Week, an annual week-long free improvisational festival organised by Bailey, ran until 1994.
In 1980, he wrote the book Improvisation: Its Nature and Practice. This was adapted by UK's Channel 4 into a four-part TV series in the early '90s, edited and narrated by Bailey.
Bailey died in London on Christmas Day, 2005. He had been suffering from motor neurone disease.
Discography
Karyobin (with the SME, Island records, 1968)
The Topography of the Lungs (with Han Bennink and Evan Parker, Incus, 1970 (nb, this was the first release on the Incus record label))
The Music Improvisation Company, 1968 - 1971 (with the Music Improvisation Company, Incus, 1971)
The London Concert (with Evan Parker, Incus, 1971)
Solo Guitar Volume 1 (Incus, recorded 1971, reissued 1992)
Solo Guitar Volume 2 (Incus, 1972)
First Duo Concert with Anthony Braxton (Emanem, 1974, reissued on CD in 1996)
Jesus' Blood Never Failed Me Yet/The Sinking of the Titanic (with Gavin Bryars and others, Obscure Records, 1975)
Company 6 & 7 (other players on this re-issue originally recorded at the 1977 Company Week include Lol Coxhill, Han Bennink, Leo Smith, Tristan Honsinger, Steve Beresford, Anthony Braxton and others, Incus 1992)
Drops (with Andrea Centazzo, Inctus, 1977)
Dart Drug (with Jamie Muir, Incus, 1981)
Aida (Incus, 1982, reissued on Dexter's Cigar, 1996)
Cyro (with Cyro Baptista, Incus, 1982)
Yankees (with John Zorn and George Lewis, recorded 1983; issued variously on Celluloid and Charly)
Figuring (with Barre Phillips, Incus, 1987)
Takes Fakes and Dead She Dances (Incus, 1987)
Lace (solo guitar, Emanem, recorded 1989)
Village Life (with Thebe Lipere and Louis Moholo, Incus 1992)
Playing (with John Stevens, Incus 1992)
Rappin & Tappin (with Will Gaines, Incus, 1994)
Saisoro (with Yoshida Tatsuya, Masuda Ryuishi; Tzadik, 1995)
Harras (with John Zorn and William Parker, 1995)
Guitar, Drums 'n' Bass (with DJ Ninj, Avant records, 1996)
The Sign Of Four (with Pat Metheny, Gregg Bendian, Paul Wertico, Knitting Factory, 1997)
The Gospel Record (with Amy Denio, Dennis Palmer, recorded 1999; released on Shaking Ray Records, 2005)
Ballads, (Tzadik, 2002)
Pieces for Guitar, (Tzadik, 2002)
Barcelona (with Agusti Fernandez), Hopscotch Records, 2001, available from emusic
Wireforks (with Henry Kaiser) Shanachie/Jazz, 1993 available from emusic
|Legend of the Blood Yeti with Thirteen Ghosts and Thurston Moore
Limescale (with Tony Bevan, Incus, 2002)
Improvisation Ampersand/Runt 1975, available from emusic
Blemish (David Sylvian, Samadhisound, 2003)
Soshin (with Fred Frith and Antoine Berthiaume) Ambiances Magnetiques, 2003, available from actuellecd.com
Carpal Tunnel, Tzadik, 2005
The Moat Recordings (as part of the Joseph Holbrooke Trio), Tzadik, 2006
To Play (The Blemish Sessions), Samadhi, 2006
Standards, Tzadik, 2007