Derek Bailey – Pieces For Guitar

'Pieces for Guitar,' at least to me, represents an example of Bailey's early style and it's evolution. Since working as a member within dance bands, studio ensembles, and commercial sessions (mainly for radio and television affiliations associated with the 'BBC'), Bailey was often seen as a notable player within these environments where, in a 1974 'Guitar' Magazine article (the article/interview will be linked below), written by Peter Riley, it quoted Bailey as "a virtuoso of the guitar. From every technical point of view he is a complete master of the instrument, and if one were to start making comparisons of technical ability he could only be placed on a world scale. Of this there is no doubt" (Riley, 19).

While there is little to no information concerning this period, as it applies to Bailey's work, within the era of the 1960s, relating toward his relationship with dance and studio bands, these recordings, especially within compositions such as 'G.E.B. (In Memory of my Father George Edward Bailey),' and to a certain extent, 'Haught,' reflect, most likely, at least from my perspective, what it might have been to hear him within these contexts. The influence of jazz is prominent and is not yet "totally free" (for whatever application the term can have when it is applied toward it's meaning) even though '3 Pieces for Guitar' strays away from this as it reflects a period in which Bailey was heavily involved in listening to the music of Anton Webern, that above all, served as a notable influence (Lash, 144).

It is, however, the experiments that capture my interest, where in compositions such as 'Practising: Wow & Stereo,' these experiments were developed more prominently, at least in my opinion, on later recordings such as the 1975 release 'Improvisation' (Cramps Records – CRSLP 6202). This interest is simply of historical value, allowing for further understanding's of his style and growth, as a musician, in areas that reflected expression and technique. For instance, 'G.E.B.' is a composition that remains somewhat harmonic as it "includes a passage that moves straightforwardly around the circle of fifths" (Lash, 144). '3 Pieces for Guitar' provides a serial treatment of pitch, and while there are through-composed compositions, such as 'Bits' that include fragmentary motives, it reflects more of Bailey's attempt to migrate away from this form of music making (Lash, 144).

Something to note is that 'Bits' reflects the way in which Bailey would formulate his music, notating a series of "bits" that aimed "to develop a range of improvisational resources rather than to combine them into compositions" (Lash, 144). While there are little to no scores from this period, there instead, are notes concerning his practice sessions, where in one of his notebooks, that remains located within the archives of 'incus,' he outlined the process of "runs—intervals over octave—non-repeating intervals" that remained, yet again, another example of his serial treatment of pitch, that not only reflected his interest, and influence, in the music of Webern, but also in the plays of Samuel Beckett, specifically 'Ping,' written in the year of 1966, that also became the basis for other fragments (Lash, 144, 145).

Musical influences aside, it is also notable to mention Bailey's setup of amplification (Lash, 145). The ideas that were formulated within this setup followed the approach of a practice outline, written in the same notebook that noted "runs—intervals over octave—non-repeating intervals," with continued notes of "Practise: Fast pitch osc[illation] with slow pedal movements + slow p[itch] o[scillation] with fast p[edal] m[ovements]"* (Lash, 145). Leading to the serial use of pitch, as it pertains to an amplified, stereo setting, is exemplified in early practice sessions such as 'Practising: Wow & Stereo' where it remains an experiment on the intention of using "an additional musical resource that could interact with more conventional resources, such as pitch" (Lash, 145).

In response, to the listeners or critics, who claimed that Derek Bailey unleashed "torrents of harmonics, microtones, clipped chords, chance dissonance, scurrying fretboard scrabbles, and a complete disregard for standard musicality," this is a belief that becomes debunked when analyzing his early, foundational ideas, experiments, and practices (Jazz Shelf). Yes, there is experimentation. Yes, it is unorthodox but it is not random. It is controlled, deliberate, spontaneous, and thought through existing as scraps from previous musical forms and ideas. Serialism, as it was formulated and emoted by Webern, is the foundation, in my opinion, for most material released by Bailey. Stereo improvisations are expanded upon, and returned to, rather surprisingly, in the 2000 recording 'String Theory' (Paratactile – PLE 1109-2) where oscillation becomes the main focus within acoustic and electric contexts.

Timbrel characteristics, regarding Bailey's conception, and theory, of the "open string," were marker's for his style within the 1960s (Lash, 145). "The three basic timbral varieties of sounds" revolved around "stable pitch available on the guitar, alongside fretted notes and natural harmonics" (Lash, 145). Solo performing, as with the thirty-three other recordings*, became a way in which Bailey could avoid, as what he saw, as "the improvisationally ossifying effects of regular playing with a stable group" (Lash, 145). Solo playing allowed for a rigorous approach in which Bailey could look "at his available musical materials" and search for "a language that would be literally disjointed, whose constituents would be unconnected in any causal or grammatical way and so would be more open to manipulation.” (Lash, 145).

As noted by the British clarinetist, saxophonist, guitarist and composer Alex Ward, the rigorous demands on this approach were noted by the commitment's "to an approach where, at every moment, any element of the performer’s vocabulary could be brought into play" placing "the highest demands on the player’s inventiveness and his capacity to construct phrases with distinct individual characters and proportions" (Lash, 146). The result allowed for Bailey's approach, to pitch, to incorporate changes that were described, within his 1980 book 'improvisation,' as such:

"For me, as for many improvisers, the tonal organisation of pitch seemed of little use in free playing. Gradually it became clear that any system which depended on systematic pitch organisation removed too much of the explorative aspect of the activity. One could approach the unknown with a method and a compass but to take a map made it pointless to go there at all. So it became necessary to reject all tonal, modal and atonal organisation in order to leave the way free to organise only through the powers of improvisation. And to facilitate this the vocabulary had to be built up from what I can only describe as non-tonal materials. Earlier I had almost discarded pitch except as a means of creating atonal effects. But I found that playing solo—having to assemble a vocabulary that was complete—I needed all the help I could get. So pitch had to take a greater part in the language, for without it I didn't have sufficient resources. And I had by this time realised that to deliberately eschew the use of pitch, one of the the most manipulative of musical elements, would be, for an improvisor, perverse. But all my previous uses of pitch—tonal, modal, or atonal—had been too specific and unhelpful. So pitch had to be utilised but its grammatical constituent had to be neutralised. It had to be non-tonal" (Lash, 146).

*
1. this happens to corroborate my invoking of the 1975 recording 'improvisation' as these "amplification ideas" were presented in a more concrete manner.
2. This adds to thirty-four recordings with the inclusion of the 1981 recording 'Music and Dance' featuring the Japanese dancer and actor Min Tanaka (self-released on cassette and re-released on John Fahey's label 'Revenant' as Revenant – REVENANT 201).

Sources:

Dominic Lash. "Derek Bailey's Practice/Practise." 'Perspectives of New Music' 49, No. 1 (Winter 2011): 143-171, https://www.jstor.org/stable/10.7757/persnewmusi.49.1.0143.
Peter Riley. "Derek Bailey, Improvisor." 'Guitar,' 1974. https://acrobat.adobe.com/id/urn:aaid:sc:VA6C2:239b9def-61c0-4518-bb87-c097fc6f9b72.
‘The Pros and Cons of Derek Bailey.’ Jazz Shelf. http://www.jazzshelf.org/derekbailey.html

He never played a bum note in his life. Every single one was meant.

I don't know why, but I've always found Derek's approach to guitar playing to be much more interesting on paper rather than recorded. I adore Keiji Haino, Fred Frith and several other avant-garde guitarists but this album, along with several others released under Bailey's name just annoys and bores me. Alot of fans I've talked to describes themselves getting lost and mesmerized by his playing. It's probably me who's a dullard.
That said, I realise that he's definitely a very talented guitar player, and he still inspires me to some degree.

How would I describe this record? Alot of random notes and chords, bum notes and the like. I don't really enjoy this at all.