Search - Derek Bailey :: Domestic & Public Pieces

Contrary musicmaking

N. Dorward | Toronto, ON Canada | 06/21/2000

(5 out of 5 stars)

"Derek Bailey does "Stella by Starlight". No kidding. The track listings don't reveal it, but one of the live tracks is actually a version of the Victor Young standard, played against the unpredictable rumbling & howling of a "crackle box", whatever that is. (Yes, Bailey plays jazz. Try catching his 1930s-style picking on "Bunn Fights" on the recent album _Drop Me off at 96th_. Maybe he'll start doing duets with Marty Grosz or Howard Alden some day...)And if that wasn't enough....Bailey does "The Lost Chord". Actually, he just speaks the lyrics over his typically spiky accompaniment. It's a hoot, as is the final "Happy Birthday" track--a reading of a passage about the effects of aging on the human body from de Beauvoir. There's also a terrific "Unity Theatre", a reading of a newspaper clipping describing the burning down of a theatre which used to be a frequent locus of free-improv activities in the 1970s.What more can I say....the recording is gritty & unglamorous; the guitar playing is ferocious & intense, even though it's mostly quiet; this about as uncommercial & contrary a recording you can get, yet it's oddly engaging & involving. Don't miss it."