DB at the DMG

I probably shouldn't go too much longer w/ a blog entitled Free Form Guitar without a post from the grandfather of free improvisation on guitar: Derek Bailey



I was at this in-store performance at the old Downtown Music Gallery in December 2001 (just a few days after I saw him with John Zorn, Joey Baron, and Reggie Workman at the old Tonic - one of my favorite shows ever). I'm so glad someone captured this - I remembered the friendly vibe as he drifted between improvising and telling stories about when he worked at a music story in the 60s, but I was pretty far back and missed a lot of the nuance. I've often wondered if the bit around 6:26 where he's playing garden variety jazz chords was inspired by (or inspired) brainstorming for the remarkable Ballads records which was recorded around the same time.