There's a certain, or perhaps an uncertain predictability to Derek Bailey's playing. Like Cecil Taylor or Jackson Pollock or Martin Scorsese, you more or less know what you're going to get but that knowledge doesn't diminish the return.

Most of Bailey's recordings are either solo or duo, and the solo discs are more or less uniformly brilliant. But since he's not going to adapt his playing, not all that much anyway, to the style of his playmates, the sink-or-swim quotient lies in what the other can do (or not do) to meet (or not) meet him halfway, or more than halfway. Partners might play in a way that intentionally meshes with his scattershot plinks and plucks and muted plonks (as does Susie Ibarra), play something ironically or otherwise in utter contradiction (as Cyro Baptista is prone to do) or just be themselves and allow the chips to fall (read: Han Bennink). (And if there's anything to be gleaned from the fact that these three examples all involve percussionists, it's that those tend to be Bailey's most rewarding pairings. Bailey tends toward abstraction and fragmentation, and the addition of a second - however nonmelodic - melody instrument doesn't always pay off.)

Norwegian clarinet and saxophone player Frode Gjerstad has played with Borah Bergman, Peter Brotzmann, Evan Parker and William Parker. Nearly a D is his fourth meeting with Bailey, after three concerts played in a trio with the late British drummer John Stevens (the last of which was released in 2001 as Hello, Goodbye by Emanem). Gjerstad has a remarkable way of playing right inside Bailey's quick, staccato lines. He finds arpeggios within Bailey's staggered divertimentos. His horns sinew their way around Bailey's guitar (both acoustic and electric on this recording), which is to Gjerstad's credit. While Bailey has certainly worked with other horn players to positive result, it would seem to be a challenge. Gjerstad meets, and rises above.