Henry Kaiser & Derek Bailey
Wireforks
(hear it)

Henry Kaiser is rhythm guitar, Derek Bailey is lead, playing not bloos-rawk but far-out free/freak jazz. When I say rhythm and lead, I mean it. Kaiser knows the songs, Bailey is riffing on top. Kaiser plays lower registers, Bailey plays less structured, zippier bits. Kaiser is squat, or stout perhaps, while Bailey is a tall thin man.

When I say Kaiser knows the songs, I'm implying that he is not purely "improvising", ie making it up as he goes along. At a minimum he is improvising a single structured concept and then using that as a basis for variation, but I rather suspect that he is actively pre-composing music, probably in the time immediately before they start but possibly at some indefinite time days or weeks before. I suspect this because he frequently begins with repeated motives, and I believe Bailey reacts in a rather "uhh, what?" vein. Kaiser also has his penchant for genre play on high alert here.

Henry Kaiser is probably my favorite musician whose music I don't enjoy passionately. His taste in fringe music closely resembles my own, in that he has collaborated with most of my favorite oddballs. He even did an album of Grateful Dead covers. But his contribution is often the "too goofy" part of the music. I suspect that his and my "too goofy" tendencies are connected by psychic tendons to our taste. The ability or need to be goofy certainly can be defined as comfort with instability, which is a necessary prerequisite for unrestrictive taste, right?

This CD was my introduction to Derek Bailey, the greatest free jazz guitarist. Does Shanachie Records put out any bad music at all?

bb, 25 July 08