41 Quotes by Derek Bailey

But that methodology where players are pitted against other unfamiliar players has been so widely adapted now that anybody plays with everybody.

In fact its quite gratifying for me to see some of the people who really objected to this method of working now being quite so profligate in their use of it.

Charlie Appleyard can be anybody; but Ive used him sometimes in chat pieces, and these are all chat pieces about the history of Charlie Appleyard.

Undeniably, the audience for improvisation, good or bad, active or passive, sympathetic or hostile, has a power that no other audience has. It can affect the creation of that which is being witnessed. And perhaps because of that possibility the audience for improvisation has a degree of intimacy with the music that is not achieved in any other situation.

Diversity is its most consistent characteristic....The characteristics of freely improvised music are established only by the sonic-musical identity of the person or persons playing it.

Nowadays, I really like playing in studios.

I don't research anything.

Free improvisation, in addition to being a highly skilled musical craft, is open to use by almost anyone-beginners, children, and non-musicians. The skill and intellect required is whatever is available. Its accessibility to the performer is, in fact, something which appears to offend both its supporters and detractors....And as regards method, the improvisor employs the oldest in music-making...Mankind's first musical performance couldn't have been anything other than a free improvisation.

I'd like trios and quartets actually, but I like duos because a lot of musicians who I like playing with like playing duos.