Derek Bailey & John Stevens

[davesolomon53]

I knew both of these gentlemen and their music is part of the soundtrack of my life.But I truly understand that Derek and John (both fine "conventional" musicians )were speaking a certain interactive musical language that's understanderbly incomprehensible to the vast majority of people.One can appreciate this on a certain level perhaps but appreciation requires an understanding of what they're trying to say.People thought Bud Powell couldn't play the piano. .Keep an open mind!

[bugpowder1]

GREAT !! 

[MrChocolatenob]

Lettuce be reality. This requires no skill whatsoever...

[20x20Ghost]

i only have one comet to make why did you nots use a da black drum sticks ?? They would have Vanished in the dark background in which was dark ok? ok

[jing479]

Great.

[Megajosh2]

@TheLydianRocks First of all, he isn't playing free jazz. Second of all, you're obviously very unfamilliar with this style of music, so you couldn't make a judgement worth shit on it in the first place.

[alliecat1941]

OUCH!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

[RcUniverseGuy]

horrible

[TheLydianRocks]

ha poser wannabes, enjoy listening to a guy who clearly tricked all you wannabe avant garde douches into playing "lets pretend" with him..jazz my ass, true free form jazz requires a deep amount of knowledge of scales modes, inversions and understanding of time signitures, thats why it looks like its random but sounds beautiful. the fact is this guy (from watching his hands) is clearly just doing what i used to do when i was 11 with my dads guitar in front of a mirror before i knew anything

[bvercher]

@TheLydianRocks Well, if you knew much about Derek Bailey you would know that he was a fluent traditional jazz guitarist in his early career. No John McLaughlin by any means, but Bailey set out to create an entirely new language for the guitar, utilizing extended techniques that shunned almost every precept of jazz and in the process gained the admiration of such virtuosos as Pat Metheny, Bill Frisell, John Zorn, Tony Williams, and so on. But I guess those guys are all posers, right?

[megast2]

oh jesus chris, jesus christ, WHY was I not there!

[sonderangerbot]

would also like to know when this is from? sad to think both of them has now passed. this is a great video thanks

[ilkinond]

I used to see John Stevens a lot in my local pub (the Greystoke, west London). He was nearly always there. I could see he was a charismatic kind of guy, but I had no idea of who he was until he suddenly stopped coming to the pub and then his newspaper obituary appeared on the notice board. Sad that he should have passed away so young.

[777i2i]

this would make a GREAT monty python clip

[huxtable90026]

what year was this from? great vid - thanks for posting

[thisistonyj12321]

...this is complete crap not music im sorry to inform this to you. clapton is music lynyrd skynyrd, jimi hendrix, and so on but not this...

[ramjac]

der

[SEDIMENTDESERTROCK]

The King has no clothes...............

[JJW556]

I wish the picture wasn't so dark but it is so good to see these two departed giants kicking ass. If you think this is so easy to do, you try iy.

[cameron5235]

There's enough room for everyone and everything inside music. Why argue over it? You might as well have a row over spinach.

Having said that, Coldplay suck, and I can prove that in a laboratory.

[Jack458111]

if theres enough room how come coldplay sucks. i like derek bailey AND coldplay... please explain?

[cameron5235]

I was just being silly, after making the point that there's no accounting for taste. I can't prove whether or not they suck.

Generally I think the comments sections in YouTube bring out the worst in people. It's very depressing how angry and insulting a lot of people are.

Tha's why I never make comments mysel.... Oh.

[Jack458111]

If only coldplay had ripped off bailey rather than satriani, it would be a different world we live in.

[sabrinaeden]

Two of the masters; reason enough to give thanks for what was, and despair that it might never be again...

[sludgefingers]

Actually I met John Stevens and he was a nice bloke and a great drummer but no no no no not here.

[sludgefingers]

I bet all the musos out there hope LitanyCrash and his pretentious ilk go off and try and play like this - it'll be a few less rivals to worry about in a crowded business.

[Rifleman74]

This sounds exactly like the racket made by someone rummaging through junk in a garage. Some weirdos may find it interesting to listen to for whatever reason, but it's NOT music.

[LitanyCrash]

I'm afraid it is. Music is far less of a clear-cut concept than your miniscule, inept brain can comprehend. Just because YOU don't get it, it doesn't mean it's not valid.

[FreeImprovMan]

This is unbelievably shit.

[RattlerBK]

"Avant Garde has to be one of the worst musical genre's of all time."

Avant-Guard is too broad of a term. Check out an album called "A Rainbow in Curved Air" by Terry Riley, the tape-loop composer and organist--nice stuff!

[tankwfw]

Avant Garde has to be one of the worst musical genre's of all time. I can't even consider it music. And people complain about metal being noise?

[RattlerBK]

If you like this, try John Stevens' free-jazz-rock band Away from the 1970's, if you can find the albums. Very good stuff on the Vertigo (Swirl)label, with the debut album and "Mazin' Ennit" LPs being the best imo but extremely rare and unfortunately not yet reissued to compact disc (and not in the forseeable future). Wish I was still a teenager instead of pushing thirty :(

[Tonymostrom]

Plus: the Spontaneous Music Ensemble's 85 Minutes (I think) on Emanem has to be one of the best examples of British free improv ever.

[RyanCoosh]

I love how everyone is really proud of being a teenager and liking this stuff, perhaps you should get out more, get a girlfriend/boyfriend. Listen to real music, you know live a bit.

[Tonymostrom]

Ahh, there's a little hate! The number of haters is much larger than that of the creative musicians, I suppose, so there goes another.

[prolapso]

Awesome :D

[leanintolife]

I'm feeling this. Quite liberating I think.

[federicobarabino]

Guitar can be played in many ways and Derek Bailey show us. The sound is just the sound.

[Tonymostrom]

This lonely video...no hate directed at it in weeks....

[OGtarplayah]

Everyone for the sake of music stop arguing. Everyone is going to have a different opinion all the time, music is a purely individual experience. I love Derek bailey, but you have to admit this type of music is putting itself out there for criticism... I mean isnt that the point of it?

[chz999]

uh... thanks chrisbutler83. Anything else we should know about that you don't like?

[Tonymostrom]

In my opinion, anyone who takes the time to badmouth something esoteric - which takes Time to Absorb Before Judging - is simply embarrassing themselves publicly & should get knocked. Nothing personal. Obviously Youtube has just opened the door to millions of people who will react to this kinda stuff for the 1st time & will just 'vent'... QED.

[chrisbutler83]

I didn't bad mouth Derek Bailey or his music! I just said that I didn't like it. I didn't go off on a childish rant like some others on these comments. I made an effort to try something different, and unfortunately I didn't like it.

[Tonymostrom]

Fair enough!

[iork2]

Derek Bailey est un amateur?

On croirais quelqu'un qui ne sait pas jouer.. c'est null

[DannyDesperate]

There is nothing random or unpracticed about Bailey or Stevens; quite the opposite. Bailey evolved a whole new disciplined vocab. for guitar and Stevens was the consummate creative accompanist. The fact many people still can't hear this language is a testament to the overall regression in musical intelligence over the intervening years. X-Factor anyone?

[Tonymostrom]

Absolutely. I think that this dumbed-down generation is unfortunately the least likely (because the least patient) buncha young squirts to appreciate anything not mainstream & homogenized. It's too bad.

[chrisbutler83]

I quite resent that. I am only 24 and I am open to most kinds of music and things that are not mainstream. While there are the odd little phrase in this piece of "music", most of it sounds thoroughly improvised and I'm sorry to say, rather amateurish. Takes all sorts my grandmother used to say.....

[Tonymostrom]

Q.E.D.!

[chrisbutler83]

I don't think that it's a lack of intelligence that makes young people not get this music. I think it's just bad. I can do without the pretentious replies as well thank you. I understand you like this, I'm just telling you why I don't.

[Tonymostrom]

Q.E.D.!

[pjustusxi]

"Thoroughly improvised?" It IS free improvisation music!

[freejazzisbetter]

hey, im 16, my friend is 15 and we both enjoy alot of free improv. i think there is probably more people in this generation, who will apreciate music like this.

[musicman12]

I'm 19 and I'm a big fan of this stuff.

[dinosommese]

here's what's so awesome about this music. you don't actually have to know how to play to play it. a lot of the guys that did and do play it know how to, but the design of the music (which is nonexistent) undercuts the practice of those who have learned. this is not like a visual artist unlearning what they've been taught. i equate this to jackson pollack whose splatter paintings suck out loud. that's just my opinion, though beauty is in the of the beholder.

[OstrOsized]

Being a jazz musician myself that likes to play free jazz well, I believe that in music, especially jazz, and especially free jazz, one has to learn as much as they can, then unlearn it when they play.

I don't know if Derek Bailey is the best example of this. But this is just what I've noticed in my experience of playing and listening to free jazz.

[dinosommese]

i see the importance of the idea of it. it's sort of like dadaism to me. in general i dislike dadaism as an art style (that was the point sort of... i guess)but the idea is much greater than the thing itself.

[eucezinha]

You have to know a lot, be sensitive and first of all a good guy to play this sort of music and the idea of "you don't have to know how to play it" is not really accurate since you have to know much more than just technicalities. And it cannot be Dada since it is striving for art and not anti-art.

[julianhogendobler]

The pinnacle of freedom in creativity.

[StoneMagnet]

What's wrong with sounding like Plasticine and screws in a blender? That'd be pretty interesting to hear. :P

[vvnest]

not visible but so audible!

[Sumfinelse]

I used to see John Stevens at clubs in London. Bought him a pint and chatted. What a sweet guy. Very troubled. Phenomenal technician. Killer trumpet player, too. He always dug it when other people "got" his music.

[LeaningBear]

this is freedom?

[thebongoloid]

to learn to play like john stevens read 'search and reflect' he put he's major ideas into those improvisation workshop pieces

[johnarthurknight]

I saw Derek Bailey's last live appearance in London in August 2004. He told me that day that learning to play all the jazz standards and all the blues basics hinders rather than helps free improvization.

[alan647]

Derek Was My teacher for several years in the 60s and 70s. He told me that playing free music was like going to a precipice every time he played a gig.

[Krachen]

OUI! je jouis.

[mrjones83]

this is the best thing i have heard!!!

[jakethesnake10000]

wtf! he sucks! jimi hendrix is way better! hes not even doing it right!

(please note the sarcasm)

[pigshavebeards]

This isn't free jazz - it's free improv. It's still good tho.

[robotmassacre]

The only downside to Bailey's music for me is that I can't listen to it for longer than 15 minutes before I have to get my hands on my guitar and play it; truly inspiring.

[LitanyCrash]

Excellent comment! Encapsulates what I feel entirely. Watching him squeeze the most extreme and cutting-edge sounds out of the guitar makes me want to be a more interesting musician and to try to find my own voice through a playing sense.

[schyzoidmoon]

Amazing... Free jazz is THE way.

[ntcu23]

Guitarist1991 probably thinks Eric Clapton is a good giutarist and rock music is the only way a guitar can be played.

[dozer613]

I dont see the need to attack Eric Clapton, I mean I love Derek Bailey, but what is wrong with liking Eric Clapton as well?

[underbedbeast]

it's true, when your musical experience only goes as far as 4/4 beats and pop music from the radio - this stuff sounds like it's from outerspace.

Bailey was brilliant really pushing the bounds.

[robotmassacre]

Brilliant, great to see and it's still obviously FREAKING OUT THE SQUARES!!!! Hahahaha!

[acleansweep]

Replace 'freaking out' with 'boring to death'.

[nmartins]

european free improv at its best! Amazing duo improvisation. Two great musicians!! Those guys play too much...

[LordHowardHurtz]

his name's Derek bailey, you putz !

...and he died a few months ago

[Guitarist1991]

Well Good Cuz This Sucked! Like Wtf Was That It SOunded Like Somone Putting Plasticene and screws in a blender and SOmone Smashing There s Very Off Beat!Like WTF!!!!

[freejazzfree]

you have no fucking clue what youre talking about

[polyonly]

shut up

[freejazzfree]

thanks for the input

[polyonly]

that was meant for guitarist1991's comment, sorry!

[Sweatybus]

you seemed to be mashing the caps lock key with one of your extra fingers by mistake during that message

[caothrinoa]

Oh, that sounds promising!