Bruise with Derek Bailey

Bruise with Derek Bailey

Label: Foghorn Records Country: UK

"A breathtaking, deep-space adventure in sonic exploration, Bruise With Derek Bailey documents the last British concert given by free improvisation auteur Derek Bailey. The performance presents the veteran guitarist with a lineup some one or two generations younger than himself, playing alongside heirs to the tradition he helped create in the 1960s and 1970s. It is magnificent music and an important historical document.

Recorded at the 291 Gallery in Hackney, London in August 2004, Bailey was 74 going on 24 and suffering from motor neuron disease, complications from which would lead to his death last December. Bailey was already challenged by diminishing dexterity-he was no longer able to grip a plectrum, for example-but the crystalline, shards-of-glass style he more or less invented for the guitar, and the torrent of ideas and inventions which characterised his work, showed no signs of decline.

[...]

A startling and spring fresh cosmos of sound, the album was fully authorised for release by Bailey, and it's a major addition to both his own and Bruise's discographies."-Chris May, AAJ