Derek Bailey: the guitar pioneer who changed the rules of music
Derek Bailey: the guitar pioneer who changed the rules of music
Image source, Getty Images By Chris BaynesBBC News
Guitarist Derek Bailey had forged a successful career as a musician, working with Shirley Bassey and Morecambe and Wise, when he has turned its back on the mainstream. music to become a pioneer in the burgeoning, no-rules world of free improvisation.
Now the life and legacy of the Sheffield-born musician - considered one of the greatest figures of the genre - is the subject of a new exhibition at the University of Huddersfield.
Born into a working-class family in Abbeydale Sheffield in 1930, Bailey received his first guitar from his uncle, who played the instrument professionally.
After leaving school he began working as a session musician, playing alongside Shirley Bassey and Gracie Fields, as well as in theater groups for shows such as Morecambe and Wise.
But in the 1960s he formed a jazz trio with two other Sheffield musicians, drummer Tony Oxley and bassist Gavin Bryars, and began to move towards what he called the "non-idiomatic" approach to free improvisation.
Image source, Getty Images By Chris BaynesBBC News
Guitarist Derek Bailey had forged a successful career as a musician, working with Shirley Bassey and Morecambe and Wise, when he has turned its back on the mainstream. music to become a pioneer in the burgeoning, no-rules world of free improvisation.
Now the life and legacy of the Sheffield-born musician - considered one of the greatest figures of the genre - is the subject of a new exhibition at the University of Huddersfield.
Born into a working-class family in Abbeydale Sheffield in 1930, Bailey received his first guitar from his uncle, who played the instrument professionally.
After leaving school he began working as a session musician, playing alongside Shirley Bassey and Gracie Fields, as well as in theater groups for shows such as Morecambe and Wise.
But in the 1960s he formed a jazz trio with two other Sheffield musicians, drummer Tony Oxley and bassist Gavin Bryars, and began to move towards what he called the "non-idiomatic" approach to free improvisation.
Image source, Getty Images 
