Mortality and how it effects musicians was very much on my mind today after I spent quite a lot of time with some of Derek Bailey’s last recorded music that has just been released. One of the items I enjoyed was a short (twenty-three minute) very poignant film of Derek playing in 2004. I went out to Julie’s house this evening, and on my return I intended to watch the DVD again, but when I took a look at the computer the news of Michael Jackson’s sad death was just breaking, and so I ended up watching the BBC News stream online instead. There probably aren’t two less similar musicians but they have both been on my mind today.

The DVD made up one third of a set of three releases on the Incus label named the Barcelona Chronicles. the other two releases are a further DVD of a solo concert performance in February 2004, just after Derek had relocated to the city of Barcelona, and a duo CD release of his last public performance, with the pianist Augusti Fernandez in May 2005. I have so far only managed to listen to the CD, and watch the one DVD.

The film that I have managed to watch was shot on the roof of an apartment in Barcelona (not actually Bailey’s home) It is entitled All Thumbs, a reference to the way he was forced to play after Motor Neurone Disease made it difficult for him to hold a plectrum for long. Indeed the film opens with Derek picking at the guitar with a plectrum, only for him to stop playing after a while and after turning to the camera to explain, and to give the piece its title, he set about playing using only the thumb on his right hand because the next two fingers were affected by the disease, making it hard to grip the plectrum. For many musicians the impact of such a physical setback would cause them to give up the guitar, Derek being Derek turns to the camera here and says “I can’t grip the plectrum, so I’ll just play without one”

The short set that follows is beautiful, soft, slow and as it progresses through its remaining twenty minutes increasingly spare and poignant. Of course watching this film is an experience tinged with no end of emotive nostalgia that will colour my appreciation of the music somewhat, but then so what? Derek Bailey’s music was always about the man and his life as much as anything else, and in my opinion it would be wrong to separate his music from its impact on me both before and after his death. The camera work is well done, simple yet revealing, capturing little moments,- the uncertain shake of Derek’s hand through to the wicked grin at one moment and the raise of a wild, wayward eyebrow when something in the music surprised even Derek himself. It is a very simple, very affecting, beautiful little film of one masterful musician, who, when faced with the challenges life throws at him found himself with only one possible route to take- he improvised.

The duo release with Fernandez is also very nice. Beautifully titled A Silent Dance, It opens with each musician playing languidly, with loose notes from both guitar and piano strewn softly around each other. Its a good seven or eight minutes before the musicians take it up a level and Derek puts his foot down on a pedal as Fernandez begins to mess a little with the inside of the piano, so those little clouds of feedback that characterised Derek’s late performances mix with a tinny, muted clatter from Fernandez. Things calm again though, and it is hard to tell whether the slower, more spacious playing from Bailey in these recordings is entirely the result of the physical restrictions placed upon him by his illness or maybe the reflective, thoughtful sensibility that might come with age and its realisations. Or maybe a combination of both. Either way it is highly appealing. I now can’t wait to watch the third of these releases. It is very pleasing to see these recordings released now, a few years after Derek’s death. I have spent quite a bit of time with the great man’s music this year, revisiting it now a little time has gone by since his passing, and so these recordings feel timely to me, and appreciate them all the more as a result. The three Barcelona Chronicles releases are available either separately or as a specially priced bundle from Karen at Incus now.

RIP MJ

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On a separate note I will be in London tomorrow evening, at Café Oto for the latest instalment of Mark Wastell’s The Seen project plus Patrick Farmer’s last gig before relocating to wastelands previously only ever inhabited by sheep. Should be a good one, hope to see you there.