The Squid's Ear
Writing about improvised, contemporary, experimental and unusual music,
following the activities of Squidco...
  •  •  •     Join Our Mailing List!



The Squid's Ear




Heard In

Reviews of artist releases:
cd's, books, magazines, &c.


  Derek Bailey 
  Standards
  (Tzadik) 

   review by Kurt Gottschalk
  2008-03-24
Derek Bailey: Standards (Tzadik)

Derek Bailey, perhaps the exalted figurehead of British free improv, closed the book on his own recording career in a lovely and deliberate way before he died on Christmas Day, 2005. A musician who thrived on unexpected situations and group improvisation, Bailey chose to put the seal on his posterity with a solo album, Carpal Tunnel, named for and marking by audio document the degenerative neural condition that made playing guitar increasingly difficult.

It was also testament to his friendship with John Zorn that the final statement was made on Tzadik. Through his label, Zorn had done much for Bailey over the previous decade, creating some of his most interesting artistic pairings and releasing, in 2002, another album that will be remembered in Bailey's final chapter. Ballads was as surprising a move as any in Bailey's long career, a set of jazz standards played solo and in prickly fashion on a big, rich-toned acoustic. What might have seemed a joke at first (Bailey playing heads?) proved to be one of his finest recordings, connecting the enigmatic style he's well-known for with the dance hall playing of his younger days.

As a sort of epilogue, Tzadik released Standards in 2007. The session was Bailey's first stab at the songbook, and what would become Ballads (recorded shortly after the Standards set) is a tighter set of shorter pieces, edgier and more focused. Standards, perhaps, is Bailey working out the ideas, although it never feels half-baked. The playing is often softer, more relaxed and the themes casually intermingle, but it's no less a record for the Vaseline on the lens. When a melody like the 1939 "What's New?" (written by Bob Haggart and Johnny Burke and recorded by Billie Holiday and Frank Sinatra, among others) emerges from Bailey's briar patch, it's nothing short of sunshine. Taken together, Ballads and Standards are two of Bailey's warmest releases.







Comments and Feedback:



More Recent Reviews, Articles, and Interviews @ The Squid's Ear...


The Squid's Ear presents
reviews about releases
sold at Squidco.com
written by
independent writers.

Squidco

Recent Selections @ Squidco:


Derek Bailey/
John Stevens:
The Duke of
Wellington
(Confront)



Paul Dunmall:
Away With
Troubles And Anxieties!
(Discus)



Shifa (
Musson/
Thomas/
Sanders):
Ecliptic
(Discus)



Natsuki Tamura/
Satoko Fujii:
Ki
(Libra)



Borah Bergman/
Anthony Braxton/
Peter Brotzmann:
Eight By Three
(Mixtery)



Hedvig Mollestad Trio:
Bees In
The Bonnet
(Rune Grammofon)



Acid Mothers Temple &
The Melting Paraiso
UFO:
Black Mountain
ide
(Rolling Heads)



Evan Parker/
Bill Nace:
Branches (
Live at Cafe OTO)[VINYL]
(Open Mouth)



Alexander Hawkins/
Taylor Ho Bynum:
A Near Permanent State
Of Wonder
(RogueArt)



Joseph Holbrooke (
w/ Derek Bailey/
Gavin Bryars/
Tony Oxley):
Last Live 2001 -
In Memoriam
Derek Bailey
And
Tony Oxley
[2 CDs]
(Tzadik)



Zeena Parkins:
Modesty Of
The Magic Thing
(Tzadik)



Dave Douglas (
Douglas/
Ridout/
Adewumi/
Brennan/
Pass/
Royston):
Alloy
(Greenleaf Music)



Ivo Pereleman/
Nate Wooley/
Matt Moran/
Mark Helias/
Tom Rainey:
A Modicum
Of the Blues
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)



Angles 11:
Tell Them
It's The Sound Of Freedom
(Fundacja Sluchaj!)



Sifter (
w/ Lisa Mezzacappa):
Flake/
Fracture
(Queen Bee Records)



Jean-Marc Foussat:
Abbatage
(Fou Records)



Chester Hawkins:
Apsis
(Intangible Arts)



Karl Evangelista's Apura +
Andrew Cyrille:
Bukas
(577 Records)



Frode Gjerstad/
Alexander von Schlippenbach/
Dag Magnus Narvesen:
Seven Tracks
(Relative Pitch)



Kaze (
Fujii/
Tamura/
Orins/
Pruvost) with/ Koichi Makigami:
Shishiodoshi
(Circum-Libra)







Squidco
Click here to
advertise with
The Squid's Ear






The Squid's Ear pays its writers.
Interested in becoming a reviewer?




The Squid's Ear is the companion magazine to the online music shop Squidco !


  Copyright © Squidco. All rights reserved. Trademarks. (12599)