An album of lost Derek Bailey sessions recorded with his friend and collaborator Charlie Morrow, that testifies to his art of collective experimentation.
In 1982, Bailey and Morrow organized a series of live concerts and studio sessions around New York. This new LP is a boiled-down rendering of the master tapes that lived dormant in Charlie's archive, until now.
Throughout the album, Bailey and Morrow are joined by a rotating cast of New Wilderness players including frame drum percussionist Glen Velez, sound poet Steve McCaffery, publisher and artist Carol E. Tuynman, composer Patricia Burgess, and multimedia artist
Michael Snow. The results are surprising and marvelous.
The energy of the live concert, which makes up the first half of the record is particularly exciting, with Morrow and McCaffery's visceral sound poetry and Glen Velez's frame drum echoing off of Bailey's fret stabs, and Carol E. Tuynman, Patricia Burgess, and Michael Snow's horns swirling through the air between. A very raw and intense recording.
The second side of New York 1982, is a session recorded at The Record Plant, and is clearly more 'produced' with panning and tape echo processing, plus experiments with water whistles and other devices.
Derek Bailey stands out for personal achievements as a guitarist and for his way of bringing together performance meetings ranging from duos to large ensembles. Working across style and genre, his music and musical unions have inspired the breakdown of boundaries, embracing all flavors of musicians as improvisers. Players focusing on the moment, "without memory."
LP Edition of 400 copies on 175gram black vinyl, including an 8-page booklet with program notes and artwork.
Derek Bailey: Acoustic Guitars.
Charlie Morrow: Trumpet, Ocarina, Voice.
Glen Velez: Percussion.
Patricia Burgess: Saxophone (1,3,6).
Steve McCaffery: Voice, Saxophone (1,3).
Carol E. Tuynman: Trumpet (1,3,6).
Michael Snow: Trumpet (3).
British guitarist, improviser, composer and theorist, Derek Bailey (1930-2015) is one of the pioneers of free improvisation.
His collaborations with the great figures of the European, Japanese and American free jazz and experimental scenes are innumerable:
Han Bennink,
Peter Brötzmann,
Noël Akchoté,
Joëlle Léandre,
Pat Thomas,
John Butcher,
Keiji Haino,
Otomo Yoshihide, Abe Kaoru, Toshinori Kondo, Anthony Braxton, George Lewis,
Steve Lacy,
Evan Parker, Cyro Baptista,
John Zorn, Tony Oxley, Thurston Moore, etc.
Charlie Morrow (born Charles Morrow, 1942 in Newark, New Jersey) is an American composer, sound and intermedia artist and performer. His creative projects have included chanting and healing works, museum and gallery installations, large-scale festival events, radio and TV broadcasts, film soundtracks, commercial sound design and advertising jingles.
